A young life lost -apathy the killer as usual

Do ordinary lives really matter in mega cities like Delhi or Bengaluru? Wealth is pouring like never before into the major cities of the country as builders and business entities try to cash on the new-found wealth of the aspiring middle-class who nowadays do not mind spending even a crore for a plush home in comfortable urban spots. This for them, is an ideal investment, considering the mind-boggling pace at which realty prices are spiraling.

So as builders dig trenches and conveniently forget to put up warning signs or take the required precautions, innocent people are losing their lives to apathy. Almost everyone by now knows the tragic story of a 27-year-old software engineer who drove into a water-filled pit in Noida. His grief-stricken dad says he kept calling for help for about 90 minutes and yet not much could be done to save him, There was water, slush and iron reinforcements in the pit and so the rescue effort was no doubt impeded but then, how did a young techie drive into the pit all of a sudden?

The pit, according to reports, was not secured with barricades, reflectors or warning signs making it a death-trap for any unsuspecting driver. Heads have rolled and officials have been transferred as a punishment in the usual knee-jerk reaction whenever a mishap of this kind happens. But the inevitable question arises: Couldn’t all these have been done beforehand so that the life of a promising engineer could have been saved and his family spared the agonizing grief?

A few years ago in 2023, a 23-year-old techie in a car, drowned in her flooded car in a water-filled underpass in the heart of Bengaluru when the city was witnessing the monsoon fury. She was showing her family around the city with all pride and imagine their horror when the young woman from Andhra Pradesh died in the swirling water which had just refused to drain away. Civic apathy was blamed with questions raised on how water could rise several feet in an underpass if the outlets were properly functioning.

Ensuring the safety of residents who have to encounter bottlenecks all the way amid a maze of ongoing civic projects including apartments, bridges and metro lines, is the foremost responsibility of the government and civic agencies concerned. And if they are unable to do it, why allow such projects to come up in the first instance. Every life is precious, whether it is a rich realtor or the ordinary man on the streets and it’s only when our administrators grasp this intrinsic truth more than anyone else that our young men and women can ride the streets in safety.