‘Contractor, MC & traffic police actual killers of my child’

Ludhiana: The grieving father of the seven-year-old girl who died in a road mishap on Wednesday blames the contractor, civic authorities and traffic police for the accident and called them the “actual killers” of his only child.
“Why can’t road contractors be booked for using poor material for construction of roads?” asked Ajeet Singh Sidhu of Shimla Colony, the deceased’s father.

Mahima Sidhu was killed after the scooter she was riding pillion on skidded on a muddy stretch on Bahadur Ke Road on Wednesday morning. She was on her way to the school with her mother Paramjit Kaur.

Mahima was their first child who was born ten years after the marriage of Paramjit and Ajeet. They were a happy family and Mahima was drear to all. However, after her demise, the parents are shattered and have appealed the concerned authorities to take immediately action in order to avert such incidents in the future.

“I have lost my everything, but I don’t want anyone else to go through such a loss. No parents should lose their child like this. I hold the entire system responsible for it, including the enforcement agencies who do not check the movement of overloaded trucks and trolleys and the municipal corporation,” said Ajeet.

“For me, the road contractor, councillor and the mayor are the actual killers of my daughter. When a road should ideally sustain for ten years, why is it the case that the repairs have to be carried out ten times in a year? Why are road contractors not held responsible for the damaged roads?” asked the agitated father.

When asked why he didn’t register an FIR, Ajeet told TOI, “I have no hope from the police. I have seen many cases in which FIRs are registered against the unidentified accused, but they never get arrested or even traced. Moreover, not only the trolley driver, but the entire system is responsible for the accident. In the CCTV footage of the accident spot, I saw the trolley stopping and a man coming out to see what had happened. However, instead of helping my wife and daughter, he escaped from there.”

Lokesh Verma, a friend of Ajeet’s, said, “An affidavit should be taken from the contractors on the durability of the roads while assigning them the work. This way such incidents can be averted, otherwise people will continue losing their dear ones to bad roads.”