Traffic chaos and governance issues concern Gaya voters

Gaya: As the stage is set for assembly elections, different sections of the electorate expressed their expectations from their next MLA.Gaya Town is all set to witness a fierce battle between the somewhat invincible eight-time winner Prem Kumar and his Congress challenger Akhauri Aunkar Nath aka Mohan Srivastav.

TOI reached different sections of the stakeholders on their problems and expectations from their next MLA.Anup Kedia, patron of the Central Bihar Chamber of Commerce, alleged the bribe culture has got well entrenched in the system thereby eroding the benefits of tax concessions and other welfare schemes. Almost nothing moves in govt offices without palm greasing, he alleged. For small things like mutation of revenue records, passport verification, issuance of caste/residential certificates and other routine things etc, people have to bribe the babus, said Kedia.Though Prem Kumar is the MLA for the last 35 years and he has been a minister in the Nitish Kumar govt for several years, the common man has not felt any relief on this count. It is the duty of the MLA to ensure that general public do not have to face harassment for getting even routine things done. People expect their representative to be sensitive to their problems, he said.For Dr Ram Sewak, former president of Gaya branch of the Indian Medical Association, traffic congestion remains the most serious problem of city life in Gaya and it affects every resident.

True, Gaya is a very old city and as such the roads are obviously narrow. But there are old cities and towns in the country with more narrow roads but their traffic management is much better, said Dr Ram Sewak.Indiscriminate encroachment everywhere in the city particularly in the business areas in the city’s heart, including GB Road, KP Road, Tekari Road, Station Road, Swarajpuri Road etc and the administration’s reluctance to make the city encroachment-free has added to the woes of the city dwellers, he said.Lakhs of people from the country and abroad visit the place. The city’s population is about seven lakh but there is not a single traffic light anywhere in the city. No elevated road and the near absence of proper drainage system makes city life virtually hellish. He expects the town MLA to get flyovers and elevated roads constructed in the main city to ease traffic congestion.Syed Qaiser Sharfuddin, president of the Gaya Bar Association, said overcrowding in the civil court vicinity and lack of space for both the litigants and lawyers was a real issue.

Sharfuddin expects the next term MLA to get the land registration office relocated on the outskirts of the city and make the space available for use by lawyers and litigants. An overbridge to connect the bar library with the court premises was also required, he said.For trade union leader Parasnath Singh, the priority is to get the nearly 3,000 street vendors rehabilitated in properly designed vending zones in different parts of the city.

Development of vending zones will also ease traffic bottlenecks as footpath vending is a major cause for traffic jams, he said.Lalji Prasad, a prominent activist advocating for the rights of passengers and road users, has called for underground electric cables in busy shopping areas to eliminate the problems caused by unplanned placement of electric poles and low-hanging wires.Prasad also wants establishment and renovation of bus stations on the Gaya-Nawada Road, Gaya-Patna Road, Gaya-Dobhi Road and Gaya-Tekari Road with proper signages and passenger amenities, including state-of-the-art sheds along with sitting arrangements, canteens and safe drinking water facility.RTI activist Brajnandan Pathak said in the absence of a master plan, the city has been converted into a concrete jungle with little breathing space. Gandhi Maidan, regarded as the city’s lung, has not even been spared and unplanned concrete structures inside it have robbed the place of its serenity.So is the case of Falgu river where encroachment on the eastern as well as the western bank is having a killing effect on the river. Our MLA should accord high priority to a professionally made master plan and its effective implementation, said Pathak.