Law against Vandalism of Public Property.

Vandalism of Public Property.

Why we are helpless against Vandalism of Public Property? It is a burning question now a days. I have discussions with many individuals who took part in some incidence of this type of protest in their life. What I found was that the mob was instigated for the vested interest of some.

Moreover, we lack the "Sense of Belongingness". We do not think that public property belongs to us and we are the rightfull owner of that. Once I asked a student (who was pelting stones on a government bus) for the necessity of pelting stones. He replied that everybody was doing therefore he joined it.That was the stark realty of many of the members of that mob. Furthermore, What I saw that the leader was a petty politician and he need a breakthrough to be recognised at the state level.

Also, in the recent time Political Vandalism emerges which has its admirers in all the parties. On the surface it look like a small problem but deep beneath the surface roots of vandalisms are so strong that even literate people are part of the mob. Actually what happen is that these politicians play with the emotions of the people. Moreover, they instigate public to vandalise the public property for the benefit of their own. And the Janta do not realise that they are wasting their own money only, as the taxes payed them are the main resources of the government for funding public utilities. This lack of Sense of Belongingness and Awareness is exploited for the benefits of some previlaged ones aka Politicians.

Against these act of Vandalism there is law also but, sadly it is
imposed. Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 is the said law enacted 26 yrs ago, but the problem is that there is lack of political will in applying it on the accused. According to this act, imprisonment upto 10 yrs is also possible (Section 4 of this act). But the lack of political will leads to lesser charges by applying IPC provisions in these cases. This led to general thinking that the Arsonists and the Mob will go scott free with milder punishments and therefore there are large number of these types of vandalisms of public property.

Now, the question arises who has to pay for that? According to view by the politicians, law should not be draconian and should not violate our Fundamental Rights. According to them restrain should be political instead of draconian. But some one has to take resposibility for the act done by mob. For this Maharashtrian present government promulgated an ordinance seeking to make rioters pay for damage to public and private property. This move came in the wake of large scale vandalism caused by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Our view is that, apart from the restrain followed by some of the parties, it is our duty that We cannot and must not be indulgent towards destruction of property as a method of airing grievances. And those who are resposible for their 'Heroic' act must pay for the hard work. It may not always be possible to trace the individuals responsible, but in such cases organizations who organise these so-called protests should be held accountable. Most importantly, the government must not succumb to the demands of the mob. Otherwise, it would be a signal that Vandalism or hooliganism pays.

Jai Hind.