Whether by coincidence but newspapers on back to back days carried reports about road mishaps occurring as a result of heavy transport vehicles obviously not fit enough for public road and causing damage and injury to life and property. A few days ago at the busy intersection of City Tower, Dimapur, an aged truck, was overloaded with supply goods and transporting the same through the busy streets of the commercial hub. Due to its ‘ill health’ and the fact that it was terrifyingly overloaded, the shock suspensions of its rear wheels had collapsed; its carriage had split open making the goods fall over. Fortunately during the split second that the mishap occurred, there were no vehicles alongside otherwise people could have been killed or injured. And just imagine if the ill fated truck was carrying loads like log, boulder etc, the risk to life and property could have been more. Sensing the importance of public safety, the Morung Express used the visual of the accident site along with the tottering truck to highlight the concern by way of a news report “where are the rules for public safety?”
As mentioned in that story, as far as traffic in Dimapur goes, the rule of the game is not about safety but apathy. It is a failure of the system and those who run the system. Now one of the traffic officer said on condition of anonymity that cases such as the overloaded truck, are offenses and punishable. If that is the case, perhaps the concern authority must act and bring to book those who violate the rules. Then the other thing that we must take note of is that in almost all the states in India the stipulations is that public transport of more than 15-years are to be taken off roads or face action. In Dimapur or Nagaland such an order seem almost unheard of. The questions we need to therefore ask ourselves is this: firstly do we know the rules? This is very important and it will not be surprising to find out that many of our offices or authorities will not be aware of the rules and regulation. If this is the case, then they should brush up on the facts and perhaps only then will they be able to educate the public about following the dos and don’ts for public safety.
Secondly do we follow the rules? Even if we are educated about such matters, by now we should be aware that the main reason why our government system is failing in its objective is simply this: we do not follow rules. Rather everyone is only interested in breaking or bending rules for one’s own advantage. Actually rules are meant for the common good. If only we understand this, then there will be discipline and order in our lives and society. And not just that but perhaps there will be greater justice, fair-play and equality of opportunity. As Christians we need to fear the Lord not only when we go to Church every Sunday morning but we need the same attitude and belief when we go to our respective work places. And if we do this then perhaps we will learn to obey the rules meant for us. Our state of affairs will be much better.
