Old Shimla bus stand turning into garbage dump

Shimla: Neglect of the old bus stand, which presently serves as the city bus stand, reflects the apathy of the authorities that has left much of the public utility space littered with trash and garbage raising questions about maintenance of hygienic conditions before diseases could break out in the summer.

At many places walls are broken, sitting arrangements are in shambles, litter from disposable coffee or tea cups, chips packets, empty cold drink bottles and other garbage is fast piling up. No heed is being paid towards the cleanness of the bus stops.

Babu Ram a regular commuter says “walls of the bus stop are broken and the seating benches provided are not sufficient. Should a little rain fall, as it has been lately, one does not know from where to board a bus as the whole place kind of floods up.”

Vikas Thakur, a resident of Dhami who daily catches a bus from here let Hill Post know, “The hygienic condition at bus stand is pathetic and the worker engaged for maintaining its cleanness do nothing. Behind the parking lot at Old Bus Stand, many people are frequently seen urinating, despite there being public toilet within the complex. The whole place is stinking from human excreta and urine stench.”

Ashish Sharma, a city resident says,” the garbage has been lying in the open from years and no one has bothered to have it cleaned. What is worse, sometimes someone comes around only to burn the litter which lives a lingering stink of burnt garbage at the public space.”

Those urinating in the open should be fined heavily and the authorities should make more public toilets so that people do not ease themselves in public places, said Sharma.

When brought to the notice of Dr Omesh K Bharti, Health Officer Shimla Municipal Corporation, he said “we are planning to remove the dustbin from the place as due to traffic sometimes our vehicles are unable to sweep the place.”

We have asked the Himachal Transport authorities to not park their buses near to the dustbin, he added.

Regarding making of more toilets and people simply treating the whole bus stand as one open toilet, Bharti showed helplessness. He said “I will just appeal to the people to use the public toilets which is just a few meters away”.

Photos by Preneeta Sharma

Preneeta Sharma

Preneeta Sharma, a budding journalist with a strong flair for picking out the unusual from the usual.

Preneeta lives in Shimla and is a contributor reporter with Hill Post.