Supreme Court notice on borewell deaths

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 3

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre, states and Union Territories (UTs) to respond to a petition highlighting deaths of children falling into borewells due to negligence on the part of authorities.

A Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra issued notice on a PIL filed by advocate GS Mani who alleged that authorities remained negligent about safety measures concerning borewells despite the directions issued by the Supreme Court in 2010.

The petitioner filed the PIL in October 2019 after a two-year-old child, Sujith Wilson, died after remaining trapped in an abandoned borewell near Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu for more than 80 hours.

The Centre, states and UTs should frame proper guidelines with adequate equipment and expertise to rescue children who fall into abandoned bore well in future, Mani demanded. He also sought a judicial inquiry into Sujith’s death.

Mani cited reports of borewell deaths in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to highlight the failure of government authorities to implement the top court’s 2010 guidelines aimed at preventing such incidents.