Parents busy plugging breach, two children drown near bundh in Sultanpur Lodhi

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, September 23

The jubilation over the near-completion of plugging work of a broken bundh on Saturday in flood-affected Baupur village of the Mand area in Sultanpur Lodhi turned into mourning when two children drowned in river Beas.

The duo, aged 8 and 11 years, had been accompanying their parents, who had been carrying out kar sewa at the bundh daily.

Even as the two kids were immediately taken out of the water and taken to the civil hospital, they were declared dead.

Entire Baupur village mourned the deaths as no food was cooked in any house, residents said.

The deceased 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.

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

Baupur resident Paramjit Singh Baupur said, “The kids daily played around as their parents worked for months, but today their lives were lost within half an hour. Their parents launched a search late afternoon after they weren’t seen. Minutes later, their bodies were found, holding each other tight in marshy land, in a pit several feet deep created by the recent rain. The water was shallow there and an adult would have easily survived. But the children couldn’t make it.”

On receipt of information, MLA Rana Inderpratap Singh reached the civil hospital to express condolences to the family.

SHO Lakhwinder Singh of Sultanpur Lodhi police station and SHO Varinder Singh of Kabirpur police station said water of river Beas and Sutlej meet in the area under Kabirpur police station.

The bundh in the region had been broken for the past two months due to floods.

The police said they will record the statements of the family members of the deceased children.