Mumbai disaster

Mumbai disaster

Babus, netas must pay for each urban mishap.

Mumbai’s latest bridge collapse, the second in two years and the third recent accident with a railway connection, attests to the city’s crumbling infrastructure. The flooring of a foot over-bridge linking to one end of the city’s iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus gave way, taking six lives and injuring over 30 others. Last July a part of the bridge over Andheri station collapsed during heavy rains injuring five people. But the warning bells had rung much earlier – following the stampede on Elphinstone Road station’s pedestrian bridge in September 2017.

After the Andheri incident, structural audits were conducted on foot over-bridges in the city. It is unacceptable that such an accident still occurred. Given that lakhs of people take these bridges linked to the local train network on their daily commute the BMC, reputed to be among Asia’s richest civic bodies, and Indian Railways, which allocates Rs 20,000 crore annually to its special safety fund (Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh), should have collaborated to prevent mishaps. Instead the emphasis was on shifting blame, which allows authorities to get away with their shenanigans.

Unless culpability is fixed on officials, India’s infamous chalta hai attitudes will prevail. Negligence by private enterprises is met with tough crackdowns, which include suspension of operating licences and slapping of criminal cases in the aftermath of tragedies. However, public servants get away in similar situations when there is no reason to spare them. This impunity is also a form of corruption that lowers the premium placed by government on individual lives. While compensation has been announced for victims, such measures are inadequate to replace the loss of a loved one, in personal and financial terms. As we have raised costs to Pakistan for sponsoring terror, so must we raise the cost for public servants who fail in their duty to keep us safe.