A lethal mix of official apathy and greed

The screaming headlines of newsrooms and newspapers are always wrong when it comes to ‘accidents.’ Never a tragedy, but criminal negligence, official-operator connivance and many more such roots of corruption. The first thing that should be questioned is: Were the vehicles in operable conditions. The second question: Was overcrowding allowed? If so, why? The third is about the speed with which these vehicles are being driven or steered.

Of course, the fourth one and no less an important one is the pressure from the owner on the drivers whose work conditions are one of the worst in the world, to ‘do more’ without even proper sleep. Even these need to be probed. No driver complains when asked by his boss to work against the rules or with no rest and also when the vehicles are mechanically not so sound. The answer to such objections from the drivers would always be “after this trip.” The case of stampedes at religious places also falls under this category. There is no proper planning going into these. Can’t we learn from the ‘Kumbh Mela’ at least? This is not somewhere in a foreign country, but in our own land. Its orderliness is a testimony to the excellent planning and the organisers’ eye for the detail.

The Kerala High Court recently initiated suo motu proceedings into the boat accident which occurred a couple of weeks ago in Malappuram’s Tanur and claimed the lives of at least 22 persons, including several children. A division bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Shoba Annamma Eapen opined that the tragic incident would not have occurred had the authorities concerned done their jobs by ensuring that tourist boats, such as the one involved in the Tanur accident, comply with safety standards. “Had the officers and authorities invested with the vital legal and statutory duty to watch and monitor, done so, this mishap, like several others, never would have happened. Their responsibility and onus is not lesser - if not much more - than that of the operators, since it is because the latter’s illegal actions obtained deliberate or other support, that violations are perpetrated with no fear of law,” the Court said.

Governments’ ordering compensations does not absolve the authorities of their responsibility or answerability. Such tragedies are frequent in our country. The Gujarat bridge collapse is yet another. Then we saw one in Madhya Pradesh wherein a bus rolled off the bridge over a river killing 22 and injuring many more. As the High Court bench opined that without any intervention and actual change to the prevailing situation, many such incidents are waiting to happen in the State.

How many more (such incidents) will we have to see? Unless we put our foot firmly down because the conspicuous and patiently visible causal factors - overloading, blatant violation of statutory imperatives, and criminal absence of essential safety requirements - are repeated with impunity, without any fear, care or caution. The obdurate refusal to follow and enforce the most basic safety protocols, which are taken for granted in the civilised world, is the most infuriating, to say the least. This ancient civilisation needs to get a bit more civilised.