Crack the whip on road indiscipline

Could we even now succeed in shaking the relevant authorities out of their seeming complacency over road deaths! Just two days back, an eight-year-old schoolgirl fell prey to a recklessly driven bus at Kosgoda. She was run-over and was killed instantly.

The terrible road death toll, then, is continuing to spiral upwards disturbingly while the law is seemingly still to get its act together.

How many more innocent lives are to be lost to maniacal speedsters on our highways, before the whip is cracked hard on highway indiscipline?

Apparently, some unruly persons who witnessed the horrific accident at Kosgoda took the law into their own hands and they need to be taken to task by the law-enforcers, but that constitutes yet another dimension in public indiscipline which deserves our condemnation but which needs to be dealt with by the law separately.

The matter of more immediate concern is the mounting road death toll, which could be contained or effectively managed, if the law is enforced rigorously and consistently. The private bus sector is very prompt in making fare hike demands every now and then but is callously indifferent to the now years-long call by the more conscientious sections of the public, including the press, for road discipline and closer adherence to the law, particularly on the part of private bus drivers.

It is high time the state authorities took the private bus sector completely in hand and told it to conform to the law and the norms of road discipline. This may seem, on the surface, a very preposterous proposition to make, but the simple fact is that the 'tail cannot be allowed to wag the dog.'

The government has no choice but to govern and putting an end to road indiscipline is a chore for the state - a very important duty. Unfortunately, the state down the years has allowed itself to be too dependent on private bus operators. While there is basically nothing wrong with this, the state is very obliged to see that these bus operators subject themselves at all times to the law of the land. If this is done, the services of the private bus sector could be continued to be widely availed of.

That said, the state cannot allow itself to be too dependent on sectors which are not particularly willing to uphold the norms of good discipline. Accordingly, the state has no choice but to crack the whip on errant bus operators and their crews and tell them - to put it plainly - where to get off.

While stringently enforcing the law is a sound short and medium term approach to curtailing highway lawlessness, there is no getting away from the need to rejuvenate and sustain the state transport sector which is continuing to be of great benefit to the people.

Thirty years into the 'open economy' experiment, we are in a position to assess the pluses and minuses of this system. Privatization of the public bus sector was one of the earliest initiatives in the direction of liberalizing our economy to an unprecedented degree.

The result has been a lop-sided dependence on the private transport sector.

It could be clearly seen that all is not at all well with the private bus sector. The state has no choice but to intervene in a big way to meet the transport needs of the public.

The administration under President Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown in no uncertain terms that it intends taking state services to particularly the poor and the needy. The role played by the state in the reconstruction and rehabilitation operations in the North alone shows that the state does not intend to stand idly by, while the needs of the people manifest themselves.

Accordingly, the state would not be addressing itself to an unfamiliar task on the transport issues we have just outlined. A highly rejuvenated state transport sector would help in keeping the 'Robber Barons' at bay.