‘Fatehveer’s death a system failure’

Kuldip Bhatia
Ludhiana, June 12

While paying heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of the two-year-old Fatehveer Singh, who died after falling down in a deep borewell, the Lok Surakhiya Manch (LSM) flayed the government for its failure to save the life of the child. “This shows total apathy on the part of the state machinery and lack of preparedness to meet any unforeseen accidents,” said the LSM, while holding a protest march against the government at Bharat Nagar Chowk here today.

Activists of the Manch and various social activists said several similar incidents had taken place earlier as well in various parts of the country but the government seemed unconcerned about any preparedness. There have been several incidents of sewer-men dying in manholes and gutters, but despite the direction from the Supreme Court of India, no effective measures had been taken to prevent such accidents.

They said it was unfortunate to learn that the fire brigade did not have the ladder of a sufficient length to bring the students out from the fire-ridden building in Surat, where many young lives were lost. “Instead of spending thousands of crores on installing statue of Sardar Patel, money should be spent on such productive measures,” they commented.

Demanding a stern action against digging of such borewells, the protesters stated that as a result of climate change and blatant use of underground water, the water level has gone down. In case of failure to get water, the concerned persons leave these bores uncovered and unfilled, which later becomes the cause of such accidents.

The Manch demanded a rapid task force to be formed to meet such unforeseen accidents in future.

Among the speakers were Jagmohan Singh, Dr Arun Mitra, Jaswant Singh Zeerakh, Raghbir Singh Benipal, MS Bhatia, Gurnam Sidhu, Charan Sarabha, Surinder Singh, Amritpal Singh, Harpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar.