Few takers for new-look efforts - Protest greets Darjeeling civic initiatives

Darjeeling, Nov. 15/TT: Efforts to address three major issues in the hill town — traffic, solid waste management and generation of civic revenue — today ended in disarray with many refusing to accept the changes introduced by the Darjeeling municipality.

The initiatives include shifting of taxi stands and imposition of parking fees, door to door garbage collection and levying tourist tax.

Almost all the initiatives hit the roadblock. Taxi and tour operators alleged that too many changes were being attempted by the municipality in one go, instead of taking one issue at a time. The administration refused to read much into the resistance and said it was expected.

The municipality had ordered all buses, parked at the Darjeeling motor stand, to be shifted near Tenzing Rock today. But the drivers refused to budge, saying the new parking space 3km away was an impractical choice.

Nearly 30 buses ply to and from Darjeeling daily but only 7-8 of them can be parked at a time at the Motor Stand. The area near Tenzing Rock has space for almost all the buses.

The municipality also said two buses at a time will be allowed to enter the town, halt for a short while at the Motor Stand before going to the next stop near the railway station.

Narbu Lama, the president of the All Transport Joint Action Committee, said: “Such proposals had not been placed at the meeting which we had with the authorities. We had been told to shift the buses from a portion of the parking lot at Motor Stand, which we had done. For the past 10 days, we had not been parking the buses there. But sending all buses outside town will only cause inconvenience.”

Lama said the buses travel to different destinations and some of them have the same timings. “So it is not possible to have only two buses entering town at a time.”

Drivers of the Ghoom taxi syndicate refused to operate their vehicles as their depot was changed from Judge Bazar on the national highway to near the Darjeeling railway station, which is outside the town. The Ghoom taxis are the most availed of and often cause traffic jam.

Sanjiv Tamang, a driver who plies a taxi on the Ghoom route, said: “The new location will cause a lot of inconvenience. Besides, only taxis of our syndicate are being asked to move out. The other syndicates are still there. The new parking for our taxis will only increase traffic snarls.”

Civic sources said the taxis on the other routes were not being told to shift, as their frequency was not much.

The municipality has also decided to collect parking fees from nine spots across town and allot parking space exclusively for private vehicles. “We are trying to collect Rs 10 per vehicle per day for syndicate taxis and Rs 10 per hour for private cars. Motorcycles will be charged Rs 5 per day,” said Tamal Das, the chairperson of the board of administrators of the Darjeeling municipality.

The municipality has also decided to start a door-to-door collection of garbage against a daily charge of Rs 2. “We have started the initiative in 12 of the 32 Darjeeling wards and have tied up with various agencies,” said Das, who is also the subdivisional officer of Darjeeling.

Visitors entering Darjeeling were charged Rs 5 per head at a point near Ghoom today, the first day of the tourist tax. Vehicles carrying tourists were told to pay Rs 20 while buses were charged Rs 50. But many tourist vehicles bypassed the collection centre probably unaware of the new system. Plans are afoot to set up a permanent counter.

As around 3 lakh tourists come to the hills every year, the cash-strapped municipality is expected to generate around Rs 14 lakh through taxes on tourists and their vehicles.

Tour operators are, however, not happy about the tourist tax.

Pradip Tamang, secretary of the Darjeeling Association of Travel Agents, said: “The municipality is attempting too much at a time. They imposed parking fees, shifted taxis stands, started garbage collection for a fee and charged tourists — all in a single day.”

Tamang said tourist taxes would not be welcomed by the visitors. “The streets have not been properly lighted. There is no parking infrastructure and the beautification of the town, too, has not started. Fees and taxes should be imposed only when the town is beautified and an infrastructure is in place. Then tourists would not mind paying,” said Tamang.

Civic administrator Das admitted that a permanent solution to the traffic woes can be expected only after the parking lots at Singamari and near the railway station come up.

“The question is if we should wait till the construction is over or try and bring about some changes to improve the overall look. We had expected resistance but we are confident that it would be solved amicably in the days to come,” said Das.