The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Ritika's smile still lingers on

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 11, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Ritika's smile still lingers on

Staff Reporter

The slokas and verses narrated by her are still fresh in her parents' mind

Ritika

HYDERABAD: Those are unforgettable memories, which tug at the deepest recesses of one's heart. The slokas and verses narrated by her in a singsong tone, her playfulness, her good ranks in examinations and that sunflower like smile!

A year after four-and-a-half-year-old Ritika was killed by a speeding van in front of St. Ann's High School on August 11 last year, life has never been the same for her heart-broken parents.

"After coming from office, Ritika used to narrate to me all that had happened in the school. She used to talk a lot about her friends. Seeing her, I used to forget all my tensions but now there is only a deathly silence," laments Ritika's father Hanumantha Rao, an employee of a private bank.

No concrete steps

Unable to overcome the trauma, Mr. Rao and his wife Laxmirajyam, shifted from their Kavadiguda house to West Marredpally within a month after the incident. Ritika, an LKG student, was crossing the road along with her schoolmates and bus driver Dastagir Pasha when the `killer' van came in a negligent manner and hit them. Ritika died on the spot while her schoolmates escaped with injuries.

What rankles the couple is the utter inaction of officials. They announced several measures for the safety of schoolchildren in the wake of the accident. But, barring deploying traffic police during school timings, no concrete steps like road widening and construction of foot-over- bridge (FOB) have been taken so far.

"Our only plea with the State Human Rights Commission is to expedite the inquiry process and ensure justice to us," they said.

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