The open manholes are an awful nuisance. They pose staggering threat to the pedestrians and the motorcyclists in particular. There is hardly any city of our country from Karachi to Peshawar where one does not come across these death traps. Unequivocally, its a criminal negligence on the part of the concerned departments. Only God knows better how many people on roads are injured, maimed or rendered handicapped by these open manholes every day. Some days back, a five year old boy fell into it in Shahdadpur, Sindh when he was coming home from tuition. It was pitch darkness owing to power outage. He could not see the open manhole that gobbled him down. It is said that the drug addicts remove the lids of the manholes and sell these at a throwaway price to get drugs to appease their craving for intoxication. This may well be true but the concerned departments should not impute the whole responsibility to the drug addicts. When anyone sees an open manhole, one must lodge a written complaint to the concerned department immediately lest any untoward incident should take place. MUBUSHAR ALI SULEHRIA, Wah Cantt, May 23.