Panchkula: In the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling establishing walking as a fundamental right, Panchkula civic group “Solution Box” has launched a massive campaign to reclaim the city’s crumbling and encroached footpaths. The citizen-led initiative aims to mobilise resident welfare associations (RWAs) and report safety violations to local departments, highlighting how poor infrastructure routinely forces pedestrians onto dangerous, busy roads.The campaign follows a historic judgment by the apex court on Friday, which ruled that the “Right to walk is a fundamental right under Part III of the Constitution,” connecting it directly to the right to life and free movement. Triggered by the tragic on-road death of a five-year-old boy walking to school, the apex court urged the Centre to enact a law mandating well-demarcated pedestrian pathways nationwide.Despite the top court’s emphasis on safety, a ground reality check across Panchkula reveals missing walkways, broken pavement tiles, garbage dumping, and wild overgrown grass. In Sectors 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, commercial encroachments, makeshift street shelters, parked vehicles, and private hedges have rendered pedestrian pathways unusable, particularly impacting senior citizens, children, and persons with disabilities.Specific danger zones include the broken footpaths outside the Govt College for Girls in Sector 14, which force hundreds of students to navigate moving traffic daily. Directly opposite the Little Flower School in the same sector, an illegal garbage dump blocks the entire walking zone. Furthermore, footpaths are entirely non-existent on the dividing road of Sectors 15 and 16, while the Mansa Devi Complex and trans-Ghaggar sectors face major clearance issues.Jurisdiction over these pathways is split among three major state entities: the municipal corporation (MC), Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), and the Panchkula Metropolitan Development Authority (PMDA). However, residents allege that pedestrian safety remains a low priority for all three bodies.Lamenting the administrative apathy, Mohit Gupta, founder of Solution Box, said: “All these issues, force pedestrians to walk on the roads alongside the vehicles. All issues need to be attended to so that footpaths of the city really become walkable and safe. It is not a road accident risk, but it also discourages walking. The city authorities must wake up and identify the problem areas and make walkable footpaths for residents.”
