Horns of ‘delay’mma

City mayor Ashok Lahoti on Tuesday suspended four officials in animal husbandry department while two officers on deputation were relieved to their respective unit. A committee has also been constituted to evaluate all cases of attack by stray animals that have occurred during past six months, including the recent incident in which an Argentine tourist was killed by a stray bull on Friday.

The committee is to submit its report in 15 days, however, it exposes laxity that gains consciousness after a tragedy has taken place. The harm has been done and the image of the city has been blotted and it is now that the system has awaken to get things in order.

“It’s not that we wait for accidents,” said defencive Mayor Lahoti. “We are continuously taking measures to avoid such instances and whenever a situation arrives more efforts are made to tackle the issue,” he says.

It is not for the first time that the civic authorities have sprung into action after a tragedy. A couple of months ago a youth swept away along with his car at an open drain near Kartarpura in the city. The incident revealed several loopholes and even lack of coordination between various concerned agencies. After he passed away, the authorities got the fencing done at the bridge.

Moreover, the blast at a transformer in Shahpura that killed nearly two dozen people is another example of the procrastinating attitude. According to locals, they had reported the department of issues with the transformer several times, yet it was not repaired. The authorities after the incident appointed a team and initiated work to avoid future occurrences of the same.  

Negligence on part of administration is visible everyday on roads as people indulge in violation of traffic rules. It is rampant outside schools and by vehicles deployed for transportation of school students. The issue was heard at the high court and orders have been released accordingly.

Death of a school student after being run down by a crane, jolted the entire city and it was at that time that the authorities issued directives and did not follow up to fix the problem to avoid future accidents.

HOW SAFE ARE WE?

WAKING UP TO THE HARSH REALITY
Discom woke up to the reality of transformers after Shahpura incident, where a transformer blast killed about 14 people. “A committee has been formed which consists of senior-most directors of all three discoms.They will give suggestions, if any, in regard to the purchase of the transformers or if any special safety requirements need to be implemented. The divisional commissioner is taking care of the enquiry registered for this. Meanwhile, the technical points have been referred to MNIT, and an in-house technical team is also looking into the matter,” said Shreemat Pandey, chairman, discoms.

FOR SAFER TRANSPORT: ABIDE BY THE RULES

The Rajasthan State Legal Service Authority in September this year issued directions for vehicles deployed for transportation of school students.

• All buses employed by schools for transportation of students must have a global position system installed and it must be in working condition.
   
• The vehicles used for carrying students, may it be auto-rickshaw, car or bus must be painted yellow and must have “Bal Vahini” (On School Duty) printed on it along with detail and contact number of the related school.
   
• Such vehicle must have adequate protection to prevent children from falling off and its gate must remain shut during transit on road.
   
• That these vehicles can not carrying children 1.5 times their approved passenger capacity and in case of the student being 12 year or above he must be counted as an full passenger.
   
• The speed limit of these vehicles has been set not to exceed 40 km/hr and the school authorities, local police and transportation department must have the vehicle registered as a “Bal Vahini” with complete details of its driver and conductors.
   
• The schools have also been made responsible to designate a special location at its campus to provision safe boarding.