THAT the capital city of Madhya Pradesh -- Bhopal -- should allow chaos to prevail on its roads, sends to the world only a poor message about the efficiency (?) of the administration. In the long term, it also casts a poor light on the State Government whose seat power is housed in Bhopal. ‘The Hitavada’ series on Chaos on Roads of Bhopal brings to fore the pathetic condition of roads and poor traffic management. Frankly, this was the case just until a couple of years ago. There were glitches all right, but their extent had not sunk to the current low -- which makes the Bhopalites feel insecure or roads and rather slighted in the head and heart that they have to endure such a situation for no fault of their own. This may be true that the people have to suffer for the lapses of the civic administration controlling the State Capital. However, it is also equally true that the current pathetic traffic management -- which also includes defunct traffic signals -- is of the making of the civic authorities that chose to slumber while things went from bad to worse. Now, the situation has sunk to such a low that every citizen of Bhopal has something or other to say by way of complaint -- about chaos on roads.

 

With increasing numbers of private vehicles, with increased numbers of Government vehicles on the roads, with increased numbers also of the day-to-day visitors to the city from all parts of the State the situation is getting out of hand every passing day. The loosefooter realises this as he and his colleagues in ‘The Hitavada’ move around the city on assignments and see and sense the troubles the common road-users have to face on account of bad road and traffic management. If this is the condition in the State capital, we can imagine what may be happening elsewhere in the State, let alone a few good exceptions of some cities or towns. However, the seeds of what is happening now on Bhopal roads had been foreseen by some people who could peep deep into future. The loosefooter is aware of the discussion about such ugly prospects about Bhopal traffic in the higher layers of the State bureaucracy a few years ago. In those official conversations and meetings, many knowledgeable bureaucrats had fore-cautioned the State Government about the impending crisis on Bhopal roads a few years later.

 

Those early warnings were unfortunately ignored -- and the outcome is there for everybody to see and sense. Had those early signs of the future decadence were seen at right time and acted upon, the current chaos on roads may never have happened. But the expectation now is that the administration wakes up fast and starts the process of rectification the soonest. For, for people like the loosefooter, seeing their own city trapped in such a condition of helplessness is a terrible experience