It is heart breaking to see death and destruction of such a huge scale in such a short period of time in Nepal. By all accounts the people of Nepal are very resilient. That is the only way forward for them.
There is a great deal of discussion on the scale of destruction and people’s suffering. But there is hardly any discussion on why the destruction is so huge.
In Mumbai a number of skyscrapers have collapsed like pack of cards killing a large number of people. The main reason is the buildings are built with sub-standard materials. In general the builders are naturally dishonest.
There is lack of morality and respect for human life. The main motive is making maximum profit with complete disregard for the consequence of such a habit. Until this is rectified the people would continue to suffer.
In comparison, if a western country is affected by such a disaster the destruction is in general quite low because the buildings are propery built with right composition of construction materials.
A few years back, like Nepal, the Indian state of Gujarat had gone through the same level of pain and suffering. But thankfully the Gujaratis have rebuilt their homes and come back to normality.
At the time Shree Narendra Modi, as the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, had done everything possible to restore that normality. He has promised to do everything to help our Nepali sisters and brothers.
Nepal is a very poor country. He is a man of words and hopefully he would keep his promise.
Jatindra Saha
By email
