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Humor / Satire
The Hari Putar Dialogues - 74
by
Rajesh Talwar
(Indian
Express ; New Delhi ; 31 August : A senior citizen out on his evening
walk died on Friday after he reportedly fell into a manhole dug up by
the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in Malviya Nagar, South Delhi. The
police said the body of 78-year-old Trilok Nath Makhen was discovered on
Saturday morning by passersby. The police said Makhen lived in Shivalik
Park with his 65-year-old wife, Jaya Rani. According to her, Makhen had
gone out for a walk at 7.45 pm. When he failed to return till late, she
asked some of her neighbors to look for him. When he did not return all
night, she made a PCR call and registered a missing complaint. The
police said there was no barricade around the manhole and they suspect
Makhen fell in, as he could not spot the hole in time because of the
darkness. Rani, however, is too heartbroken to hold grudges. She said
her husband had to die and nothing could have changed it. 'His time had
come, he had lived his life and one can't live more than one is destined
to,' Rani said, as she sat with some old women.)
Putar: There is a report in the Indian Express
today about how a senior citizen fell into a manhole and died.
Hari: That is so tragic. How did this happen?
Putar: 78-year-old
Triloki Nath Makhen lived in Shivalik Park with his 65-year-old wife,
Jaya Rani. According to her, Makhen had gone out for a walk at 7.45 pm,
and never returned. He failed to return till late, so she asked some of
her neighbors to look for him. When he did not return all night, she
made a call to the Police Control Room and registered a missing
complaint.
Hari: At the age of seventy-eight, he couldn't have
walked very far from his house.
Putar: That's true. He'd have
gone for a half hour walk, or one hour maximum.
Hari: This
uncovered manhole itself must not have been far from his residence.
Putar: The neighbors who went looking for him must have passed it
and not imagined that he had fallen inside it.
Hari: Why didn't
he spot it?
Putar: The place was dark. The manhole should have
been barricaded, which it wasn't. There should have at least been one of
those luminous signs that shine in the dark warning people.
Hari:
Such negligence. The poor wife.
Putar: It's very ironical in a
way because Makhen apparently survived an air crash some years ago.
Hari: Really?
Putar: Yes. His wife Rani remembers that only
four years after her marriage in 1973, Makan survived a plane crash in
which several people died.
Hari: Imagine that! Surviving a plane
crash and being eaten up by one of the Corporation's manholes. Those who
died in the air crash must have received a fair amount of compensation
from the airline.
Putar: That normally happens. I believe there
is a certain amount paid to each passenger's family. This is quite apart
from any private insurance a person may have taken out.
Hari: We
don't know about the circumstances of the air crash, which Mr Makhen
survived, but his death now appears to be caused by negligence.
Putar: Absolutely. The police have ruled out foul play in the death.
'This looks like a death due to falling and not because of foul play.
Once the postmortem report comes we can register a case of death due to
negligence against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi,' a senior police
officer said.
Hari: What does the wife say?
Putar: She has
taken it philosophically. She said: 'He had to live then and he did. His
time had come.'
Hari: This is how people have to console
themselves.
Putar: The Government should pay compensation and be
held accountable for the actions of its employees.
Hari: But the
MCD will not pay anything on its own, until it's directed to do so by a
Court, and you know how court cases drag on for years and years. The
poor wife will also be dead by then.
Putar: Didn't the Government
introduce Consumer Courts some years ago? It's a low cost remedy and the
courts are supposed to deliver justice speedily.
Hari: Consumer
Courts have made traders and manufacturers accountable, but will the
Government want to make itself accountable?
Putar: Citizen's
groups have to lobby for such a Court.
Hari: What will such a
Court be called?
Putar: It the Consumer Courts are about the
rights of consumers, such a Court will be about the rights of the
citizen. Maybe call it the Citizen's Courts.
Hari: But there may
be many frivolous cases filed.
Putar: There can be a fine to be
paid for filing such cases.
Hari: There is another problem.
Putar: What's that?
Hari: There is so much negligence all
around that there will be such a deluge of complaints that the
Government will become bankrupt.
Putar: I don't think so, but a
culture of accountability will be promoted. Tell me something,
Papaji.
Hari: Bol, Putar?
Putar: Mr Makhen
fell into a manhole and unless you have something like a Citizens Court,
in all likelihood no one will be held accountable.
Hari: That's
true. In any enquiry, MCD will blame DESU, the electricity people for
not supplying street lighting there. Within MCD too one person will
blame the other. The workers will blame the Supply Section that
barricade material was not there. Supply will blame the people
responsible for providing luminous signs warning people of the danger.
Putar: Exactly. But if there is no accountability bigger disasters
are waiting to happen? Will MCD even put barricades around other
manholes in the city? Tomorrow if the entire country falls into a ditch,
will there be anyone who will be held accountable? And will there be any
use at that stage?
Hari: I don't know, Putar.
September 27, 2009
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