2-year-old drowns in Abohar village pond

Our Correspondent

Abohar, June 19

A day after the Punjab and Haryana High Court asked the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit on the person responsible for the unfortunate incident that led to the death of Sangrur boy Fatehveer in a borewell, the body of two-year-old Harman was fished out from a pond at Dharampura village, 11 km from Abohar, on Wednesday.

Harman’s father Gurpreet Singh, a farmer, said his son went missing while playing with his elder brother Anmol outside their house around 4 pm on Tuesday near the pond. The family took to social media to find him, but later people suspected that Harman might have drowned in the pond. Tractors equipped with submersible pumps were deployed to drain out water from the pond that had not been desilted for a long. As the water level receded today, three youths entered the pond and brought out the boy’s body.

Sarpanch Sumitra Devi said development work could not be started as the code of conduct was enforced for the Lok Sabha polls few days after the village panchayat elections. “A meeting will be called soon to install wire fencing around the pond and the same will be later replaced by a boundary wall,” she added.

Abohar SDMPoonam Singh said, “We recently got borewells plugged in Alamgarh, Himmatpura and Rajanwali villages. The Block Development and Panchayat officer has been told to inquire into the incident and submit a report soon.” She advised parents to not allow children play around ponds.