The Auto Accident: What comes first – Smart City or Safe City

Accidents are not new to Udaipur, especially in the last few years, as the traffic has got out of control without there being any SERIOUS steps being taken by the administration or the traffic police to ensure safety for the commuters.  And why just blame the administration – the commuters are also to be blamed.  Reckless driving, overtaking, least concern for traffic rules, traffic signals, safety precautions like helmet and seat belt, speed limits, lane driving – is there a special need to educate without penalising, or is strict penalising an only option.

Further more, who will implement the penalties – the traffic police? Most of whom are busy chatting on the crossroads standing in the corner.  There are very few instances when we see honest policemen doing their duty, picking up traffic offenders and trying to control the traffic.  Helmet protocol checks are done once or twice a month, on what motivation, we are not sure.  Multi pillion driving, rash overtaking, no respect for the signal, jumping signals, need to be monitored by the traffic regulators, BUT – THE RULES NEED TO BE FOLLOWED BY US!!

With the auto accident today morning, ideally, you should be wondering what has been the fault of these little children merrily enjoying their way to school on a chilly Udaipur winter morning – to meet with such a fate, the trauma of which will be on their minds for days, months and probably years to come, and so is the case with their families and friends.  Or, for that matter, fate of the driver, who was doing his honest early morning duty, that of safely dropping the children to school, after both the parents and the school have placed their faith in him?  Are the innocent children safe?  How do we get them to school, tuitions, playgrounds or parties being sure that they will be safe on the roads of such a small town as Udaipur, which a humongous police force is unable to manage?

Where does the massive police force, that is on ground for many days when a VIP is visiting for a few minutes disappear on normal days?  What happens to the sincerity and pain staking efforts of the police where the general public is concerned? OR, is it only the police that is responsible? Or the administration?  YES, they are responsible.  No one here is doubting their sincerity or honesty – but if the task force is less, it should be augmented.  Swacch Bharat Cess needs to be replaced with Safe Bharat Cess.  The money should be used in providing more people on the police force, training the force, providing facilities to the law regulators – those who are standing on the roads, monitoring our safety.  IF this is done, the people whom we trust to take care of our safety will be obliged to give their best and be honest in their approach.

When it comes to cleanliness, we harp about the city not being clean, the roads dirty, public areas not hygienic…but where does the same thought process disappear when we look at our neighborhood, people throwing a packet of garbage on the road, expecting the municipality to clean it…so lets cleanse our citizenship.  The administration will learn from the citizens.

New roads, beautification of public hotspots to attract tourists – where existing gali, mohallas and bylanes of residential communities are still in bad shape.  Bigger wider roads and re-engineering of sewage are probably a gimmick of the administration-contractor nexus.  CCTV camera surveillance to monitor traffic, public movement, hooliganism, crime – ah, my friend, those on the ground need to monitoring regulations rather than leave it to technology, and blame technology if something goes wrong.  Even the third umpire in India’s favourite game takes a call only when the on field umpire sends up a request.  Of what good is a police force sitting in front of video wall in an air conditioned room, checking out CCTV cameras, when a regular roads we are travelling on, the traffic on a daily basis, is getting worse and out of hand.

Let’s attempt to keep the existing infra safe for ourselves and for our children – free wifi, technology enablement for smart monitoring can wait.  WE the people need to discipline our administration and set an example for them by disciplining ourselves, OR our children have a bleak future in terms of social governance.