It was not too long ago that J P Road at Andheri (west) got a facelift wide concrete road, tungsten lights and tiled pavements. The encroachers were regularly removed, there was a constant vigil on the temporary chai/vada pav stalls, and senior citizens and school-going children could use the pavements. But this is not the case anymore.

Now, shop owners big and small alike have put up tables and extended their store displays on the pavements.

Food stalls place benches for customers and increase the congestion on the pavements, making it difficult to walk. Also, when these vendors clean their utensils, they leave an unsafe oily layer on the pavement, forcing a pedestrian to take a detour through the vehicles zipping on the road. The tiles have also become uneven and some even lie broken. The indifference of the corporation to our plight only increases the aggression of these encroachers.

To add to the agony of pedestrians, housing societies are placing potted plants on the pavements near the Indian Oil junction.

Have we forgotten the very purpose of the pavement? Will someone in the corporation attend to our problems? Can we be given our basic right to walk to the market or the bus stop?