This is what happened in Guwahati recently. It was raining heavily day before yesterday and "as usual" there was water logging everywhere including Gahdhibasti where I have my parents staying. My next door neighbour Upamoni baideu, as close as my elder sister who was married few years back and has a kid was coming to her mother's place. We share a common wall between both the houses.
Parallel to the raliway tracks in Goswami Service there is a deep drain and due to water logging the drain was leveled with the road with water and it was overflowing. The drain never had any walls and no protection on the sides. Unfortunately she stopped over the drain and was flown away. She never came back and next day her body was found in Paltan Bazaar.
I called up her family to express my condolence.It was a real blow to her husband and the kid. The Government proudly sanctioned 50,000 Rs as relief. But her family refused to take the money and gave them back to improve the road and drainage condition. Still the drain is open for another Upamoni to fall. It is realy sad to come across such a horrible situation in our own land. Can 50000 Rs give the kid back his mother?
Now their house is flooded with news paper reporters, officials to enquiry . Government has also taken steps for officail enquiry to this incident. But is that enough? Just for negligience of our great GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation), innocent people have to pay so heavily. Unfortunatly she was Upamini baideu that day. It could be anybody on another day. I am sorry to say that such a beautiful soul had to breath last in a dirty drain under maintenance of GMC.
I express my deep condolence to her family and may her soul rest in peace.
Can we all do something to avoid such incident in future?
Nayan Jyoti Sarma
Doctoral Student
Dept of Biological Sciences
University of Southern Mississippi.
MS USA
Yahoo! Plus - For a better Internet experience
