Srinagar, July 26: Want to know how serious the state government is towards development of this historic City? Sample this: failing to get response from government over the much awaited repairs of walkway in the fashionable City centre of Residency Road, the traders community from the area finally pooled resources to themselves undertake the work.
 The Residency Road Shopkeepers Association (RRSA) is presently getting the footpath repaired even though they had appealed the government to get the needful done.
  The RRSA President said earlier this year they approached the “government top brass including Minister for PWD(R&B) seeking repairs of the footpath in the busy marketplace.”
 “We would like to bring to your kind attention the dilapidated condition of the sidewalk (footpath) in front of the shops of the government building on the prestigious Residency Road. The sidewalk is in urgent need of repairs since it has been more than eight years when the relaying of the tiles was undertaken the last time,” the RRSA had informed the government in a letter dated Jan 9, 2012.
 “We take this opportunity to request your good self to peruse the above subject matter and issue necessary instructions to the concerned department in this regard so that the relaying work in completed before the spring of 2012,” the traders’ fraternity had appealed.
 But their hope to see the footpaths repaired by spring of 2012 didn’t realize even till summer. Fearing that the poor walkway would affect their business in the coming days when shopping picks up ahead of Eid-Ul-FItr, the shopkeepers pooled money to get the repairs done.
 “The footpath not only looked bad but could harm the pedestrians as there was every fear of their slipping on the uneven walkway,” the traders said.
 With this being government concern towards heart of the City, the plight elsewhere can only be imagined. And, it is not for the first time that people have been pooling resources do the work which the government was supposed to do.
 Last year the traders of Regal Lane got loos and Wuzu Khanas constructed out of their own money while prior to that some shopkeepers in Karan Nagar area repaired a portion of the road.
 This ground reality goes in stark contrast of the claims of the National Conference led government, the party which bagged all the eight Assembly constituency seats in the previous elections that “extra attention will be paid towards development of the City.”

Lastupdate on : Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST