Let’s get on the road to public safety

We Indians always dream big. If we need power, we take the long and circuitous route – we get all criminal MPs out of jails and ask them to vote for the nuclear deal which will bring in an additional 25,000 MW of N-power by 2020 at an enormous cost.
When it comes to population – well, we are around 1.6 billion. Few countries can match us in innovation. Fewer can come close to the Gods of Code who roam the streets of Bangalore.
But it’s the smaller things in life that we take for granted. Covering a manhole or filling up a ditch, for instance.
Last week, 60-year-old Venkateshwaralu’s life was cut short when a concrete slab in Frazer Town had been removed. BBMP has washed its hand of Venkateshwarulu’s death by saying that he could have avoided the route just like others did. Moreover, they say, the concrete block – 4 m wide and 40 cm thick – had not been removed by them but by “somebody else”.
This is not the first time that open drains and manholes have claimed a life. And neither will this be the last. Every time a life is lost, authorities will come up with some excuse or the other, probably make the right noises, carry out some damage control and then wait till it happens again. It’s so predictable.
Public safety is a concept alien to India. When civic bodies cut roads, they seldom do so with proper markings. Holes are dug days after roads are laid, but never covered properly. Labourers working in manholes, or laying roads are hardly ever provided protective gear. Motorists are expected to notice them -- and the several ditches on the roads -- and simply avoid them. What did you expect, man?
Lakhs die on the roads in India every year. In 2007 alone, 1.2 lakh lives were lost in accidents. A good many could have been saved with proper road design and elementary rules of public safety. For instance, marking turns and speed-breakers – nay, neck-breakers – with reflecting paint. Or, ensuring that they conform to standards. Or, that there are no ditches or open manholes in the middle of the road and motorists don’t have to swerve suddenly.
But all that will not happen unless a law is passed that makes it mandatory for officials to drive themselves. Or, in the case of Bangalore, made to walk home late at night so that they notice the packs of strays on the roads looking for easy meat. That way, they will hopefully do something about the problems that lesser mortals face every day.
I lost a colleague some years back. He was returning home late, there were no streetlights and the Delhi Police had put up a barricade – ostensibly for checking vehicles. The barricades had no reflectors and two of them had been tied up with a rope to ensure that motorists don’t slip away. The colleague did not notice the rope, and was decapitated in the process.
I’ve seldom seen barricades with ropes since then, but reflector-less ones are still all the rage in Delhi.

ravijoshi@epmltd.com