Protest meeting at Valencia Circle on Wednesday: holding a dead body!

03.06.10 Mangalore : A dead body was shown to all passers by at the busy Valencia Circle in Kankanady at 1.30 Pm on the roadside in broad burning daylight, to the astonishment of vehicle travellers, by Ivan D’Souza, a Congress leader and leading lawyer in the city, to protest against frequent road accidents and lack of any compensation given for the family of the dead.

Conrad Ashok Pashan, who was riding on a motorbike as a pillion rider on June 2 (Wednesday) met with a road accident on the morning at 7.30 Am before he was scheduled to go abroad by air to Dubai at 9.30 Am, to resume duty there in a private company as an interior designer. But fate willed otherwise, and his unfortunate family is on the streets now. He died near Valencia Circle and the body was kept for public view next day in the hot sun, in a novel protest meeting held by mourners led by the labour leader, Ivan D’Souza.

In the last 7 months or so, road repairs were being carried out in many areas of the city, rendering inconvenience to pedestrians and vehicle drivers alike, observed Ivan. He went on to say that innocent lives were lost in road accident almost daily, on account of Mangalore city councils strange policies on road building when monsoon is here. This protest meeting highlights the inhuman policies of MCC, declared Ivan.

Describing the fateful road accident on the previous day at the same venue in the early morning, Ivan told the stunned passersby and other listeners, that Ashok had an aged mother at home, and she was sick. His younger brother was married but Ashok remained a bachelor. There was no way to console the family which has lost its moorings.

The interior designer working at Dubai is thrown off the motorbike in the accident and dead now. Whereas in the recent air crash, the bereaved families of 146 dead got lakhs of rupees each in compensation (Interim), Pashan’s family would get nothing from MCC as relief, and had to spend money on his delayed funeral, Ivan thundered.

The dead body of Conrad Ashok Pashan was kept by road side at 1 Pm on Thursday (today). citizens, auto drivers, ladies and some congress leaders had surrounded the silent body. They joined the protest, in a sense of sorrow.

Rev. Henry D’Souza of Jeppu seminary, congress leaders M.G.Hegde, Moideen Bawa, corporators Jacinta, Appi and GK Sudhir among other local citizens joined in the protest, against MCC and its bad roads’s

Accident Place