Citizen Moment

It was in the first week of April,2006 when I was posted as Branch Manager of a small & remotely located branch namely Bhagirathpur in RBO-IV of Gorakhpur Administrative Office. I used to reside at a nearby Tehsil centre near Nepal border (around 15 km from my branch and around 95 km from Gorakhpur) along with my family.

My branch was under Statutory Audit as Annual Closing had just completed. The auditor had his stay arrangements in a Hotel at Gorakhpur during the Audit. After verification of the Returns related to Annual Closing at the branch, the auditor requested me to come to Gorakhpur for collecting duly audited Annual Closing Returns of the branch from him.

After collecting the same from the auditor late in the evening at Gorakhpur, I left for my place of residence by a UP Roadways Bus (probably the last bus of the day). Some people stopped the bus midway and put two people, who were badly injured, into the bus and told the driver to drop them at Nepal border as they were probably from Nepal. They were injured during an accident and the people gathered around the accident site had put them into the bus, without giving any First Aid to them, just to avoid any litigation arising out of the accident. While one of them was badly injured and crying desperately because of the unbearable pain he was suffering from, the other one was in a comparatively better position.

All the fellow passengers as well as the Conductor of the bus had turned a deaf ear towards their pain. I was sitting near them and was quite upset because of the insensible attitude of others towards them. I really wanted to help them whatever I can.

In the meantime, the driver stopped the bus for taking dinner at a roadside Dhaba. I was acquainted with that locality where the bus was standing. All of a sudden, I decided to take these guys to a nearby dispensary for providing them First Aid. I tried to handle them alone but it was quite difficult. I sought support from fellow passengers politely but no one was ready to give a helping hand. That was too much and I just outbursted at them out of anger for not providing support to the persons suffering from acute pain. That really worked and some people came forward for support.

I managed an empty vegetable trolley lying near the bus and with the help of other passengers put them on that and took them to a nearby dispensary. Firstly, they refused to admit the injured passengers there. But when I introduced myself as Branch Manager of a nearby branch and asked them to contact me in case of any litigation arising out of that, they agreed to admit them at their dispensary.

It was around 11.00 pm and I returned towards the bus with the impression that the bus must have left and I would have to take another bus, if any, or would have to spend the night somewhere at that place itself. But surprisingly, the Conductor was waiting for me and I reached home safely around 11.30 pm with a great feeling of inner contentment.


Santosh Kumar
Manager, HR Deptt, LHO, Lucknow