Revellers leave Shimla in a shambles
SHIMLA: After celebrating New Year’s Day in Shimla, tourists left the town in a mess. Liquor bottles and plastic waste were littered all around the Ridge, Mall Road and other tourist spots in the town. Despite arrangements to handle tourist traffic on New Year’s eve, roads were clogged on Saturday night and Sunday.
Though the police were told not to be harsh with tourists, there were reports of drunken tourists and locals involved in scuffles on the Ridge and Mall Road.
“We were asked to cooperate with tourists,” a police officer said on condition of anonymity. People were also seen smoking and drinking in public. “Tourists were drinking on the lane leading to the Mall Road from Lakkar Bazaar. Hooliganism was at its peak but the cops remained mute spectators,” Samriti Sharma, a resident of the town’s Sanjauli area, said.
Some liquor shops were even open till midnight.
Shimla deputy mayor, Tikender Singh Panwar, said that Shimla is a historic city and needs quality tourism. “We don’t need hooliganism. Traffic jams have become the order of the day. In the morning, liquor bottles and plastic waste were seen all around. This is not what Shimla deserves.”
Locals were also irked by the noise pollution. “Those celebrating New Year by drinking didn’t even spare a thought for the area around the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC). There were some people in different groups cheering loudly just outside the hospital,” he said.
Normally, the town generates 80 tonnes of waste per day (TPD) but on Sunday nearly 100 TPD was collected. Most of it was liquor and soft drink bottles.
Such scenes were also common in other tourist destinations of Kufri and Narkanda. “There was not a single untoward incident in the town,” said Shimla superintendent of police (SP), DW Negi.
Shimla police confiscated 182 of liquor bottles on Saturday night. As many as 191 vehicles were challaned under Motor Vehicles Act while 36 people were challaned under the Anti-Smoking Act. Over 8,000 vehicles entered Shimla on Saturday.