Stop callous attitudes from taking more lives
Three horrifying deaths in as many days have left Karnataka shocked and angry. The deaths were entirely avoidable: One man walked into a ditch in Bengaluru, left open by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike for three months; a pair of teenagers tumbled down a 30-ft embankment on their bike in Gadag while riding on a village road that had given way under heavy rain. Yet another biker fell into a pit in the middle of a road in Hubballi city, again left exposed by civic authorities for repairs, but was lucky to escape with head injuries. The incidents, which occurred over the past week, highlight our infrastructure’s pathetic state and our civic personnel’s brazen negligence. The three incidents have many commonalities—the victims had ventured out in the dark, and residents had apprised the authorities about the dangers on their roads, yet no action was taken.
On this count alone, the civic administration should be charged with murder, and the guilty officials punished. Passing off such deaths as accidental would be a travesty: one was a breadwinner, while the youngsters died pitifully young. It is disturbing that such incidents are reported regularly, yet, civic officials remain callously indifferent to their responsibilities and, quite literally, get away with murder.
These deaths raise other pertinent questions: Why is our infrastructure almost always below par and in a constant state of disrepair? Can we not incorporate suitable building materials and methods into our public facilities, so they survive the vagaries of the weather? Our roads–urban and rural—appear war-ravaged and collapse swiftly under heavy rain, pavements are broken, and there is danger at every step.
For a country which boasts of a brainy talent pool, there is little to show by way of quality engineering, and this is especially true of our cities. Architects and civil engineers, inclined to adopt foreign building styles, are turning cities into glassy heat islands. Instead, they could study the country’s ecology, dip into history for sustainable architecture, and adapt modern technical know-how to local topography and climate. We need holistic planning with a blend of old and new. Not that we are incapable of it: some of our highways are visible examples of excellence, which makes the compromises that citizens make even more unreasonable.