It is never too late to learn your lesson

Pratibha Shingare. Pic/ Rajesh Gupta

Two days after a huge cement block came hurtling down from an under-construction high-rise building causing the death of a 10-year-old girl, the Tilak Nagar police on Wednesday finally registered a First Information Report (FIR) in the case.

The block had landed on the head of the Std V student, causing her severe injuries. She died on Tuesday evening, a report in this paper said.

It is shocking that only after enraged residents staged a protest in front of Tilak Nagar police station demanding that an offence be registered against the builder and developer of the building and continually pressured authorities that the FIR was registered.

As one's heart bleeds for the parents who lost their little girl in this callous manner, we need to call out all those who do not have safety precautions in place for when a building undergoes repairs or construction. At some sites, we see boards warning people about ongoing work or caution signs. Some even warn people to park cars at their own risk.

However, this is not enough. The periphery needs to be cordoned off. Even in a city where space is a premium, walking below these buildings is hazardous. As such, access must be stopped. There have to be safety nets on every floor, and at ground level, to ensure safety of the people below. One or two persons from the developer/builder/contractor's side must be posted around the construction site at all times, warning people to avoid the area or keep to designated safety zones.

There may be problems with permissions in the case of this particular building. However, the focus is not on the building but constructing safe spaces around it, during construction work. This huge tragedy must teach us lessons we should have learnt years ago.

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