Sir,

This refers to the weekly column ‘Over a cup of evening tea’ on the remains of the fallen Raja Marga balustrades (SOM dated Oct. 24, 2021). The enormous tragedy is nobody can file an FIR on a system that has grown flabby over the years and gradually depravity setting in.

For the politicians, corruption has become a badge of honour for they have become beyond the pale of accountability while the bureaucrats with rare exceptions have caught the contagion and content to serve their masters to safeguard their interests. As regards engineers, less said the better. Of course in this system, can the role of contractors be omitted?

The net result is all of them in the system have received a protective brush of corruption paint that a best solvent cannot dissolve.

Come to think of it, how could the authorities think of the granite balustrades that cannot withstand the rush in a place milling with Dasara crowd year after year? Apart from it, architecturally speaking it was a contrast to the Palace compound wall comprising metal gates and topping. An appropriate one would have been a metal walkway that could be robust and withstand crowd pressure. 

Even now it is not too late to change it instead of attempting to repair the so-called ornate granite balustrades which can never withstand crowd pressure.

– H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Saraswathipuram, 30.10.2021

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