Hello All Many years back, at Mumbai, we at Blind Graduates Forum of India, undertook a protest in a different way Often, different authorities excavate the roads and pavements for various reasons and don't bother to fill it up after the work is complete. No barricades are put around the excavated area.
Some of us along with volunteers got together, arranged for the premix and filled up an excavated area which remained to be done. We also organised the media to cover it. This was widely picked by the media. We followed it up with a PIL. We secured an interim order which mandated that all excavation should be properly barricaded, the start date and expected finish date to be prominently displayed. We were invited to a high power committee of the municipal body which coordinates such work so that there is proper coordination with all the service bodies. Soon thereafter, I moved out of Mumbai and I suppose the barricading work is meticulously done here. I seldom go to town these days and may not be up to date about it. This may be an illustration how this problem may be tackled. Harish Kotian. -----Original Message----- From: Mujtaba Merchant [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 06 January 2012 14:22 To: [email protected]; Access India Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AI] A Colleague's wife falls into a pit! Hello George and the list members, This is a very serious issue in our country. There are no standards, quality and safety measures maintained or enforced when planning a town, city or for that matter anything to do with infrastructure. I lost a very dear friend on this account. He was riding a bike late in the night at permisible speed, when right before me he fell down and met his death. What happened? The city civic authorities had dug up the road for some maintainance work and to caution all the road users they just stuck a plant stem with a red flag which could have been easily missed by anyone. Not to say, the road was not lit well too! This matter was addressed to the authorities but they turned us down by giving us excuses like we were overspeeding or drunk... The matter then was closely monitered after we got the postmoterm report which did not indicate any alcohol in the blood report. The family of the deceased was compensated fairly, but the question is what good is that money when compared to the grief of the family losing their child due to the negligance of the city authorities? Another aspect which was discussed in the mail by Mr. George Abraham in his mail to the Access India mailing list is the growing menace of stray animals in urban areas. Although he has bought the monkeys and dogs into the picture we at Bangalore have cows patrol the streets too. We have a nickname for those cows aptly as live speedbreakers. There is still a huge debate raging amongst the citizens of Bangalore and between the animal lovers and the others who feel that stray dogs are a menace to the city. I understand that we as humans have invaded many animals habitat, but come on there has to be some kind of control by the authorities when it comes to the safety of it's citizens. Added to the number of hazzards for any citizen regardless of being sighted or not, the roads, so called footpaths, walkways and traffic control systems are all a pmake shift arrangement to meet injury or death! Please dont get me started on how construction takes place in our country. Simply, too shabby of a job not only to the ones involved in carrying out the construction but for others as well. The safety of the construction workers is totally comprimised when it comes to cost. The chaps are not even insured, in case of any accident on the site the contractor with the help of other workers will shift the injured to a government hospital and the rest is Raam Jaanay story. I am not that educated on the labour laws of the country so please forgive my negligence on expressing or commenting wrongly on the subject. I think I have ranted enough about this subject for now. Sorry to hear about the colleagues wife who met with the injury from falling into a pitt, may her injuries heal fast. George, please let me know if you require me to address anymore concerns on this regard. Good day to you all. Mujtaba Merchant Bangalore, India Notice: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, use, review, distribution, printing or copying of the information contained in this e-mail message and/or attachments to it are strictly prohibited. If you have received this email by error, please notify us by return e-mail or telephone and immediately and permanently delete the message and any attachments. 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