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It is a given that the State’s responsibility towards its citizens extends beyond ensuring the economic, social and political rights of its citizens. The State has a duty to ensure and facilitate the general well being of the citizenry in all aspects of life.

The failure of the State machinery to carry out its responsibilities is resulting in an already beleaguered population battered and bruised by an economic crisis to face further difficulties in their day-to-day lives.

Two immediate instances come to mind. The first is the failure to curb the spread of narcotic drugs in society and the second is to keep the county’s roads safe for both motorists and pedestrians.  

The tragedy in the State’s failure on these two fronts is that there is no need for additional resources to combat these two ills. The available resources have to be put to more efficient use to combat these twin evils.

It is estimated that on average, seven deaths take place every day due to such accidents. Apart from drivers and passengers who are injured due to reckless driving such incidents take their toll on innocent bystanders and pedestrians.

Last week there was a report of an incident in the Kurunegala area where three Samurdi beneficiaries at a bus stand were killed when a van met with an accident. They had been on their way to collect their Samurdhi payments.

The previous week, a speeding vehicle leaving from a night club had crashed into a parked three wheeler in Kollupitiya and killed its driver.

Several months earlier there was a incident in Warakapola where another pedestrian standing at a bus stand was killed due to an accident.

There may be several other such incidents which are unreported and add to the statistics relating to road accidents.

In all three accidents referred to above, the victims were from the poorer segments of society. These and other such victims and their families would have been struggling to make ends meet even before tragedy struck.

It is evident that Policing on the roads is virtually non-existent. The Traffic Police confine themselves to nabbing those who commit minor offences such as parking in the wrong place rather than those who endanger innocent lives with reckless driving.

Once a prominent head of a Private Bus Owners Union claimed that many bus drivers used drugs. The statement drew little or no attention from the authorities and no action was taken. The situation probably remains the same putting many lives in danger.

Meanwhile the saga of drugs in schools continues unabated in the full glare of media publicity.

On Friday, the Police announced that they had arrested 47 people including a 17-year-old schoolboy of a leading school in Mirihana during a drug raid carried out near schools in the Western Province.

According to the Police, the raids were conducted from 6.30 a.m. till 2.30 p.m. near 149 schools in the Western Province.

The quantity recovered during the raid was 1.260 kg of ‘Mava’, 9.630mg of heroin and 2.38mg of ICE and 207g of cannabis, according to the Police. Moreover, according to the media, the Police had said drug busting activities near schools would continue.

The Police statement that they would continue their work near schools is clearly reflective of a mindset that such “drug busting” would result in the situation being brought under control.

How successful such a methodology would be is unclear. By carrying out such high visibility raids with media exposure even schoolchildren who were previously unaware of such narcotics would have become aware of such facts. Such “awareness building” may create curiosity in the minds of uninitiated children and make them vulnerable to the drug menace.

The handling of this issue has to be conducted with more sophistication. That is why experts in this field have worked hard to guard children against ‘gateway drugs’ such as tobacco and alcohol which have the potential to expose and make children and youth vulnerable to narcotic drugs.

Policing the precincts of schools to curb the activities of drug peddlers is different to going after the big sharks who smuggle these deadly stuff into the country. It is strange but significant that there has been no statement of intent to go after the ‘big ones’ nor any arrest of any such ‘big ones’.

Several days ago, the Government announced its intention to appoint a task force to curb the drug menace. This may well be the best option to achieve this goal by circumventing the corruption that is clearly holding back law enforcement authorities from achieving this objective. The sooner this is done the better. (javidyusuf@gmail.com)