E-Paper
A death caused by civic negligence
India can’t become truly “viksit” till it starts assigning more value to human life
On Sunday night, a 27-year-old man lost his way in the fog and drove off the road into a pit filled with water at a large construction site in Noida and drowned. It would have been easy to dismiss this as a freak accident, but for the fact that the young software engineer drowned in front of a large crowd. It is appalling that a rescue window was available for a full 90 minutes, but help was not forthcoming. Mealy-mouthed excuses have been offered by the administration to explain the accident, including blaming the driver for allegedly driving fast. But none of it excuses the administration’s lapses, first in securing what was clearly a dangerous bend without adequate safety, second, in allowing water to accumulate on the site; and third (and the most galling), not having trained and well-equipped emergency responders. And so, the young man drowned in the presence of the police, the fire brigade, and even members of the State Disaster Response Force . The National Disaster Response Force was delayed on account of fog. And all this happened not in some unreachable terrain but in the backyard of the Capital of the world’s fourth-largest economy.
The initial response was to file an FIR against the owners of the plot, and sack a junior engineer for negligence. On Monday, the state government removed the NOIDA CEO from the post and constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident and submit its report in five days. What’s required is an extensive audit of the functioning of agencies responsible for civic safety. From uncovered manholes to broken pavements and live, unhinged electric supply lines, urban spaces are disaster zones that remain unattended by civic agencies that are more distinguished by rent-seeking than their commitment to public safety. Deaths from each of these are common — but nothing changes. This isn’t just about Noida, often pitched as the commercial capital of a state that has trillion-dollar-GDP dreams; it is the story of every city in India, from Bengaluru to Mumbai, and Tirupur to Asansol. India can’t become truly “viksit” till it starts assigning more value to human life.
