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Editorial
Dead Men Walking
For a community
journal coming out in the United States and accessible on the web to
the community diaspora worldwide, it is rather peculiar to make an
editorial comment on the way transport systems are run back home in
Punjab. But so peeved and enraged are we to read everyday about the
deaths on the road and the utterly chaotic manner in which the urban
transport as well as railway crossings are managed in
Punjab
that it will not be out of place to try and bring before our
readership the pathetic state of affairs.
In Punjab, the
number of people killed in road-railway accidents is zooming, and
considering how rare can be an accident between a vehicle on the
road and an oncoming train, one is surprised by the total lack of
consideration on part of the state administration as well as the
railway authorities to at least ensure that the crossings are
manned.
India's national
crime records bureau’s latest compilation of figures shows that
close to 1.15 lakh people were killed in 4.18 lakh road accidents in
India in 2007, the latest year for which data is available. While by
itself it is a shame that accident data takes so long to be
compiled, the fact that the Indian civil society has not accorded
the kind of attention required to the issue also speaks volumes for
the value that
India
places on the lives of its citizens.
Ministers and
the officialdom is often contented by announcing a few thousands
rupees as ex-gratia relief in case of an accident but nothing moves
beyond that. India now has the second highest number of road
casualties in the world, just a little less than in China.
Estimates for
2008 suggest that with close to 1.3 lakh deaths, India has now
topped this unfortunate global list in road accidents, which account
for about 10% of the world’s total. Two out of three road
fatalities, especially in the urban areas, are of pedestrians.
This is surely
an unacceptable situation, not only because of the senseless loss of
human life, but more so because these deaths are almost all easily
avoidable. For starters, due to poor schooling and monitoring, there
is callousness in the way vehicles are driven on the roads. But more
significantly, these fatalities are a result of a deep flaw in the
way our cities and roads are planned, built and operated.
Just a swing
around Punjab's cities will show you how haphazardly have our cities
grown, and how proper municipal or government planning is completely
missing. There are unmanageable demands on civic services and urban
infrastructure even as the politicians keep crying hoarse about
their dream to turn
Punjab
into
California.
The poor are at
the worst end even in this as the increasing demand on resources
leaves them again on the margins while the rich corner the
resources, be these water, electricity or roads.
Roads are hardly
built with the poor or the pedestrian in mind and urban transport
policy has been skewed in favor of one class of road users – car
owners. In Delhi, surveys show that cars transport only one in five
road users while they hog three-fourths of the road space. The rapid
rise in urban populations combined with the growing wealth of the
urban rich has led to a massive increase in private vehicles.
Punjab’s
Assembly has yet to even once discuss seriously the issue of large
number of deaths occurring on the roads. The religious leaders have
also so far not raised any hue and cry despite the fact that every
week there are news reports of pilgrims dying in road accidents.
Pilgrims to various holy places in Punjab often travel in
tractor-trolleys or in trucks, a completely illegal but cheap mode
of transportation for human beings, but there is little that the
administration has ever cared to do about it.
It is time
the community, the men of religion all wake up to the precious lives
we are losing each day.
19
August 2009
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