It is no use shouting about how somebody will be punished for this. That is reactive and has little meaning after a life has gone
The family of a 1.5-year-old boy supported by locals, has demanded action against Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials for negligence. Their demand stems from the fact that their boy has gone missing after falling into an open drain in Goregaon. Locals say the drain was left open. This has cost the boy his life.
A report in this paper said that the family realised that their little boy was missing at night. They learnt through CCTV footage that he had wandered away and fell into an open drain. The hours-long search operation by authorities has proved fruitless. There are credible fears that he may have been swept away due to the currents in the drain.
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Every drain and manhole has to be covered, especially in the monsoon. One cannot reiterate the importance of this. Even while walking through, when it is not raining, one does notice certain drains have the lid shifted away. Some covers look precarious and in other places, they are actually broken.
A couple of years ago, a doctor lost his life after falling into a manhole. The lid of the manhole though was deliberately removed by a couple of do-gooders so that the flood waters drain quicker. We need immovable covers and nets, and these are not in place on manholes.
Leave aside these security measures, drains are being left open as this incident has shown.
It is no use shouting about how somebody will be punished for this. That is reactive and has little meaning after a life has gone.
One needs to be proactive and take measures before the monsoon. In fact, they should be in place through the year. This is all the more heartbreaking because it could have been avoided. That though is a story of a litany of monsoon mishaps in this city of Mumbai.
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