With an aim to protect the dividers from spitters and keeping it clean, the freshly painted dividers across Guwahati on Wednesday were seen to be covered with plastic.
Onlookers and Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) officials said that the step has been taken to “protect” the dividers from spitters who don’t think twice before spitting on the street after chewing gutkha or paan.
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“This is the fourth time in two months that I am painting the dividers in this area,” said Simanta, a painter engaged in painting a divider in the Ulubari area of the city.
“There are no words to describe the idiocracy of the people when they don’t stop from spitting even while we are painting,” he added.
“The step has been taken to keep the city (read dividers) clean for the ensuing Indo-Japan Summit slated for December 15 and 16,” said a GMC official to Northeast Now seeking anonymity.
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“Painting the dividers over and over again is a tedious job. Every time we do it, people begin spitting and takes everything back to square one within a few days,” he added.
“We are not taking any chances and we shall see that the dividers are kept neat and clean during the Indo-Japan Summit,” he added.
“This is a temporary, but a good initiative,” said Ramen Das, a resident of Zoo Road area of Guwahati.
“Hope the citizens now get some senses and see what wrong they have been doing,” he added.
It’s quite ironical that at a time when plastic is threatening the existence of all life on earth and the world is raging a war against it, here in Guwahati we are using the same nemesis for protecting the city’s “beauty”.
Even after declaring a blanket ban on the sale of gutkha in Assam, the “gutkha spit shots”, however, have not seen any decline.