A
tragedy and two reactions Humanity &
Commerce
The tragic
train accident that took place on the early hours of 2nd June near Balasore, Odisha was the most horrendous
in the recent times. The death toll alone it is reported to have climbed to
near two hundred and seventy five or more and more than six hundred injured as
on date is something shocking especially with all technical advances we have
made in many sectors including in transportation. The rescue efforts was no
doubt swift and the disaster relief team
is doing commendable job without taking break in the rescue operations and so
are the medical team in the local hospital in attending to the injured
passengers. There are many reasons ascribed to the disaster right from negligence
to mechanical error etc. A detailed enquiry alone would bring the real cause
for this humongous tragedy. It is only hoped that the Government would
take immediate remedial steps so that such disasters are averted in the future.
My
observation is more on the human aspect of the entire disaster. As soon as the
accident took place it is reported that many people living in nearby villages
came rushing to the spot and started to pull the victims out of the wreckage. Some
took the injured in their own vehicles or taxis to the nearest hospital.
Meanwhile within an hour hundreds of people reported to have lined up in the
hospital to donate blood and the hospital had to turn away many due to the
donours exceeding the requirement of the hospital. News also came that many
helped injured to communicate their near and dear ones by phone and send
information about their safety. This was not the first time when one comes
across commendable sense of humanity exhibited by simple village folks without
second thoughts in times of disaster be it the aftermath of Tsunami or the air
crash that claimed the former Army General Bipin Rawat.
Now the
most distressing news comes from the air sector. Almost all the airlines
quietly increased their fares on all these sectors to more than double right
from the day of the accident and many passengers who came out alive of the
accident had to make haste to reach to their near and dear ones at the
earliest. Many in fact were under trauma and not in perfect mental state even
to decide their immediate needs. I do
not have enough words to describe this insensitive commerce that went on at a
time such as this. No doubt motive of business by private enterprises is for
profit but to practice it at extreme levels especially during disasters is
nothing but inhuman. These Airlines, manned by highly skilled and educated
professional may learn a few lessons from the simple village folks to become
better human beings than merely being meritorious professionals. As our father
of the nation said that among the seven deadly sins one of them was commerce
without morality. Is it too much to
expect the Airlines to wake to a little more humanity and return the excess
fare collected from the relatives and other travelers who used their carriers
to reach home safely.
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