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| Minibuses wait at a stand in Guwahati |
I wish to highlight the harassment daily passengers face at the hands of the drivers, conductors and helpers of minibuses that ply between Adabari and Bhangagarh in Guwahati.
Though people prefer to take autorickshaws and trekkers to avoid the mad rush, it is hell for the majority who are forced to take these buses.
First, there are too few buses compared to the growing number of passengers every day.
Despite being crowded beyond capacity, the buses stop after every few minutes for more passengers.
A seat, of course, is the ultimate luxury.
Even a modicum of space to stand is for the more fortunate since at least four to five people hang from the door, jostling for a toehold on the footboard.
Such a scenario is paradise foor pick-pockets and eve-teasers. Usually, you are so uncomfortably cramped between at least four other passengers that you won’t even be able to tell when a thug has swept you clean.
I request the authorities to do something about increasing the number of buses on this route, at least during office hours.
Ashim Kumar Chakraborty,
Guwahati-12
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| Info trouble |
Being related to the Information Technology sector, I would like to draw the attention of readers and the authorities to the plight of 219 community information centres (CIC) and 438 CIC operators in Assam.
The Centre, with the help of the state government, established 487 information centres in the Northeast in 2002.
The 219 information centres of Assam have been functioning for the past six years with its main objective of providing the knowledge of IT at the block level.
The centres, from their inception, provide basic services like printing, computer training, Internet services like email, information on education, news, online PAN card registration and web browsing for rural people.
But the state government has not been taking any interest in the problems faced by these centres and their operators.
Instead of regularising the jobs of the operators, the state government is going to merge the centres with the Common Service Centre (CSC) project, which is based on a business module that will be run by a private company.
If the merger takes place, the current status of the centres will be lost and common people will suffer.
On the contrary, the Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh governments have regularised the job of information centre operators.
Arup Talukdar,
Kamrup
