We are nothing after our death. Let us donate our body organs for the poor.

Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work The moment you fear, you are nobody - Swamy Vivekananda

If you think safety is expensive, try an accident... - O.P.Kharbanda

Preventable accidents, if they are not prevented due to our negligence, it is nothing short of a murder - Dr. Sarvepalli Radha Krishna, 2nd President of India

Zero accidents through zero unsafe behaviors. Do not be complacent that there are no accidents. There may be near miss accidents (NMAs). With luck/chance, somebody escaped knowingly or unknown to the person. But, we can't be safe, if we depend upon the luck.

Safety culture is how the organization behaves when no one is watching.

We make No compromise with respect to Morality, Ethics, or Safety. If a design or work practice is perceived to be unsafe, we do not proceed until the issue is resolved. - Mission statement by S&B Engineers & Consultants Ltd. http://www.sbec.com/safety/

Human meat gets least priority - A doctor's comment on accidents

CSB video excerpts from Dr.Trevor Kletz, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQn5fL62KL8

May 12, 2010

Summer temperature woes

Yesterday and today, news papers reported that temperatures in different parts of A.P set a record for the decade. Temperatures are in the range 45-48 degree Celcius in many cities. The main reason, I feel is, indiscriminate tree felling. Whenever we go under a tree shade or along the road adjacent to good greenery area, we feel a cool breeze. Trees are cut because of increased urbanization. To meet never ending traffic problems and congestion, roads are widened and for this adjacent trees on the road side are cut. Every year, we feel that summer is starting in advance, precisely because of this tree cutting and resultant temperature rise. May be, there are other factors. But, it is our duty to protect our surroundings. If trees are to be cut to meet some other needs, then we have to ensure that these cut trees are planted safely in areas adjacent to widened roads. Green coverage should not decrease because of our needs.

There is a saying that "Vriksho rakshathi, rakshithaha" meaning that" save trees, it will save us". How true it is. Proverbs are the result of experiences of our ancestors over hundreds of years and we are least bothered about them. We do not want to learn evern after experiencing directly because of our acts without foreseeing the effects.

Governments spend vast amounts of money for forestry but it is also the duty of people to put some money from their pocket to protect environment by planting and saving trees in their yard so that they will have good air and also to the public.

Though, it is difficult and also lead to corruption or misuse, it should be made mandatory to plant trees in every house / apartment complex along with soak pits for collecting the rain water to help the public and reduce stress on government resources and those who violate should be penalized heavily (GREENERY VIOLATION PENALTY). This money should be distributed to some NGOs specifically formed for ensuring and increasing greenery (not by having lawns which are costly to maintain but by planting saplings, relocating the cut trees, etc which are mostly one time affair or require attention for less time) and the accounts of these NGOs should be audited. Public can be encourage to donate to an account setup for this purpose, say "GREEN FUND" and can give tax exemption to the contributors like it is given for certain donations made for flood relief, CM/PM Relief Funds, religious donations, free food schemes of some religious institutions, etc.

May 4, 2010

User charges for fire fighting services

A news paper report mentioned that the AP Fire Services department is proposing to charge for their services provided to commercial establishments and higher income group individuals above a set category so that they can finance their activities and maintain their facilities.
It is true that any thing comes free will not have any value in the eyes of beneficiaries, though nobody wants to loose their propery in a fire or get themselves injured. But, acts of carelessness, not providing sufficient safety measures disregarding the risk to make money, no respect for statutory provisions, etc shall be dealt severely and I feel user charges are definitely one of such methods.

First, there should be creation of awareness about hazards and measures to be taken which can be communicated while issuing permission for construction of buildings / licence to establish a business or trade / renewal / payment of property taxes , etc in the form of 1-2 page pamphlet and also printed on the backside of electricity bills or similar nature. Punishments / penalties also should be mentioned in the same leaf so that one will take serious note of the contents.
Then, user charges as and when service is provided should be at such higher rates that one should hesitate if wants to use. In case of Fire Services, there should not be any option. If there is a fire and even if someone on the road informs through emergency phone number, they should come and then charge. It should be made mandatory for emergency services to charge after attending the calls irrespective of who called or informed about emergency.
The insurance companies should give some discount in the policy premium, if there are sufficient verifiable safety measures taken by the beneficiary.

Such measures will make the citizens to be aware and be safety minded. Governments should not provide its services for free, atleast to creat awareness that NOTHING IS FREE.

It is common to criticise Service departments like Fire / municipal / traffic / police / intelligence / factories / pollution control board, etc that they are not upto mark or not doing their job. No doubt, all are not at same level and there can be inefficiency / corruption, etc and other factors / reasons like lack of man power or other resources. But, first of all, if individuals are not careful, do not want to follow atleast common sense leave apart rules and regulations, then who can help and what anybody can do to protect. Just imagine that you are a traffic police, for example, and think how you can regulate the traffic by the acts which yourself would have committed on various occasions. Definitely, it will provoke you to think and motivate you to do the right things.

There is a saying that it is easy to awake a sleeping person but not the ones who pretend to sleep. No amount of resources in the world can create a safe place, if the individual decides not to be safe. Only, they can be controlled for sometime. It is not possible for any monitoring / regulating agency to watch each and everyone. If that is the requirement, then 50% of our population will be regulators while others are subject under watch.

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