Negligence kills - again in B’luru

Civil negligence can kill and that is obvious from the horrifying incident in Bengaluru Sunday morning.

A 23-year-old woman and her ninemonth-old baby girl died when they accidentally stepped on a live wire lying unattended on the pavement near Hope Farm in the Whitefield area while they were walking home.

A case has no doubt been filed against officials of the power utility Bescom but that cannot in any manner reduce the gravity of the dangers we face in the IT hub of the country.

Dangerously dangling cables, uncovered drains, waterlogged roads and underpasses whenever a shower hits the city, and poorly-lit streets where you could be mugged anytime - Bengaluru is slowly turning into a citizens’ nightmare.

In September last year, a young girl was electrocuted after slipping on a waterlogged road while a few months ago, a young woman drowned to death in her car in a flooded underpass just because the water from heavy rains refused to drain away.

There are also the many dangers posed by potholeridden roads which make drivers swerve to avoid them leading to potentially dangerous situations.

Too many people including kids have already died on the roads either because of rash driving or because of accidents induced by potholes, which are never filled in time by the civic agencies concerned.

One can’t help wondering why it takes so long for civic agencies including water and power utilities to respond to an emergency situation in the city. How could anyone be ignorant of the hazards posed by live wires on the road?

Do we not have enough technical personnel to keep a watch on such incidents which could cause havoc on city roads?

Expectations were pretty high when a new government took charge in May this year that the city’s civic infrastructure would get a much needed boost. Most citizens had felt the pain when Bengaluru was waterlogged to the seams last year with even plush residential areas seeing water logging and people having to travel in boats.

Burgeoning traffic woes because of badly laid roads and an inadequate public transport system had left commuters seething in anger after being forced to spend hours on the streets, and not in their offices or homes.

Despite the change of guard, not much has happened so far as far as civic facilities are concerned. This brings up the troubling question whether enough funds are being made available for bringing the transport, power and sanitary systems to acceptable standards?

Has all that focus on the five poll guarantees led to an alarming situation where Bengalureans are forced to fend for themselves when stepping on the street? There have been many other incidents which hardly do any good to the fair name of the IT City.

A few days ago, a woman was reportedly forced to complain about a group of men who staged a ‘fake mishap’ for whatever reason it may be and chased and threatened her and her friends.

There have been scary incidents of cab drivers behaving rudely with their passengers, not to mention the risks posed by dangerous and underage driving by youngsters, unmindful of the rules.

In a properly administered city, none of these should happen, but sadly, Bengaluru has not had a civic body for the past several years as the civic polls have been delayed for whatsoever reason it may be.

In such a situation, the city’s leaders - the several ministers, MPs and legislators - will have to do a review of areas which need immediate attention till a civic body is elected, and address them promptly.

Ugly incidents like the electrocution of innocent citizens is not something which should be happening in the Silicon Valley of the country, which is always the focus of national and global attention.