Plastic sheets protecting Guwahati road dividers from paan

Guwahati: To tackle the problem of ‘paan’ stains on freshly painted road dividers, the city authorities here have covered the concrete separators on G S Road with polythene sheets.

This comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe’s proposed meeting in the state capital on December 15.

Minutes after the road dividers were painted with black and white colours as part of the beautification initiative prior to the VVIP meeting, the dividers on the arterial road of the city were seen littered with red paan stains.

Exasperated by repeated painting of the road dividers, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation decided to wrap them with plastic sheets on Wednesday.

The polythene covers, however, did not deter some people from spitting on the dividers though the plastic sheets kept the newly painted separators untouched, corporation sources said.

Municipal workers told media persons visiting the area that some people “with no civic sense” lower their car windows and slow their two-wheelers to spit paan on the dividers.

A college student said such people should be booked and slapped hefty fines so that it is a deterrent for others who should think twice before defacing public property.