AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

        Astounding, incredible. These will be mild terms to describe the tragedy of a boy falling into an open drain in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. (Even the Army could not trace the victim, try as it might) Disgraceful too, one can add. One's anger will be righteous, for that State is in the thick of elections. And, so all political leaders have gathered there. It is disgraceful, for not one of these vote-wooers came forward to condemn this total lack of local governance. Every one of them would have been watching the TV, but no one came to speak up.

        'Disgraceful' because it was only after quite a while that the man on the street came to learn that the 12- year-old 'must have fallen into the open manhole. Disgraceful because the Army had to be called in to trace the victim. And that was after the municipal staff could not do the job, or, most likely, did not know how to go about it Disgraceful because they did not even have a site map of the drain handy when the Army men asked and it took them five hours go get one. Worse, the manhole which opened into the 15-foot deep drainage system, had remained uncovered for over three months. And remained like that in spite of complaints and petitions. Such indifference to the taxpayers ought to be condemned outright.

        All said and done, what is astounding and incredible is the all round apathy to such tragedies. We are to blame, the masses. None seems to have any concern for those who die because of the fault of the authorities — be it children being bitten to death by stray dogs — and such incidents have been reported from a number of places. Though we only get to read of those that have taken place in capital cities — Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

        The media too has been complacent. For instance, this news got just a few lines in most papers. Even the national dailies gave it just a few lines. Such reports are carried on the inside pages for a few days and then ignored, the people too tend to forget them.

        Nearer home, in a similar incident — the guilty will say accident — of callous indifference a boy feel into a drain in north Chennai. A namesake hue and cry was raised, the clerks in their municipal dens vowed to cover all 'open manholes forthwith' and nothing was heard. So much for civic consciousness — and awareness.

        Why cannot the public raise an outcry — against this and ever so many other issues? For the last ever so many — 20, even 30 — years a vast number of streets have not been cleared of garbage regularly. Nobody cares. No one gives a thought to the trauma to the parents of these unfortunate lives, snuffed out because of an indifferent and inefficient administration. And the taxpayer's money goes 'down the drain.'