Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today celebrated his government’s beautification scheme by taking a tour of some of the areas to have benefited but, unfortunately, his visit ended up exacerbating Shillong’s horrible traffic jams.
As part of the celebrations of Meghalaya’s golden jubilee, the state government offered funding to neighbourhoods in Shillong, Tura and Jowai to spruce themselves up through artwork and other initiatives.
Today, Sangma visited a few of these neighbourhoods in Shillong at Mawkhar, Jaiaw and Mission Compound. Unfortunately his timing was terrible as it coincided with the morning rush hour.
The Chief Minister, though, probably had little choice in the timing if he wanted to inspect the locations today as he rushed off to Manipur to campaign for his party soon afterwards.
Police halted traffic in several places to give the CM a chance to walkabout freely with cabinet colleagues, local MLAs, the Deputy Commissioner and other officials. While they roamed about unhindered, the public stewed in their cars and taxis waiting for these dignitaries to push off.
Although traffic jams are to be expected, the situation today appeared worse, with gridlocked traffic seen in Jaiaw, Riatsamthiah, Mawkhar, Mawlai, Police Bazaar and beyond. The price to pay for a Chief Ministerial visit.
