Boy's death exposes UT's tall claims

CHANDIGARH: The body of Gautam, 7, was handed over to his family members after postmortem examination on Friday. Gautam drowned in an open manhole and his body was recovered from the sewerage plant near Baltana on June 9. The child fell in the manhole on June 8 and a DDR was lodged at police post Mauli Jagran, Manimajra.
Police officials said that no major injury mark was found on Gautam's body, apart from a small injury on the lips of child.The incident took place when Gautam of Raipur Kalna had disappeared from his house in the afternoon hours of June 8 and his body was later recovered from the sewerage plant of UT administration on Thursday.
The incident has exposed the tall claims of the UT administration about the safety measures at the city's sewerage plant.
The father of the deceased boy, Raju Kumar, a migrant labourer, said Gautam had left the house in afternoon and apparently he fell in an open manhole and went missing.
SHO of police station Industrial Area, Inspector Malkit Singh, said Balbir Singh, an employee of the sewerage plant, spotted the body and an inquest proceeding has been initiated in this regard. He said the body had been kept in GMH-16's mortuary for postmortem to be conducted on Friday.
Senior police officials and public health department representatives also visited the spot and assured the covering of all open manholes in the city.
Pipes too tight
The assessment of the engineering wing of Chandigarh municipal corporation in this case is that the boy could not have passed through the sewerage pipes of the city. ''A human being cannot go through these pipes. These are squarish in shape and tight,'' said a senior engineer of the public health wing of MC.