Speed breakers are holding the nation back.

Over 30 people are killed in road accidents caused by potholes everyday in India. The obvious answer would be to build roads with concrete so that they do not break after one shower but potholes are a great source of extra revenue for municipal officials and their contractor friends. So, what is their solution to the problem of potholes? Build speed breakers, or humps, on roads every kilometer or so, to slow down traffic to a crawl. The logic is that if vehicles are hardly moving any accident is unlikely to kill anyone and making these humps also add to the earnings of officials and contractors. Genius. Except that speed breakers are killing around 10 people everyday across India. Last year the High Court in Delhi ordered removal of all illegal speed breakers from the capital. Has it happened? No. Instead, new ones have been constructed where none existed previously. Obviously they are not going to give up such a lucrative source of private revenue. In 2014, a total of 253 million cars and trucks were registered in the US. Last year Americans bought 17.55 million cars and trucks. In 2015, 23.85 million cars were registered in China and the total number of cars reached 172 million. Contrast that with India where the total number of registered cars, jeeps and taxis numbered a paltry 28.6 million in 2015, 5 million higher than the number of new cars sold in China that year. Total number of two-wheelers reached 154.3 million, less than the total number of cars in China. About 78% of our national highways have one or two lanes, so driving is hazardous at the best of times. Add potholes, speed breakers and animals, such as cows and dogs, wandering around and its a wonder that so few people die each day. India's economy maybe growing the fastest in the world but per capita GDP is not growing because of population growth, wrote Prof R Parthasarthy. Which means that wealth in collecting in the top 10% and the divide between rich and poor is widening. Mosquito borne diseases kill people every year during the rainy season. The answer is to clean the drains and construct smooth roads so that water does not collect. But that may not get votes because the poor may see it as pampering the rich. So blame car owners for pollution and legislate enormous parking charges. That pleases the poor while increasing tax collections. Official vehicles will naturally be exempt, so the charges do not affect politicians and senior civil servants. Such politics of jealousy was most dramatically demonstrated by demonetization, which was most harmful for the poor but was wildly popular, because it was seen as punishing the rich. India is a 'do something' nation, wrote R Jagannathan. Unfortunately that something usually makes us miserable.