How safe is your town?

Image source : Kuensel

It isn’t surprising any longer to hear news of burglary or auto stripping in Thimphu these days. However, when you wake up to the news of a cold blooded murder in your backyard, it disturbs you tremendously. The murder of a 48 year old Indian official in Chang Jalu, Olakha on the night of November 7 shook the residents of Chang Jalu. If you have been following this blog, you know why I’m gravely concerned over this for the virtue disadvantage of being a Chang Jalu resident.  

 

Chang Jalu is largely a residential area. However, it has all the facilities of bars, drayangs... that encourage unwanted activities. It’s common to hear fighting at night and people high on alcohol disturbing the whole neighborhood.  

  

With majority of the offices located in the core city, returning home from office late in the evening is becoming a safety issue. There are no street lights in the area. In fact, the area where the body was found dead is a pitch black area in the evening where you encounter deadly looking young men and women.

The security personnel just a yell away isn’t of any help either since they are mostly locked inside their cabin to escape the awful cold in the night or they must be snoring to heaven’s glory, we can’t blame them. 

The previous night, my nephews who were returning home from celebrating Diwali were also robbed off their mobile phones and cash on the same spot. 

Urban Bhutan is becoming increasingly unsafe. Why don’t the concerned authorities do something to avoid such social ills? In this case, putting proper street lights in this area could have avoided the miscreants to carry out unnecessary activities. The concern of street lights has always been there for this area. My cousin who returns from office late in the evening given the nature of her job shared with me some months ago that she doesn’t feel safe to walk home from this area. I, as a concerned resident and a responsible gender focal point raised this issue in one of the consultation meetings with the relevant stakeholder long time back. However, the outcome of the meeting remained in policy papers only. 

Not long ago Thimphu was considered as one of the safest cities. It was perfectly ok to run to a grocery store to shop leaving your car’s ignition on. Now what has become of urban Thimphu? This could be just a tip of an iceberg, so many cases go unreported. Sadly, it’s our youths who are dragged and involved in such social ills. 

I hope the concerned authorities really start doing something immediately so that the next morning residents of another town do not wake up to the news of another murder in their backyard. 

I pay my deep condolences to the bereaved family.  

Until then, remain safe.