Pedestrians are at God’s mercy, literally.

The civic body, district administration or traffic police, nobody seems to be bothered about walkers’ plight. All of them have turned a blind eye while pedestrians negotiate their way through squatters, stalls, garbage and haphazardly parked vehicles on what rightfully belongs to them — the footpaths. They are often forced to abandon the pavements and tread on thoroughfares, making themselves vulnerable to mishaps.

The authorities’ attitude has actually done away with the culture of pedestrians walking on pavements. Over the past week, The Telegraph highlighted the condition of footpaths along several prominent streets — Station Road, Exhibition Road, SP Verma Road, Buddha Marg, RK Bhattacharya Road and Beer Chand Patel Marg. The authorities kept promising prompt action but nothing has been done so far.

Among those who assured The Telegraph that the footpaths would be cleared of encroachments were Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Kuldip Narayan, the corporation’s New Capital circle executive officer Vishal Anand and former Patna traffic superintendent of police (SP) Satyavir Singh. Rajiv Mishra is the new traffic SP of Patna after Singh was transferred on Tuesday.

On Thursday, The Telegraph once again asked the officials why they were not able to act on their words. The officials came up with excuses related to lack of co-ordination among them while assuring an anti-encroachment drive in the near future.

Anand, the executive officer of PMC’s New Capital circle, said: “We are not sure on the exact date of anti-encroachment drives but we plan to act soon. Just yesterday (Wednesday), I held a meeting with DSP (Kotwali) and DSP (traffic) to discuss the plan of action to conduct anti-encroachment drives in different areas. We are mulling over removing squatters from the Digha area tomorrow (Friday). We have decided to conduct such a drive on Station Road on May 31.”

Claiming that footpaths are the civic body’s priority, the New Capital circle executive officer said: “The anti-encroachment drive has to be conducted in co-ordination with the district administration and the police. If we do it in isolation, it would not be effective because the squatters would return in no time.”

The road construction department looks after around 100 roads in the city. Of them, 18 have footpaths alongside. The list of roads includes Fraser Road, Boring Canal Road, Vidyapati Marg, Peer Ali Marg and Hardinge Road.

According to the Indian Road Congress norms, the standard width of a footpath should be around 1.5m. But civic apathy and rampant encroachment by hawkers leave little room for pedestrians on most footpaths.

Senior district administration officials denied charges of inactivity. “Anti-encroachment drives are conducted on a regular basis. We cannot remove squatters at one go because of various issues, including human interference. We are working according to law, according to which, notices are issued in the area concerned and the drives are conducted thereafter,” said Seema Tripathi, deputy development commissioner, Patna.

Municipal commissioner Kuldip Narayan was not available for comment on Thursday, while Patna traffic SP Mishra could not be contacted.

Residents are in no mood to accept further assurances from the authorities.

“We live in the capital city of this state and a minor problem of encroachment on footpaths is not being addressed. How long do the authorities want us to keep listening to their assurances? I do not understand why the authorities can’t resolve it,” said Monu Agarwal, a city-based businessmen.