JOIN USTwo boys, both aged six years, drowned in pits dug at construction sites in Ejipura and Tavarekere in the City on Sunday evening.
Arun Prashanth, the son of a cook and resident of LR Nagar, drowned in a 20-foot pit dug for construction at the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) Colony at Ejipura. He was a student of Sacred Heart School.
Karthik K, an eyewitness, said: “As I was passing by, I saw a small boy falling into the water and alerted people who came and pulled out the drowning boy. He was rushed to St Philomena’s Hospital. But the hospital declared him brought dead.”
Arun went to play at around 4.30 pm in the EWS Colony land where construction of a commercial complex has been taken up, the residents said. The pit was dug up four to five months ago and the work was halted a month ago.
Filled with sewage
The pit was filled with rainwater and sewage. The residents here complained that the entire area was not properly barricaded and something unfortunate was bound to happen.
“There are small openings in the barricade and people are using it as a passage to go inside. But as soon as the incident occurred, some unknown persons came and covered the gaps in the barricade and left the spot,” Rajan, a resident, claimed.
Negligence alleged
The residents also alleged that Maverick Holdings, which is responsible for the construction, had taken it up without obtaining the necessary clearances.
The boy’s father, Prakash, said: “Whoever is constructing the land should have taken care to barricade the area. If they had covered it properly, we would not have lost our son. If it is left in the same state, there will be many more deaths.”
The residents of LR Nagar were anguished by the incident and want immediate action to be taken against the land owners, said a neighbour of Arun.
Second incident
Another six-year-old boy, Shivakumar, died after falling into a sump at a construction site in Vinayaka Layout, Tavarekere. According to police, Shivakumar and his parents, hailing from Raichur, had come to the City a few weeks ago.
While the parents were away, the boy was playing near the sump and he accidentally fell into it. Police have registered a case of negligence against the site owner.