Lucknow: Over 30 persons, most of them children, have died due to drowning in rainwater-filled open pits across western Uttar Pradesh in the past one month.
In the latest incidents reported from Meerut and Baghpat districts on Saturday evening, two boys, Lavish (8) and Chaand (7), hailing from Lohadda village in Baghpat, drowned in a rain water-filled deep pit dug for the construction of the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor near Vazidpur. The victims were bathing in the pit along with their two friends at the time of the incident. In the other incident, a 10-year-old boy, Mohd Ikrar, drowned in a pit dug at a brick kiln in Meerut’s Ajrada village.
District magistrate (DM) of Baghpat, Jitendra Pratap Singh, said “A magisterial inquiry has been initiated and a team has been formed under additional district magistrate (finance). The team will submit its report by Tuesday.”
SP Baghpat, Arpit Vijayvargiya, added, “Postmortem of the boys have been done. The family did not file any complaint so far.”
What is worrying is that multiple such cases have been reported across the western UP region with increasing frequency. In Rampur, five children — all aged between 9 and 12 — drowned in a water-filled pit dug by a brick kiln owner on July 20. Police eventually booked the owner for ‘culpable homicide’ and arrested him.
Notably, 13 children have died of drowning in pits dug by brick kiln owners in Rampur district alone, besides three in Badaun and four in Hardoi, since July 4. FIRs have been registered in most of the cases and the culprits arrested.
In Muzaffarnagar’s Budhana area, three children — Faisal Khan, 6, Asad Khan, 9, and their cousin Ahsan Khan, 10, all from a joint family — were drowned to death in another rainwater pit at a brick kiln on June 26. In Saharanpur, five persons, including four minors, died of drowning in three different incidents.
There have also been cases of drowning of kids in Budaun, due to deep pits dug to acquire soil for the under-construction Meerut-Prayagraj Ganga expressway.
