Dirty Darjeeling Destined for Destruction

A group of tourists, who had visited Bhutan and Sikkim were horrified at the pathetic condition of Darjeeling. They couldn’t believe the noise, the congestion, the pollution and general filthiness about our town.

There is not a single place left in Darjeeling town which is noise or pollution free.

Mall road has now been taken over by the hawkers who were unceremoniously removed by greedy politicians to fill their pockets from Nehru Road shopping malls, without any plans for rehabilitating them. Newer hawkers have now occupied roads right from Bata to Hayden hall, they have occupied entire road on the way down from Sunflower hotel to Alice Villa. They are everywhere.

One cannot judge those who are struggling to make a living, but come on; can’t we find another place for them to sell their wares?

Youths who love to ply their bikes on high speed around Mall Road, have you ever taken a moment to ponder, how your actions are polluting – noise, air, visual – the only green space left in town?

Syndicates have come up in front of Raj Bhawan, who permitted it? and why?

Moreover, locals don’t get vehicles as soon as tourists start coming, and even when we get we have to pay double and triple the fare. No one has taken any action against those erring syndicates. Why?

Rampant building of taller and bigger structure continues unabated. We are living in an absolute state of anarchy, where it seems like almost everyone has stopped caring for Darjeeling – the place. All are concerned with their petty little agendas – some want to show their absolute domination, some want to retain power, some want to earn more, some want to buy more, but no one seems to be giving any thought to how all of these are contributing towards the downfall of Darjeeling.

We have a choice, we can either take a stock of which direction we are heading to, and change, or we can all wait for the eventual destruction of our place.

[TheDC Newsdesk, cover pic Via: Sangita Ghalay ]