Close on the heels of the death of 23-year-old R. Subasr i in a road accident after a flex board fell on her two-wheeler in Chennai on Thursday, the Madras High Court on Friday came down heavily on politicians as well as bureaucrats for their apathy towards human lives.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and N. Seshasayee asked: “How many more litres of blood do the officials want the roads to be painted with before they turn sensitive and begin cracking down on illegal flex boards?”
Empathising with the young woman who lost her life in her prime when she could have contributed significantly to the growth of the country, the judges asked who would now answer the hapless parents of the youngster.
The judges said they had lost faith in the government because of its failure to implement in letter and spirit multiple orders passed by the court in the last few years against illegal flex boards. The observations were made during the hearing of a contempt of court petition filed for alleged disobedience of their December 2018 order banning political parties from erecting flex boards.
They wondered how the officials turned a blind eye to the fact that a ruling party functionary had erected a flex board that took away the life of Subasri. They questioned whether the politician could not have conducted a marriage in his family without erecting those flex boards.
Impressing upon the need for all political parties to issue statements directing their cadre not to erect flex boards, Justice Seshasayee said, “Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami should himself issue a statement asking his party cadre to desist from such practices.”
Later, they summoned the police as well as Corporation officials in charge of Pallikaranai, where the accident had occurred, by afternoon and adjourned further hearing on the contempt plea to post-lunch session. They also wanted party flags erected on the median on Kamarajar Salai, abutting the Marina beach, to be removed forthwith since they might end up causing another accident.
