Borewell Kid's Family Waits for Dad

J Shanmugha Sundaram

Published: 14th April 2015 

VELLORE: The grief-stricken family of the two-and-a-half-year-old Tamilarasan, who died after falling into an abandoned borewell at Koorampadi village on Sunday, is waiting for the arrival of his father from Dubai to lay him to rest.

Kutty, father of Tamilarasan, works as a plumber in Dubai. The family will perform the final rites of the child after the arrival of his father. Kutty is expected to reach the village at around 10 pm on Monday, said a relative of the family.

The boy’s body was handed over to family members after post-mortem around noon on Monday.

The boy fell into a 350-foot  borewell at 8.10 am on Sunday. He was trapped at a depth of about 18 feet. Fire service personnel and an emergency medical team reached the spot and began rescue operations. Disaster relief teams and experts in borewell rescue operations from Coimbatore and Tiruchy had also joined in to rescue the child alive. The boy was pulled out from the borewell using rescue equipment around 5.20 pm. The child was rushed to Walajapet hospital, while a medical team attempted to resuscitate the child on the way.

“The boy died two or three hours before he was pulled out of the borewell,” said a doctor from the rescue team.

Collector R Nathagopal urged everyone to follow rules while digging up borewells. The district administration has sealed 350 abandoned borewells in the district last year, he said.

“We have constituted special teams to identify and report abandoned borewells in the district. We are also regularly conducting meetings and reviewing the action taken in this regard,” said the Collector.

The administration is also creating awareness among public to cover and seal the opened and abandoned borewells respectively.

According to government orders, the owner of the land should take precautions and close borewells, not in use, with an iron lid and erect a signboard to caution the public. Fencing should also be erected around it.

After chairing a review meeting on Tuesday, the collector said that only companies registered with the office of the Assistant Director (panchayats) should sink borewells. A landowner should get prior permission from the local body to dig borewells or for any repair work. The owner should erect a signboard with his name and address.

Rig owners and landowners should ensure that the abandoned borewell has been closed properly.

In the meantime, Deputy Superintendent of Police of Ranipet, M Nagarajan said that they have filed a case against the land owners — Rajendran and his brother Vijayakumar of the same village — under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC and an enquiry has commenced. “Action will also be taken against the persons or company that dug up the borewell and failed to cover and seal it properly,” said the DSP.