2 days on, admn yet to act on drowning of 3 children in Nuh waterlogged pits

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, June 30

Three children aged between 5 to 11 years died after falling in waterlogged pits at different villages in Nuh in the past two days. The deaths which should have rattled the state over alleged negligence of the site owners went virtually unnoticed as neither the police nor the local administration has initiated any action so far.

These pits had allegedly been created by unchecked mud mining in the area and were as deep as 10 ft. Even after the children fell, it was the local villagers who organised their own rescue operations and even got JCBs to retrieve the bodies.

The families went on with the last rites and even as social media was abuzz with their videos and news, it could not shake the local administration and police out of their slumber.

“They were poor children and who cares about their lives? Everybody talks of waterlogging only in Gurugram, but nobody cares when a backward district like Nuh turns into one big river. The family didn’t inform the police as they had no faith in them, but the police were aware of accident even on the first day. We were expecting some preventive action or advisory but nothing came and two more children died the next day. Negligence claimed three young lives and the local MP and state government are all mute,” said Congress MLA from Nuh Aftab Ahmed.

While neither the police nor the administration has issued any official statement, a senior police official on condition of anonymity said, “They have not approached us. We did try to speak to them but they said they did not want any action as their children died accidently. We cannot register any case in the absence of a complaint,” said the official. The DC office and district administration failed to highlight any action or inquiry marked in the matter.

The three deceased children have been identified as seven-year old Zubair from Pinnagwan, 11-year-old Aazam from Mahouli village and five-year-old Israt from Patpadbas village. While Zubair died on June 28 after falling into pit in an empty plot, the other two died on June 29 after falling in similar pits in the fields.