Dear Editor,
Every year we agonise about firecrackers and every year the police tell us they are “cracking down”, it has become a running joke, much like the Amazon Warriors, next win. The firecracker problem like so many others is a slap in the face of the authorities. They are sold openly, although the are banned. Everyone knows who sells them and where to buy them. We know from which country they are smuggled. The bombs have become bigger. The perpetrators are more emboldened by successive government’s inaction. The blind eye method is not working.
This Diwali the magnitude of the problem and the incompetence of the authorities exploded with every lit squib. Several pets died, people were injured, and an altercation caused a father and son to be hospitalised, all because our officials are not doing their jobs. What are we waiting for?- a human casualty?
We are at the tipping point. We have allowed the little infractions to grow and now they become uncontrollable monsters, one thing leads to the next, the police are not in control. Minister Benn and his team must give account. They have allowed several issues, such as the squibs and the rampant return of stray cattle on the road to become larger monsters than they have ever been. It is time to take action! Do your job, enforce the law. If you are incapable, resign. Send in some other jackass to bat.
Sincerely,
Ajay Baksh
