Mobile phones have changed the way we live, communicate and gather information. However excessive usage of cell phone is taking heavy toll on human lives but we still remain glued to our handsets. In this scenario, the mobile service providers are earning enormous profit by offering competitive tariffs to customers. Due to prevalence of cut throat competition truly the customers are kings and it is time to have a choice with best offers. The mobile operators provide personalised tariff plans based on customers usage patterns. However, subscribers have to grapple with connectivity problems due to blocking of towers reported in certain areas.
On the other hand, there has been sharp rise in mobile phone related accidents across the country. In Kolkata, a man fell from a train while clicking selfies. Even though four co-passengers tried their best to rescue him but he died. It is a very common sight to watch people using mobile phones on roads, moving vehicles, standing on pavements, crossing tracks and hanging outside trains. They carry mobile phones along with them or attached to a belt. They use ear-phones and remain disconnected with the real world. Government and police have appealed to people to follow cell phone etiquettes at public places. However, users are engrossed in their talk thereby paving way for accidents. We find people using mobile phones after getting down from the taxi or while traveling in a train. I do not know how people communicate during this shortest duration and what is the need to speak risking one’s own life?
Youngsters use cell phones while cross the road, using level crossings. While doing so they risk their own lives and cause hardship to others. The risk is manifold using a cell phone while driving. I had noticed a girl using cell phone while crossing the road. Since the girl was busy talking on the phone she was hit by the auto as she fell in the middle of a busy road. Later she got up and continued to use the phone forgetting about the accident. The impact was severe and she would have felt the pain only on the next day. But for the time being she was engrossed in mobile conversation and that was dangerous even for her life. Even CCTVs have been installed at several locations in the city to curtail mobile menace.
It is indeed a fine gesture on the part of media to take up the cause more seriously to avoid mobile menace on the streets. Traffic police should do their duty most meticulously to deter people from using mobiles on roads and punish the erring users strictly. Stringent punishment must be awarded to motorists using cell phones while driving. It these steps are taken then accidents can be minimised. Nothing has changed the singular obsession we have with this tiny aid to communication, that has ironically, cut us from most of the people who surround us while keeping us connected to those on the other side of the world.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
