“Chief Minister K Rosaiah is shocked at the boat tragedy and conveyed his condolences… Minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar rushes to the spot… Another minister Pithani Satyanarayana promises succour to families… A grief-stricken Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi asks government to speed up relief operations…”

Sounds soothing to the ear and so good for the public consumption, huh?! This shows the swiftness with which our netas run around in a post-disaster scenario and not in preventing them. People still die on roads, in rivers and at the abyss of sucking bore wells. And the ‘eyewash’ follows from high offices and the political ivory towers with great commonality!

Saturday’s tragedy is just one more instance that mirrors the ‘step-motherly’ treatment by successive governments and the absence of a strong political will for years together. Our politicians are now hand-in-hand for a Samaikhyandhra cause but they can’t come together to build a long-pending bridge to save precious lives.

The proposal to take up a bridge work to link the two Godavari districts near Narsapuram has been confined to files for decades. It was planned to provide a much-needed lifeline for the thousands of people of the two districts who risk their lives everyday to cross the river.

Project assessments were made a few times but for some strange reason no government showed the commitment and the people’s representatives of the two districts hardly bothered about it. Every time an assessment was made, it showed an escalation of at least Rs 40 crores in the total project cost, forcing the administration to shelve it once again.

Even cost-wise, the government has no valid reason to go back on the project in view of the growing calls for it from the public. On an average, 2,000 people cross over from both sides everyday and if a bridge is built, it is expected to increase this number to 10,000. It’s a compulsion that most of these ‘dare-devil’ travelers cannot avoid! Many of those from the Narsapuram side are office-goers working in Rajahmundry.

Had the politicians been sensitive to the public needs and diverted at least 10 per cent of their energies that they currently investing in the Samaikhyandhra movement, the bridge would have been a reality long back.

And definitely, the poor souls that met with a watery grave today, would have had another day