Defacing the heart of a city

Ajit's sidekick asks Ajit, "Boss, sona kidhar hai?" Ajit replies, "Bewakoof ! Maidan khali hai, jahaan marzi so jao!" There is a rather clever pun on the word sona: meaning both gold and to sleep. Ajit could not tell the difference. It would seem that Chandigarh Administration’s Engineering Department suffers from the same malaise. The functionaries don't know the difference between a pedestrian path and a pedestrian mall. Le Corbusier designed Sector 17 as the pedestrian paradise. So why pedestrian paths? The Engineering Department dug up the plaza, raised it, put reflector strips and paving blocks and that’s it. The motorists used it as a short cut and parking space. Nothing solved. Another problem created and lakhs of rupees wasted!

Again, the Engineering Department springs into action. Bollards are placed as an obstruction to prevent cars from entering the pedestrian paths and supposedly to stop cars from driving onto the pedestrian paths. How about two-wheelers? They are masters of zig-zagging through the narrowest places. Bollards mean nothing to them and are no obstacles.

And what are these bollards? GI poles embedded in a concrete foundation and placed on the path. They can be moved easily by a driver to allow him to pass. Two-wheelers don’t even have to move the bollard. They just zoom past. It’s a classic case of the chalta-hai culture and shoddiness at its best. Sector 17 has been defaced.

If there had been a genuine desire and ability to put up barriers for cars and two-wheelers and make pedestrian-friendly walk ways, all the Engineering Department had to do was to build the type of pedestrian entry points into parks in the city. They look elegant, are not eye-sores and would be in harmony with Chandigarh’s architecture The over crowded hap-hazard parking of cars is the problem. As are the corridors which are used to park two-wheelers. Hawkers selling posters, maps, shoe laces crowd the corridors as do shoe-shine boys in the open area in front of the shops. Remove all the illegal occupants, regulate the parking and it will be a pedestrians’ paradise.

The shenanigans at the Sector 17 Registration and Licensing Authority (R.L.A) continue unabated and have assumed alarming proportions. In March this year, I handed in my Registration Certificate (R.C) for up-dating and was told it would take three months. The reason: a shortage of smart cards and the printing machine was out of order. On contacting the right people, I got my R.C. in 48 hours. The R.L.A. mints money by the auction of V.I.P numbers. Owners pay up to Rs 20 lakh to get a 0001 number on their registration plates. At the auction, there were no arrangements for seating or for drinking water. The auction started an hour late. The bidders had to just stand around, gasping and sweating. In addition, from the huge amounts collected for the V.I.P. numbers, the R.L.A. collected Rs 45 crore in road tax but not a drop of water for the owners who fill the coffers.

Then there is the High Securities Registration Plates – HSRP. Any one who turned a senior citizen this year may not get one in his lifetime. It is an educated guess based on the R.L.A’s track record. Unless the judiciary steps in. Happy Motoring!

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