Goa continues to be in the news, much to our disgust, for all the wrong reasons. If to some extent, the fault lines lie with us for being silent spectators for years, which encouraged and facilitated the Government to lead us to the slaughter house, then almost the entire blame for the unfortunate happenings in Goa falls on our incompetent, impotent, insensitive and greedy rulers, whose only aim to be in power seems to be to loot and let loot, with no semblance whatsoever of what could be called governance.
Diverting from my usual rants against the destruction of Goa and marginalisation of Goans, I will try to delve today on another area of grave concern, which is unnatural deaths.
If accidents, causing immediate or delayed fatalities, seem to go unabated on Goa roads, the number of other deaths, whether by murders, suicides, drowning or bodies found with suspicions of foul play or otherwise, are also rising and ought to be a matter of great worry to an otherwise peaceful and calm State.
Bad enough, we watch everyday people in their 40s, 50s & 60s passing away, besides youngsters, with a bright future dying in road accidents. I don’t know how many of us have visualised what it is for parents to bury or cremate a son or daughter. But such thoughts seem to fly away from us when we ride or drive.
Life is surely a precious and invaluable gift, which is incumbent upon us to preserve safe and secure and similarly respect and avoid any harm to other people’s lives. If it hasn’t ever struck us, let us always spare a kind thought for our fellow pedestrians, weaker vehicles and other road users. Let us never bring upon us and live with eternal remorse having snuffed out a life, which could be more precious than our own and put an entire family in permanent distress and possible penury.
Recently, the Chief Minister, whose only concern seems to be his chair, paid some lip service by expressing concern over rising number of road accidents, though he had no concrete proposals to reduce them.
Road safety cannot be the responsibility of the Government alone. In fact, we the motorists have a greater role to play. Road accidents are surely not caused by not wearing crash helmets or seat belts. But consequences of not using them are generally extremely serious.
Despite several deaths due to absence of crash helmets, we still feel we can do without them and do not mind paying a few rupees in fines. The traffic authorities must obtain and publish testimonies of those who survived after suffering head injuries and also of those who survived because they had a crash helmet or a seat belt on.
It might help people understand better how important a crash helmet is. If the Government is serious about road accidents and consequent fatalities, there should be zero tolerance for drunken or reckless driving, not wearing crash helmets and seat belts. These should be made compulsory even for car users sitting behind, as they too are under risk.
If lack of enforcement of traffic rules is one of the reasons for no letup in road accidents, bad roads, where vehicles have to swerve to avoid potholes or depressions, are also a danger particularly to two-wheelers. Newly resurfaced roads give way within even a month or two, soon after monsoons, as we observe in Margao and on the road to Colva. A fresh layer has now been put, or a small patch repaired, which raise the level of the road.
Despite knowing that these repairs were necessitated by the bad work executed earlier, no supervision is done. Patches of the roads which were dug for laying sewerage lines have been so badly resurfaced that even the cow-dung flooring which poor houses had, decades ago, were far better. New manholes built have invariably been kept much above the road level, anticipating future hot mixing of the road, which would bring them at the same level.
All these anomalies lead us to believe what was said by road contractors in Bengaluru, some time back, that they had to part with heavy commissions to be awarded the contracts. Some of this shoddy and sub-standard work put lives, especially of two-wheeler riders, at serious risk and no other controls will help.
But Goa has, of late, been witnessing also some other unnatural deaths, almost on a daily basis. While it is commendable that murderers have been arrested in most cases, unless there is fear of law, the rate of conviction increases and a no-nonsense approach is assumed by the Police, the State may go the way of many others.
Another matter of serious concern is the discovery of bodies in possible murder cases. The Police cannot surely convince us every time that there is no foul play suspected in order to make their work easier. Often the foul play comes to light later and hence it is imperative that the Police investigate such cases thoroughly.
Suicide attempts are also unfortunate happenings in our society, which need to be dealt with compassion and understanding. The recent suicides of two very young lads - one because he was denied money by the parents and the other because of a quarrel with his elder brother - are indeed distressing and painful.
Some suicides have been caused by acute financial problems. Fortunately, Goans are generally large-hearted and generous and would surely come to the rescue of such people if they had only known about their situation.
Our involvement and closeness to the society we live in will surely help the lot of those who feel helpless and hopeless. Let it never happen in our society or our neighbourhood that financial distress should constrain someone give up his/her life.
(The author is a
retired banker)