Bloody Roads
Last week, a speeding bus skidded off a road and fell into a canal, snuffing out21 lives and leaving many more others traumatized, perhaps for life. Thataccident occurred because (1) drives of private buses in Kolkata get paid on acommission basis and hence drive rashly to pick up more passengers and increasetheir earnings and (2) the driver wasn't trained enough to drive a bus. Theseare two issues that have been discussed at numerous forums, especially aftermajor road accidents, and the state authorities have promised action many atime. But nothing has changed and buses continue to be driven brashly and rashlyby ill-trained drivers who think nothing of mercilessly mowing down people.Blood continues to be spilt on our roads and what's appalling and totallyunacceptable is the nonchalance of our elected representatives and officials ofthe transport and related departments who ought to take steps to preventrecurrence of such accidents. Strangely, and this can happen only in Kolkata,everyone seems to accept accidents as inevitable; after all, nothing can changea person's destiny. Such fatalistic acceptance of fate, without clamouring forand forcing the authorities to take corrective steps does Kolkata no good.
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Outrageous Utterances
Our placidity (perhaps 'flaccidity' fits in better?) is also the reason why ourtransport minister gets away with making outrageous statements. After thisaccident, Subhas Chakraborty sided with Kolkata's rash and killer bus drivers,defending them and saying that no driver would want to injure or kill people. Healso said that the driver of the bus that plunged into the canal wasn't drivingrashly, thus contradicting accounts of eyewitnesses and the passengers of theill-fated bus. This minister, by making such statements, displayed his utterdisregard and even contempt for the feelings and sentiments of the people ofthis city and the bereaved families. Had a minister in any other state made sucha patently absurd, irresponsible and obnoxious statement, a public outcry wouldhave forced him to retract and, maybe, even resign. Imagine a minister in Delhibatting for drivers of 'Blueline' buses after a major accident resulting in 21deaths! That minister's political career would have been over immediately.However, in Bengal, the citizenry, beaten into meek submission by decades ofbrutal Marxist rule, are too docile to protest or demand an apology fromChakraborty. Even the local media, alas, hasn't mustered the courage to hold theminister responsible for his statements and condemned him, as he deserves to becondemned, for defending the indefensible and for being so insensitive.
Change The System
Kolkata is, perhaps, the only city where bus drivers are paid a commission, thattoo a meager one, rather than fixed salaries. A driver gets about ten to twelvepercent of the total ticket collections. This amounts to about Rs 4000 a month.Naturally, a driver--like all humans--would want to maximize his earnings andthe only way to do that is to pick up more passengers. Since most bus routes inKolkata overlap each other, there are many buses traveling between Point A andPoint B within a few seconds to a couple of minutes of each other. Thus, thereis intense competition among buses to take in as many passengers and this leadsto racing and rash driving.
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There have been persistent demands to do away with this system of commissionand pay the drivers a fixed salary. But owners of buses argue that if paid afixed salary, the drivers would laze around at the bus terminals and would notbe bothered to pick up passengers, quite like government buses that have pushedthe state transport corporations into the red. There's merit in this argument,since most drivers are Bengalis and are, thus, a lazy lot by nature. And anyattempts to discipline them or penalize them by the owners of the buses theydrive would fail because they're organized into strong unions. After every majorroad accident involving a bus, the transport department convenes a meeting withbus drivers and owners where these arguments are lobbed back and forth. Themeeting ends inconclusively and things continue in the same manner till the nextbloodspill on the roads. Does this, then, mean there's no way out?
The Solution
One, there are far too many buses on Kolkata's roads. And this is the reasonbehind the mad scramble to get as big a slice of the fixed pie as a bus can. Theway out, then, is to restrict the number of buses plying on a route and also torationalize the routes. At present, the routes defy all logic with most of themoverlapping and concentrating in the central parts of the city. The extra busescan be made to ply on routes that don't have enough buses, but a good number ofpassengers--Salt Lake, Rajarhat and many areas in the districts neighbouringKolkata, for instance. There is also an urgent need to restrict the number oftaxis and autorickshaws plying in the city. Nearly half the 60,000-odd autos inKolkata ply illegally without any permits and are driven by men with scantknowledge or understanding of traffic rules and norms. These autos are quiteoften the cause of road accidents.
