Mom's grief silences mayor

Sanjanas mother wants jail or even death for contractor

Tears no more well up in her eyes. What does is sheer hopelessness that at times sparks outbursts.

With angst in her eyes and voice, Madhu Singh confronted a visibly subdued City Mayor S K Nataraj when he visited her house a full eight days after the Government Veterinary College wall collapsed on June 1, killing her 17-year-old daughter Sanjana.

“Who is he (corporator Munirathna Naidu) showing money power? Whatever he has amassed is tax payers’ money. Does he think he can buy everyone with his money? If he thinks so, ask him to bring my daughter back. My daughter would have proved a proud citizen of the country and would have earned much more for the nation,” she told Nagaraj, who faced her queries and her sorrow, defenceless.

As Nataraj entered Madhu’s house at Lakshmamma Colony in Ganganagar with a coterie of 25 people, he found all his mayoral skills cannot help in consoling her and her husband, Ashok. Their sorrow over the loss of their elder daughter was uncontrollable. What added to their sorrow was she had called them minutes before death. All that Nataraj could do was hang his head and listen to the wails of Madhu.

Amidst sobs and spurts of anger, Madhu told him she lost her child, alright, yet she wasn’t the real loser. Bangalore was.

And the city would see more of such mishaps if something was not done to root out corruption in public sphere. She asked for the wall to be pulled down, for “no more Sanjanas should be trapped under it.” Also “I want a punishment for the contractor equal to the pain my daughter underwent when the wall fell on her.”

Ashok, his grief in better control, said he would approach the court if nothing came about in 15 days. To Madhu, however, her daughter’s death would only be avenged if the guilty is thrown behind bars or even hanged. “They should not be let loose,” Madhu said, with all the anger in her.

Nataraj was again at loss for words, but he managed to mumble: “This should not have happened. We are sorry.”