Durgapur: The dilapidated roads filled with potholes and the resulting daily public suffering have now taken a severe turn in the industrial town. CPIM has now stepped into the fray demanding rapid repair of the roads that have been in a rundown condition for a long time. On Wednesday, Left leaders and activists staged a massive protest in front of the executive engineer's office of the Public Works Department (PWD) in Durgapur. From this protest program, along with raising a strong demand for the immediate repair of roads, a memorandum was also handed over to the officials of the concerned department.
According to local sources, most of the important roads in the Durgapur industrial zone are in a pathetic condition. Dangerous large potholes have formed in the middle of the road in some places, while in others, the pitch has completely worn away creating pits. As a result, water accumulates even with slight rainfall, making the situation even more horrific. Thousands of people are forced to commute through these broken roads every day at great risk. Common pedestrians as well as bicycle and motorcycle riders frequently meet with accidents.
Particularly, the current condition of the road stretching from Gate No. 7 to Sukantapally More of Dr. B.C. Roy Avenue, known as the lifeline of Durgapur, is extremely deplorable. Severe traffic jams are created almost every day due to the dilapidated condition of this section. The most alarming matter is that emergency service ambulances and vehicles carrying life-support patients are also getting stuck in these traffic jams and potholes, which often increases the risk to the patients' lives.
During the protest, the district and local leadership of CPIM vented their intense anger against the state government and the administration. They alleged that despite repeated complaints by local residents and road accidents occurring, the indifferent administration and the PWD are sitting with their eyes closed. To put an end to this extreme suffering of the common people, the Left leadership has warned of building a larger movement in the coming days if road repair work is not started immediately on a war footing.
