Thursday, July 31, 2014

Fuckers on the Road

Has anyone seen buffoons recently? If not then please take a walk around the corner in Delhi and you will see them sitting in a funny contraption called E-Rickshaw looking for passengers. But what a pity we can only make fun of them and believe me no one can do anything about them. Ironically there are over 1,00,000 battery operated rickshaws in national capital but not even a single civic or law enforcement agency can do anything about them.


If you are the one who drives every day, then chances are that by now you must have become Captain Haddock shouting out billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles, every time you see such buffoons, some even have nightmares. They stop everywhere, they go anywhere, they take any number of passengers, they go in any lane, they never ever stop at traffic signals, worst of all they are not scared of policewalahs. I wish I had resources enough to buy a Holland & Holland double barrel rifle and shoot them through their asses. Of course, these rickshaws are a nuisance, and not being under any law means they neither have registrations, nor do the drivers have licences. But simply promising to not throw the might of the State at these vehicles does not give the Government any bragging rights. By now we all know how the powers that be function in this country. Most of these suckers are like a huge vote bank and no party can afford to annoy 1,00,000 plus drivers, their families, the owners, the manufacturers and so on. So fuck the law, fuck the court but let the vote bank be happy.

They can be seen jostling for passengers at all metro stations. Today they have become a standard mode of transportation post any metro journey. Well no one thinks twice before hopping into one. In fact it is hard to believe that they are just 3 year old phenomenon. Poor Dilliwalas have got so used to E-transport that they have forgotten how to walk down to their office even if their office is a few hundred meters from the main road. And not to worry on the health front they have their medical insurances, just in case.

Has anyone really thought about these so called environment friendly people carriers; has there been any research and if so where are the figures. We all know how big an eco-hazard is a lead acid battery is and they carry 4 of such locally manufactured power packs. Even if they don’t steal power to charge their rickshaws, they get benefits of subsidised electricity. It is high time someone thinks about them

Regarding safety you only have grace of god; rest is “babaji ka thullu”. Some days back a man was mowed down by an errant E-rickshaw driver. Poor fellow died; sadly this can’t even be categorised as a hit and run case. A two year old boy was burnt to death or rather boiled to death in hot sugar syrup, all credits to this unsafe mode of transport. As of now they are like cancer on the roads which has already reached 3rd or probably 4th stage from where there are little or no chances of recovery.

Above all a relative of central transport minister is into manufacturing this unregulated and unsafe mode of transportation. There is an old saying “khuda ki khudai ek taraf, aur joru ka bhai ek taraf”(everything else on one side and your wife’s brother on another, scale still tilts over); once you realise this very fact you will tend to co-relate them, even if it is just a coincidence.


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