Gurugram road rage kills NRI

GURUGRAM: Incidents of road rage is not a new phenomenon in Gurugram. On Wednesday, it took an ugly and deadly turn after a 50-year-old NRI died of cardiac arrest when he was physically roughed up by a guard and a local resident. Even though the arrests have been made in the case, it has brought out a point of difference that is resulting in the confrontation between the residents in the posh neighbourhoods of Gurugram.

In the tony and rich neighbourhoods, residents are now placing barriers and gates that restrict entry of the people who do not reside in the area. Earlier done for security reasons, there are complaints that it is now being used as a status symbol where security guards often tend to get aggressive with other people. While it was a norm earlier of placing barriers and gates at the entry of the private colonies, entry in the streets and lanes is also being restricted. These structures are being built by the residents with their own money and they themselves finance the salaries of the security guards.

The residential colonies where the situation prevails is Sushant Lok, South City, Sector -14, Sector-15 and the five phases of DLF. During the period when there were a large number of robberies in these private colonies, the residents felt that building gates are mainly done to provide security. “We decided to build the gates at our residential colony because it provides security. It is not easy to deploy a large number of security professionals and therefore we built a structure which is being closed after a specific time. The building of these gates have ensured that the robbers who used to enter the colonies in the odd hours will be restricted,” said Vikram Sharma, a city resident.

The critics especially the menial workers who make frequent visits to the colonies for their daily work, feel that the barriers have become a sore point between them and the security guards.

“During the night it becomes very difficult to move out of the DLF colony as most of the exits are closed. There are also situations where not only we but other people have also got into quarrels with the security guards,” said Shah Alam, who works as a mason.