Nandini’s family blames MC officials

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 23

“Had Chandigarh Municipal Corporation taken the pain of filling the pond with sand, my daughter would have been alive today,” said Laxman, father of a two-year-old girl, Nandini, who was killed after falling into a 3-feet deep pond at the Valley of Animals park in Sector 49 on January 22. 

On the MC filling the pond after his daughter’s death, Laxman, who works as a labourer, said it was a good move and will prevent such incidents, but this exercise would not bring back his daughter. 

Nandini’s mother Komal, a housewife, wanted action against the negligent MC officials. She said the area residents had raised the issue of filling the pond many times in the past, but in vain. 

“Action should be taken against officials who had left the pond half-filled,” Komal demanded. 

Avdesh Yadav, another resident of EWS flats in Sector 49, said they had even submitted a representation in writing before the MC and the UT Administration officials, but nobody took the pain to fill the pond with sand. 

In 2012, when a youth had died, the authorities had filled only half the pond with sand. Had the authorities filled the entire pond with sand in 2012, this unfortunate incident would not have occurred, Yadav said. 

Meanwhile, the cremation of the child took place at the cremation ground in Sector 25 this afternoon. 

Nandini alias Ananya died after falling into a 3-feet deep pond at the Valley of Animals park in Sector 49, popularly known as the Dinousaur Park on Sunday afternoon. The deceased went to the park to play, along with her mother at 11 am. The family resides in the Sector 49 EWS Colony. After some time, when the woman failed to locate her child, she raised the alarm and informed her husband, Lakshman, a labourer. 

She was found unconscious in the pond and was rushed to the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH)-32, where doctors declared her brought dead.