27 February 2013

Loop Hole in Bajothang Infrastructures Kills a Man

I am writing about every corner of Bajothang because I love this place and I am living the best part of my life here. The loop hole I am going to write about is not that of 3G network which is not working yet- I know it just a rough sail in new place.
It's with heavy heart I am breaking the news that was not covered in any news media yet: Yesterday morning a man fell from the third floor of the building he was living in in Bajothang town, and was declared dead upon reaching hospital.
Let me present to you a brief background of how buildings are in Bajothang: All structures have attic on the third floor, which has a controversial background of its own. Attics are restricted to certain height and are not allowed to have verandas. Now, you may wonder how the man fell at all. The restriction on veranda was well imposed but the house owners have created a platform across the third floor which can be accessed through either a door or a big window. All commercial apartments have similar features and I am sure authorities have seen it but since it didn't look like veranda no action was taken against it. Therefore you could see people drying clothes outside the windows of third floor without any safety railings.
look at the attic!
The accidents such as this were easily predictable, it was only by the grace of god that we saw only one so far. He was drying clothes when he stumbled and without anything to hold on he landed up losing his life. Unlike in the rest of the world here we blame on our fate and luck instead of blaming on the structural safety and holding people responsible. It doesn't take too much brain to analyze that if there was railing the man wouldn't have died by falling off the building, and if at all verandas are not allowed then access to outside of the third floor should be made illegal.
I wish to see some news media come and not just report the news but also make people answer a few questions on the safety of the attic dwellers.

3 comments:

  1. When owner is responsible for having veranda/platform which is not allowed he/she should be accountable for the consequences.. it is not the fault of dwellers!! I offer my Condolence to him and his family!!

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  2. Oh Sir, I didn't hear of the news. It is sad to know. When I first reached here, and realized how windy it gets, I asked one of my friends not to keep flower pots on the verandah edges whereby staircase landings are present. We either see the flower pots on verandah edges or on the attic cornices, I always thought that some flower pots will break some body's head as well. Happens to be the opposite building of KPS, that too from attic. Not sure those still exists or not.

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  3. Thanks for the comments- Sangay and Dawa.

    This piece is published in The Bhutanese on March 1 Read here

    and after over a month Kuensel ran an independent story on the issue. Read Here

    ReplyDelete

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