The
news that Pedestrian Day will be done away with, came quite obvious and unsurprised, as
it was something that the erstwhile Opposition Party, the Ruling Government of
the day, had lot of reservations when the Day was instituted a weekly routine, by
the then on power, the Opposition of the day, DPT. With much clamor and
grumblings from the business community on its inconvenience, it was switched to
be once every month, the first Sunday of the month. At least in a month, a
seldom scenery it could be hitherto, we had witnessed families and friends in
droves making a healthy walk through the aisle of Thimphu City which would be
flooded with vehicles tailgating endlessly. Now, with Pedestrian Day off, it is
old same town hassles that we would see across the nation but it was all for
reasons.
When
the news of putting out the Day from monthly face to a yearly one, it was a
long drawn-out welcome by the business community who had to bear the brunt because
of the Day. The government in the ring have started to tune themselves along
the lines of what people has to say, the very day it came on helm. This was
what they pledged during their election campaign and it was through unlike the doing
away of the Preliminary Exam for graduates, which has to wait until next batch
of graduates come into market, a decision to come through looks grim with the
trend of increase in graduates every year, for government alone cannot
accommodate all graduates pouring out of different colleges from Bhutan and
outside, neither was their such precedence elsewhere.
 |
| Former PM of Bhutan on Pedestrian Day(Source: Google) |
Hitherto,
the Pedestrian Day shall be observed once in a year, on World Environment Day,
which was celebrated World Environment day Cum Pedestrian Day by the past government.
By this, we could also say that Pedestrian Day is not totally out, the difference
is in its frequency. Where we had monthly, we shall have a yearly Pedestrian
Day. This doesn’t mean that the past government was keen in conservation of
environment and the present government otherwise. It is a matter of how one
takes thing way forward in the interest of nation and the people. In doing so,
there is also a gap not fully aligning to one side or the other.
Adieu 'Pedestrian Day'.
