Banners and borewells have sunk Tamil Nadu into a state of despair. Two recent accidents caused by irresponsible conduct that is loaded with apathy and topped with negligence, sparked off an outrage that even reached the courtroom. As of now, it has led to a resolve to ensure such irresponsibility is not tolerated anymore.
The first tragedy struck in September when a banner erected by a party functionary for a marriage function fell on a 23-year-old woman, Subhasri, when she was riding a two-wheeler. She lost her balance and was run over by a water tanker.
The second disaster eclipsed the festival of lights, when a 2-year-old boy, Sujith Wilson, lay dead and decomposed after he slipped into a borewell that was carelessly camouflaged by soil that loosened with continuous rains. The 90-hour-long rescue efforts came to naught, plunging his family and the entire nation into mourning.
Giant cut-outs of filmstars and politicians have always dotted the landscape of Tamil Nadu. The year was 2017; month: October. The Madras High Court banned hoardings, commercial or political, on the streets. A month later, a 32-year-old man was run over by a corporation truck in Coimbatore after he fell on the road when his bike rammed into an arch erected for a political function. Twenty-three months later, a banner erected by a party functionary for a wedding became a death knell for the 23-year-old Chennai techie.
After the Coimbatore tragedy, the Madras High Court directed the government to ensure that photos or pictures of persons who are alive are not put up on banners, flex boards or sign-boards. The fiat came as a major setback for Tamil Nadu where banners have always been the mode of expression on medians, from birthdays to weddings of family members. Add to that giant flex banners of filmstars along with mug shots of their respective zone’s fan club secretaries; and fans pouring gallons of milk on cut-outs on the first day of their hero’s film release, completing the ritual with showering petals and paying their camphor-lit obeisance.
After Subhasri’s death, the two major political parties in the state, the AIADMK and the DMK, filed affidavits in the Madras High Court saying they have restrained their cadre from erecting cut-outs, flex boards or banners that could cause hindrance to the public. Film stars asked their fans not to erect cut-outs.
However, the DMK could not resist the temptation of erecting a flex banner at Vikravandi Assembly constituency before the bypolls in October. A contempt petition was filed, for which the bench has sought a response from the DMK.
The second tragedy that struck a day before Deepavali left the state and the nation in mourning because the victim of a carelessly unattended, 600-foot borewell was a two-year-old boy. Rescue teams managed to recover the boy’s decomposed body four days after he slipped into the borewell in Nadukattupati town of Tiruchirapalli district.
The National Disaster Response Force and state forces tried drilling their way to reach Sujith, fighting geological forces like hard rock-bed and waiting for a miracle to happen. Hours of anxiety-riddled frayed nerves sparked anger among people over the complacency of the system that had left unused borewells open or loosely shut.
The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board then got its act together and instructed officials to immediately convert all abandoned dry borewells into rainwater harvesting structures, with a penalty warning.
If only the state had followed the 2010 Supreme Court guidelines on borewells, which included barbed wire or any other fencing around them, adequate warning signs nearby, closing them with caps and filling them up with clay or pebbles, Sujith wouldn’t have lost his life. The court had directed that the guidelines be sent to all state governments for compliance, yet the Executive chose to sleep over them. Is it too much to ask to value life?