Fix India's Roads Before Reaching for the Sun, Editorial Says

India is getting ready to celebrate Independence Day, but many of its roads are full of big holes called potholes.

A young woman in Bengaluru died recently when she fell from the back of a motorbike because of a badly broken road.

Government numbers say more than 9,000 people lost their lives in five years in accidents caused by potholes, and the number kept growing.

The state of Uttar Pradesh had the most such deaths, and several other states also had many.

Some states said they had zero pothole accidents, but the editorial says that is hard to believe.

The government has promised to make India a fully 'developed' country in about 21 years.

The editorial says that is like promising the sun while the roads still look like the bumpy surface of the moon.

It says the government should fix the roads and problems on the ground first.

A pothole, the writer says, is a sign that promises are not being properly kept.

Fixing the roads is the first step before reaching for big dreams.