By Prof. G.T. Thong
A bubbly young girl just entering the prime of life, looking so eagerly forward to enjoying the gift of life, one day at a time; whose beautiful life was sheer joy and a promise of hope to her family… her precious life snatched away, so suddenly, so cruelly!
Somebody decided to organise an EDM Club Night on the terrace of the five-storeyed West Road Mall, near the District Jail, Kohima on 15th August 2017; and did exactly that. This terrace does not have any protective wall or barrier around the sides. It is a perfect recipe for disaster. By the way, dear Proprietors of similar buildings, many people suffer from vertigo at such heights. The terrace should have been off-limits. But no, it must be used! The big question is why was the disaster-prone terrace of this building let out for the evening? A more troubling question – why did the organisers of the event pick this terribly unsafe terrace for the program? Mindless greed! It was tempting fate, and fate surely and definitely dealt a fatal blow. A beautiful candle was blown out forever.
This extremely unsafe building is a commercial complex and therefore, is open to anyone, anytime. In the first place permission should not have been granted to allow commercial activity in this building, seeing its potential for disaster. It is quite difficult to comprehend that when quite a few crore rupees was dished out to construct this building, why some thousands of rupees was not added for continuous railings around the terrace to give the much needed protection. But no, this is Nagaland, and in Nagaland there is no rule, and for that matter, no Government. No Government to frame rules, forget implementing them. Why should anyone spend good extra money, no matter how little, for someone else’s protection? There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of such highly unsafe commercial complexes spread all over Kohima and Nagaland. But what the hell, who cares!
This loss of a precious life is a nuclear-explosion of an eye-opener. It is a fit case for prosecution of all concerned. Perhaps a FIR has been filed? Let’s see some action, pronto!
An afterthought: It is perfectly alright to prosper, but at the cost of someone’s life?
