This being Eid season, lots of people have been travelling home to their villages, with many journeying by launch and boat. Shockingly, many of the vessels that carry these passengers are defective, but little is done to stop them from running on our waterways. This kind of negligence is unacceptable and the government must ensure that only sound and safe vessels are allowed to ply, for the safety of the passengers.
Every year there are reports of horrendous accidents, of launches breaking down or, worse, overturning and lives being lost. The worst part is that these tragedies would have been avoidable had steps been taken to ensure that unsafe vessels were not allowed to run in the first place.
This is why if any accidents do occur, the government can hardly say it wasn’t warned.
We, however, hope the government will take the issue of passenger safety more seriously that it seems to have in past years. We hope the government will undertake regular inspection of vessels and take strict action against those who run unsafe vessels, so as to not allow such accidents to repeat in the future.
It is the duty of the government to ensure the public’s safety, and that also extends to passenger safety on waterways. Let us all pray for a festive season without any calamities.