The traffic police need to crack down on all vehicles that violate trafficrules. The attitude needs to be 'zero tolerance' towards violations of rules.Fines and penalties need to be increased manifold so as to serve as a strongdeterrent for errant drivers. Also, the law needs to be changed to send rashdrivers who kill people to prison for a few years at least. Records andlicensing procedures at the transport offices need to be computerized andstreamlined to ensure that drivers whose licences are impounded or suspendeddon't get behind the wheels as easily as they do now. Everyone ought to be madeaccountable for their actions--the guard rail which could have prevented the busfrom plunging into the canal the other day was removed while dredging the canala few months ago, but never re-installed; the officials responsible for thislapse need to be penalized very strongly, perhaps even dismissed from service.Pavements ought to be cleared of vendors and made free for pedestrians and afterthat, jaywalkers should be penalized stiffly. A strong campaign needs to belaunched to educate motorists and pedestrians about traffic rules.
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The traffic police need to be re-trained for better traffic management, thiswing needs to be strengthened with more personnel and corruption in the trafficpolice ought to be dealt with a heavy hand. A traffic master plan for the cityought to be drawn up and adequate measures taken keeping in mind the trafficconditions that'll prevail fifty years from now. These are some of the mostimportant measures that need to be taken urgently. But will the authoritiescarry out even one of these most basic of tasks? Chances of that happening aredim, given our venal politicians, slothful bureaucrats, the vested interestslike the drivers' unions and transporters' federations who would stiffly resistall attempts at change and the chalta-hai attitude of Kolkata's citizenry whohave learnt to take fatal accidents in their stride. Status quo, thus.
Kolkata Shamed
This is a supposed to be a city with a heart; a city that has always stood bythe oppressed and protested oppression, be it in Palestine or in Iraq. This issupposed to be an egalitarian city that provides a platform, without anyprejudice, to anyone and everyone to voice their opinions. This has beenKolkata's legacy. Not any longer; this rich and glorious slice of Kolkata'sheritage has been besmirched by the Marxists who have shut out Tibetanprotestors. The Kolkata police had accorded 600-odd Tibetans who trickled in tothe city over the past few days from Orissa, Darjeeling and Sikkim to hold aseries of protests over three days against Chinese repression in Tibet. Butsuddenly and inexplicable, the permission was withdrawn on Wednesday night. Thepolice now say they received orders from the home department to throttle theprotests--silent marches through major thoroughfares, a prayer meet at the footof Mahatma Gandhi's statue to pray for those killed in the recent turmoil inTibet and other peaceful and innocuous programmes.
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Kolkata Police chief even told reporters that since Tibetans were notsupposed to conduct any "political activity" in India, the police waswithdrawing permission to them to hold these events. This comes soon afterChinese consul-general, Mao Siwei, met Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee onWednesday afternoon. It doesn't need much intelligence or imagination to figureout what must have transpired at the meeting--Siwei would have askedBhattacharjee to stop the planned protests by the Tibetans and Bhattacharjee,ever eager to please his Chinese masters, asked the police to do the needful.
It is shameful and condemnable that the Chinese can dictate terms to Bengal;it is distressing that our rulers are willing to subvert democracy and freedomto please the Chinese. And, by the way, how dare the Chinese ask us to undermineour democracy just to suit them? And anyway, there are many Indians inorganizations like 'Friends of Tibet' that were planning to participate in theseprotests. Now, what right does the Kolkata Police and the Marxist governmenthere have in stopping Indians from protesting Chinese oppression in Tibet? Moreso when protests by Marxist footsoldiers against 'American imperialism' areregularly held with such banal inanity in Kolkata?
