Opinion Noida is like many modern Indian cities. It has a broken system
A familiar thread runs through the tragedies at the Delhi coaching centre, Indore and Noida — the lack of responsiveness and accountability
Yuvraj Mehta, 27, was returning home when his car plunged into the drain at Noida sector 150 on Monday. (Express Photo/Monojit Majumdar; File) Grief, rage and despair are the usual responses to a tragedy. Personal loss often gives way to collective outrage against systemic lapses, and this emotion often turns into despair and cynicism. The establishment response, too, is formulaic.
Do we remember the bizarre deaths of civil services aspirants when floodwaters gushed into a coaching centre in Delhi? Ironically, the victims were preparing to be part of a system that failed them and continues to fail many like them. Haven’t we almost forgotten the unfortunate deaths in Indore of people who had complained of their drinking water being contaminated? They had trusted the system to take remedial steps. But, by all accounts, their complaints fell on deaf ears. Many died after drinking water that came from pipes meant to supply fresh water.
Now, a young man has drowned in a pool of water in a city touted as a modern urban settlement. There was no reason for the water to have accumulated at the site of the tragedy. On a foggy night, his car went out of control and fell into the pool because a railing was broken. There was no reason for him to drown in the swamp except that a crude, ill-prepared system did not know how to save a person crying desperately for help. He had shown the courage to climb out of the car after being marooned in the cesspool, reached out to his father, shared his location, and his father had asked for help. That help arrived several hours late.
The fog that day seems symbolic of a system that refuses to see people’s desperation. A gig worker mustered the courage to jump into the water in the dead of night. He tried in vain to rescue the drowning car driver. It stands in contrast to the system’s incapacity. A few days earlier, this delivery person had reportedly helped a truck driver involved in a similar mishap at the same spot. The failure to take action after the first accident speaks of a criminal apathy.
A familiar thread runs through the tragedies at the Delhi coaching centre, Indore and Noida — the lack of responsiveness and accountability. The system, it seems, is a mute witness to its own culpability. When officials say they will “fix” responsibility, they only mean they will “shift” accountability as they did in the coaching centre case, where an SUV driver was arrested for causing water to flood the basement.
Unresponsiveness and lack of accountability are not the only problems. A large part of the shortcomings is structural. Scant regard for routine administration is a feature of governance today. The focus on development and “concrete” achievements has become an important part of assessing the performance of administrators. As a result, they tend to neglect routine work. Proper maintenance of records, time-bound disposal of files and periodic inspection of subordinate offices by supervisory officers receive low priority from an administration obsessed with “showcasing” achievements.
Engineers today are engrossed in constructing more buildings and roads. There is nothing wrong with that, except that the old roads are not properly maintained. An increase in capital expenditure allows governments to build infrastructure. But once buildings, roads and other facilities are built, they have to be maintained. Today, focusing on maintenance, service delivery and the functional efficiency of what has been built is not considered proof of administrative “dynamism”.
Hunting for headlines is understandable for the political executive. But anonymity should be the hallmark of civil servants. Sadly, today, the commitment to serve people seems to have been overtaken by the urge to gain recognition.
This culture might continue if the glitz and “modernity” of new structures exert an inordinate pull on administrators, and they are not bothered about the quality of service they are mandated to deliver. If political parties are allowed to remain wedded to their election-winning formula and administrators forget their mandate, the system is unlikely to improve.
The writer is a former election commissioner
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