Sudhansu R Das
Death toll among Amarnath pilgrims has risen to 85 in July month. Most of the deaths are reportedly caused due to cardiac arrest. By the third week of July 2012, more than 500000 tourists have already paid obeisance to Lord Shiva in his Amarnath abode located at 3880 meter high. The journey to the shrine continues until 2 nd August and nobody knows what would be the final death toll. In another incident in the same month, 15 Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 18 others received critical injuries on their return journey from Amarnath when the bus fell in a 300 feet deep gorge on Jammu Srinagar national highway near Digdol in Ramban district. More than 40 Indian pilgrims died when an over loaded bus fell into a canal near the Nepal India border. The bus was carrying pilgrims from Maharajganj to attend Bolbam festival at Triveni, 200 km south west of Kathmandu. In another chilling incident a tourist bus carrying pilgrims from Hyderabad to Shirdi fell off a bridge in Solapur and killed 32 people on the spot and critically injured 20. The accident took the lives of more than 10 young IT professionals. According to the World Health Organisation(WHO), India loses $20 billion due to road accidents annually, which the WHO estimates is enough to feed 50% of the nation’s malnourished children. The official figures says at least 1.34 lakh people died on Indian roads in 2010.
In most of the cases the accidents occur due to over load and reckless driving under the influence of liquor. India earns huge revenue from liquer sale which results into a massive economic loss and an increase in number of orphans in the country. Single bread winner families are virtually ruined. Many Indian state earn huge revenue from liquor sale. Tamil Nadu is the number one state which earns Rs 18000 crore revenue from liquor sale. Governments formulate liquor policy to give a boost to liquor production and in the process invite an economic disaster to people. The state. Curbing liquor sector will reduce road accidents considerably. What is the point in massively investing in developing road infrastructure when there is little road safety?
Safe roads and railways are the harnbingers of growth. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh some times back expressed displeasure over the quality of Indian roads as he reportedly said corruption in road construction is spreading like cancer. If the quality of construction is bad there is bound to be accident perticularly in rainy season at night time. Motorists in order to avaid pothole come to the wrong lane to meet an accident. Building highways is easy but building quality highway is a challenge as poor quality highways become the main cause of fatal accidents. The 93 kilometer Mumbai Pune Express Highway today has turned into a killer way as death toll rose by 20 percent in the last four years mainly due to high speed, lack of monitoring, lack of maintenance and indiscipline driving. Highway management has become a big challenge for the country. If the quality of construction is bad the highway becomes a blackhole to suck tax payers’ money and is bound to deter economic growth.
India has tremendous pilgrim tourism potential which has not been tapped for decades mainly due to lack of convenient and safe transportation system, lack of clean, hygienic economy class hotels in pilgrim centers and due to lack of political will. The nation is yet to have a sound pilgrim policy to tap the potential. Many pilgrim places are in virtual ruins. Cuttack city has many pilgrim places like Raghunath Temple, Chandi Mandir and Dantan Saheb Gurudwar etc. It is very difficult for the toruists to move inside the city due to encroachment and defacement of pilgrim places. Oirssa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra have failed to cash in on their pilgrim potential due to poor and unsafe roads. In many places if roads are there safety or trasporation facilities are not there. There must be genuine people participation in road construction. People must know how much bitumins are used, what is the depth of the road and the money paid for construction of roads. If India really wants to progress it must make good roads with all safety measures.
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