DNA Edit: Death traps on roads

For Indians, when it pours, it rains problems. Waterlogged streets with boats plying on them are a lesser evil compared to potholes and open manholes, which are death traps set by civic authorities. It’s a yearly phenomenon across India flying in the face of state governments’ claims of monsoon preparedness.

Two recent reports from two different regions portray the same grim picture. A man, who lost his life after falling into an open manhole in Delhi and a woman biker in Maharashtra, who was crushed under the wheels of a truck after her vehicle landed in a pothole, are victims of institutional failures.

The lives of ordinary, taxpaying citizens are marked by helplessness as they negotiate death threats from giant craters and open drains, which refuse to go away despite a mounting death toll. To put the crisis in perspective: About 3,500 people had died in 2015 due to potholes, according to the road transport ministry, with Maharashtra witnessing a seven-fold increase in such deaths that year. It’s easy to pass the buck by citing the reason of multiplicity of authorities in cities, but the real cause is corruption.

Road-laying in India, especially in metros, is a lucrative deal for contractors, engineers and elected representatives when palms are greased and silence is bought. Look no further than Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the richest civic body in Asia, where scams and potholes are blood-brothers — no pun intended. Sadly, the call for punitive action against offenders now sounds like a well-worn cliché.