Dehradun: The city of Dehradun, once hailed as city of solitude, now finds itself marred by crumbling infrastructure and disillusioned residents.
Fed up with the deteriorating conditions, citizens gathered on Thursday for a joint meeting of various civic organizations, political leaders from both the BJP and Congress, social activists, and journalists.
The gathering highlighted the urgent need to pressure officials into taking immediate action to rectify the city's mess that is going from bad to worse as its population has been skyrocketing over the years.
From Vikasnagar through Badholi, Prem Nagar to Cloak Tower and Raipur Road, the city remans in gridlock for hours, with youngesters high on kicks, who are enrolled in hundreds of institutions here, zipping across dangerously in two wheelers without helmets.
The meeting addressed multiple pressing concerns, including the Smart City project, the ill-fated Master Plan 2041, and the rampant tree felling across the city.
It concluded with the proposal to draft the "Doon Declaration," which is aimed at raising public awareness and holding authorities accountable.
The Declaration could potentially be made public on the occasion of State Formation Day.
Anoop Nautiyal, the founder of the SDS Foundation, asserted that the public was not given sufficient time to voice their objections regarding Master Plan 2041 and questioned potential changes to the Dehradun Valley Notification, the city's population, and its carrying capacity.
He proposed three solutions, including the formation of committees to mobilize and educate citizens, organizing awareness campaigns, and seeking legal recourse.
Jagmohan Mehendiratta opened the meeting by emphasizing how citizens' lives were being put in danger due to haphazard road excavation and the failure to address traffic woes.
He lamented the lack of progress in the Metro project, despite numerous high-level visits, and the deteriorating traffic management.
Councilor Devendra Pal Singh Monty criticized the decision to label Dehradun as a Smart City, arguing that it should have been a separate entity.
He pointed out that arbitrary decisions were being made under the pretext of the Smart City initiative.
Purushottam Bhatt expressed concern about the apathy towards the city's deteriorating conditions and urged everyone to stand with the youth and women who are tirelessly protesting.
Anoop Kapoor highlighted the rising trend of substance abuse among the youth and called for a crackdown on commercial construction in residential areas.
Anil Jaggi stressed that the city had been deteriorating over the past 20 years and called for the formation of a pressure group to hold the government accountable.
Aashish Garg called for a complete ban on commercial construction in residential areas in addition to addressing the pressing issues.
Nilesh Rathi emphasized that it was time for solutions, not discussions, and advocated for a flyover with a bottle-neck indicator and traffic sense development among the public.
The meeting featured contributions from numerous prominent figures, including Amar Singh, Jayapal Singh, Amarjeet Singh Bhatia, Prakash Nangia, Vineet Jain, Gulista Khanam, Colonel Thapa, Avdhesh Sharma, Lt. Colonel JS Gambhir, Pradeep Kukreti, Jitendra Anthwal, Bhupendra Kandari, Manoj Dhyan, T.N. Jaouhar, Jaya Singh, and Brigadeer Bahal.
Sushil Tyagi, the convener of the Joint Civic Organization, led the discussions. The citizens of Dehradun have come together in a united front against the deteriorating conditions in the city, demanding immediate action from the authorities to salvage the city's future.
