Every Life Matters

The crash of an oversized hoarding in Mumbai and two separate fire incidents in Rajkot and Delhi killed over 50 people in the last ten days. these fatalities were avoidable and were caused by negligence and institutional failures. Local authorities must strengthen monitoring and ensure that not a single life is lost again because they failed to detect the blatant violation of rules.

Each life lost in such hoarding collapses or fire accidents serves as a testimony of ineffective monitoring and institutional failure of concerned authorities. City systems often fail their citizens everywhere, more so in the developing world. A giant hoarding, spanning 120 feet by 120 feet, can’t go unnoticed in a bustling city like Mumbai, where people live, travel, and thrive cheek by jowl. The tragic collapse of this hoarding killed 17 people and left over 75 injured.

Who would bear the weight of these deaths? Isn’t the system’s apathy and reckless disregard for the rule of law reproved and punished? It is a fit case to fix responsibility and act firmly against those who failed the citizens. Several agencies within the administration were responsible for giving approvals or failed to ensure the norms were followed. This is the time when the administration also ensures people’s safety while they are busy running cities.

Sheer negligence

It has become a grim routine in our cities. Our system wakes up only after tragedies occur and remains active for a few days, sometimes weeks. Then it again retreats into hibernation. It is true in many cases. For example, if there is a death in the city because of a pothole-ridden stretch of road. The entire machinery gets activated and appears to be at work to eradicate every single pothole from city roads. But, alas, once the media frenzy is over, it’s back to business as usual. Sometimes, even these tragedies fail to elisit any response from the concerned authorities.

The Gujarat High Court came down hard on Rajkot Municipal Corporation and asked, “this has been going on for two-and-a-half years (referring to the Rajkot gaming zone). Are we to assume you turned a blind eye? What do you and your followers do? Have you gone blind? Did you fall asleep?”

The judges’ frustration was palpable during the hearing, and rightly so. Gujarat has witnessed a string of fatal fire accidents over the past four years. Between 2019-2024, Takshashila Arcade fire in Surat, Shrey Hospital Fire in Ahmedabad, Uday Shivanand Hospital Fire in Rajkot, Patel Welfare Hospital fire in Bharuch and Rajkot gaming zone fire accident collectively claimed 80 lives.

Case Specifics

Rajkot: The Special Investigation Team, in its preliminary report submitted to state government, revealed that the TRP game zone operated under the very nose of the RMC without any inspection for almost three years. But this gets worse. Under the guise of a “temporary structure,” the game zone owners erected a concrete structure. It is important to note even the temporary construction was not approved, they brazenly defied the rules.

And the authorities? Silent. Complacent. Complicit. And then came the fire that consumed lives. There was only one ladder leading to the first floor; only lifeline for those trapped in TRP Game Zone’s first floor. That ladder crumbled in fire, and so did people’s chances of surviving the fire. People died because they could not come out. We all know that every commercial and industrial building should have a fire exit. It was non-existent. Why?

Delhi: Seven new-borns died in an fire in a nursing home in Delhi’s Vivek Vihar. The lives of these young children could have been saved if there was second exit; if the staff was trained in mock drills and knew what to do in case of such accidents; if oxygen cylinders were stored by following safety measures; and if the concerned officials acted against the nursing home that did not have proper license and approvals.

Mumbai: Many people were standing in the shade of the illegal hoarding to save themselves from untimely rain and gusty winds. But they did not know that this very ‘shelter’ would kill them. The oversized hoarding, 120 by 120 feet, had nine times larger surface area than allowed and collapsed as it was not stable enough. It was standing tall in a busy locality of the city but officials did not notice. One of the engineers of the corporation, arrested by Mumbai Police, had given the stability certificate to this feeble structure. There were several lapses. And, the innocent citizens paid the price with their lives.

Indifference

People dying because of city systems’ apathy isn’t limited only to Mumbai, Delhi and Rajkot. If you dig deeper and do research, such instances will pop up in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, etc. Many of them go unreported or are given just a single column space in the national media if these incidents occurred in Tier-II or Tier-III cities. It is sad to see incidents in which people getting killed because a hoarding fell on them, stray animals and pothole-ridden roads causing fatal accidents, people dying in foot-over bridge collapses, and in fire accidents in buildings which were operating flouting all safety norms. There is no doubt that cities in India are gradually improving the delivery of civic services and expanding necessary infrastructure. Safety of citizens should remain their first priority. Else the city system’s apathy will continue to take innocent lives.