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Kathmandu Tuesday October 30, 2001 Kartik 14, 2058.
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Don’t take it lightly
The fact that as many as 12 lives were lost in
traffic accidents during the Dashain festival speaks volumes about the chaotic state of
the country’s road traffic. We must hasten to add that the accidents, the fatal as
well as incapacitating ones, occur more frequently not merely because of the rise in the
number of motor vehicles but also because of the callous attitude towards road safety on
the part of vehicle drivers and pedestrians alike. Things are made worse by children
playing in busy thoroughfares and parents and guardians not caring much about this. The
local authorities like the municipalities and village development committees have not
helped matters by allowing open spaces to be fenced off for sundry and newfangled
purposes, and no provision has been made consciously anywhere in the kingdom to set up
parks and playgrounds in each locality to pull the children off the streets and into the
safety of designated playing fields. This is a serious matter that deserves the attention
of elected representatives at both local and central government levels as also that of
child-related NGOs. In the capital, for instance, there used to be so much open space even
during Rana times that children then did not at all have to take the risk of playing in
the streets. But now with supposedly more sensible and better educated people’s
representatives at the helm of affairs, this very important factor in urban life seems to
have been neglected. To add to the woe and misery of Nepalese road traffic, particularly
in the capital, political leaders, including those elected to the municipalities, refuse
to do anything about the street hawkers who effectively prevent pedestrians from walking
on the pavements (footpaths) and instead force them to overflow onto the streets thereby
putting them in harm’s way. For all intents and purposes, the hawkers of the capital
have taken over the footpaths of the capital. And the political leaders do nothing about
it because they bank on their votes and the police, even those responsible for ensuring
smooth traffic flow, will not or cannot do anything either. Does anyone care about all
this? No wonder traffic accident fatalities are on the rise.
Time has certainly come for the government to do
something about the worsening traffic situation in the country if we are to avoid
preventable fatal accidents. However belatedly, children in the city must be given open
spaces, not streets, to play in and parents and guardians must ensure that their wards do
not play in streets when alternatives are available. City and local governments must
ensure that traffic flows effortlessly with a minimum of obstacles and at the same time
due priority must be given to pedestrians and children. The problem cannot be solved only
by building overhead bridges and without undertaking matching measures in other sectors.
It is certainly time the authorities began treating traffic problems with the seriousness
they deserve and not take them lightly anymore.
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