Jubilation turns tragic, two children drown near bundh

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, September 23

Jubilation over the near-completion of plugging work of a bundh in flood-affected Baupur village of the Mand area in Sultanpur Lodhi turned into mourning after two children drowned in the Beas here today.

The children, aged 8 and 11 years, were accompanying their parents, who were carrying out kar sewa of plugging the bundh daily.

The children have been identified as Gurbir Singh Gora, son of Satnam Singh, and Gursimar Singh, son of Ram Singh, both residents of Rampur Gore village. Gurbir was the only son of his parents.

Though the children were immediately taken out of the water and taken to the Civil Hospital, they were declared dead on arrival.

Baupur residents said to mourn the death of both children, no food was cooked in any house of the village.

Rampur Gore in Sultanpur Lodhi is also a flood-affected village and the broken bundh was passing through the land of one of these families.

Paramjit Singh Baupur, a resident of Baupur, said: “The kids played around daily as their parents worked for months. Today, their lives were lost within half an hour. Their parents launched a search late this afternoon after the duo went missing. Minutes later, their bodies were found in a deep pit created by the recent rain water. The water was so shallow there that an adult would have survived. But the children couldn’t make it out.”

After receiving information, MLA Rana Inderpratap Singh also reached the Civil Hospital to express condolences with the families.

SHO Lakhwinder Singh of the Sultanpur Lodhi police station and SHO Varinder Singh of the Kabirpur police station said the work of plugging the bundh, which was broken for the past two months, was expected to be completed on Saturday. The police said they would record the statements of the family members of the deceased.

Work on bundh was nearing completion

SHO Lakhwinder Singh of the Sultanpur Lodhi police station and SHO Varinder Singh of the Kabirpur police station said the work of plugging the bundh, which was broken for the past two months, was expected to be completed on Saturday.

#Sultanpur Lodhi