JAIPUR: City residents ditched space travel Thursday when a crew of “astronauts” touched down in Jhotwara assembly area-specifically Pratap Circle Road-on a high-risk mission to investigate rain-fed potholes big enough to qualify for their own zip codes. In Gokulpura (wards 46 and 47), over 100 residents staged a two-hour protest from 10 am to noon, including two dressed in astronaut outfits and confidently stepping into massive water-filled craters to prove the road now doubles as a training ground for lunar landings.The target: pointing out broken roads, poor drainage, and potholes that have worsened after recent rains. Residents said they’ve been trying for three months to get attention fromJhotwara MLA and minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Jaipur rural MP Rao Rajendra Singh, former councillors, and officials from JDA and JMC-without success. Some alleged they have often failed to meet the BJP MLA or being told by his staff that he was “busy.”Protester Devendra Pratap Singh said the point was simple: “If potholes resemble the Moon and Mars, why spend billions on rockets when Jhotwara is already offering the full experience, complete with monsoon water features.”Singh added, “The idea behind this unusual protest was to show that Jhotwara’s roads have become so bad that the potholes left after the rains look like craters on Moon and Mars.”TOI attempted to contact minister Rathore, but he was unavailable. Sources said tenders for drainage and road construction in the constituency have been awarded, with work expected to start after the monsoon ends.
