FPJ Editorial: No mercy for stone-pelters

Stone-pelting at trains is as old as the Indian Railways. Seldom are the culprits caught and punished. The reason is simple. Stones are thrown at moving trains and the victims are not in a position to complain, let alone identify the stone-pelter. No punishment is possible without, first, arresting the person and, then, trying him in a court of law. How many victims will take the trouble of complaining and, then, following it up by presenting evidence before the judge? It is against this backdrop that the ten years of rigorous imprisonment awarded to Rakesh Rod, 40, for pelting stones at a suburban train in Mumbai should be commended. The punishment was possible only because he could be identified, arrested and brought to justice. What he did six years ago was horrible.

Rod not only pelted stones at the local train but also threw an iron rod at a passenger which hit his stomach. The stones pelted by him hit three passengers, one of whom suffered a disability. They did not know him. Nor did he know them. It was just cruelty and mischief that prompted him to pick up the stones and the iron road and hurl them at the moving train. He claimed to be mentally unsound but a medical examination revealed that he was misleading the court. It was proved that he committed four serious offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Railways Act. As the sessions judge rightly observed, he knew the seriousness of what he did and, therefore, he did not deserve any mercy.

The verdict should serve as a lesson to all those who indulge in such activities. It was only recently that the Vande Bharat train on its maiden journey in Kerala was defaced with posters of a particular political leader. What’s worse, someone threw a stone at the new train. The police have not been able to arrest him but they are determined to bring him to justice. Unfortunately, there is a belief that public property like trains, buses and government buildings can be targeted to vent people’s anger against government policies. Political parties take the lead in such destructive activities when they are in the opposition. Nobody takes pride in the fact that they are public property and it is everybody’s duty to protect it. Any aberration should invite the severest punishment.

Govt to blame for boat tragedy

The boat accident in Malappuram district in Kerala on Sunday in which 22 people, including 11 from a single family, were drowned was totally avoidable. The owner of the boat violated every rule applicable to his business. It now transpires that he did not have a proper licence for the boat, which was a fishing boat converted into a tourist boat. Life jackets were not available. The driver did not have a licence. Worse, the boat was overloaded and it would have been a surprise if it had not capsized. In other words, the accident was man-made. The pity is that all the violations of the law were happening in the full knowledge of the local authorities, who were obviously kept in good humour by the boat owner. Just three weeks ago, two state ministers visited the place and a local person complained to them about this particular boat owner. One of the ministers rebuked him for making the complaint.

As has become the practice, the Central and state governments have announced monetary compensation for the kith and kin of those who were killed. The state has also announced a commission to inquire into the incident. All this will be forgotten after a few days and few will even know whether any compensation was paid. A similar accident occurred at Kumarakom in Kottayam in 2002 in which 29 people were killed. The voluminous report the judicial commission submitted has been gathering dust in the state secretariat. As it is, most of the boats used by the government for ferrying people to islands and estuaries in Alappuzha, Kollam and other districts are old and pose a threat to the passengers. People use them because they do not have an alternative. While the boat owner will be taken to task, nothing will happen to the officials whose negligence led to the disaster.