The boundary wall of the civil secretariat is developing cracks. As a result, the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) administration has issued a traffic advisory, restricting pedestrian movement on the footpath along the secretariat’s wall and prohibiting the parking of vehicles in the area between the footpath and NH 415. The restriction covers a stretch of 100 metres from the secretariat’s main gate to the end of the boundary wall.
Citing the Public Works Department (PWD), the administration stated that numerous cracks have appeared on the boundary wall near NH 415, posing a significant risk to life and property, especially to vehicles stationed at the base of the wall bordering the highway.
This is in addition to the longstanding seepage issue, commonly referred to as the ‘water hole’, which floods the main highway whenever there is heavy rain. The engineer, while making provisions for the secretariat, seemingly left the job halfway, forgetting that this wall runs alongside a crucial highway, one of the city’s main lifelines.
This wall could have been so much more – a wall of art, even a wall of dissent. At one point, anti-dam protestors covered it in graffiti opposing mega-dam projects. But now it has been reduced to a leaking, cracking structure – a reflection of the rot within the system and the government’s inability to address it. A 100-metre wall, attached to the very building that houses the government and its hundreds of employees, fails to stand without cracks – highlighting a failure to meet even the most basic standards.