India's IT capital Bangalore has become a death gorge for residents since the arrival of monsoon, and two minors have already fallen victim and lost their lives to open drains and manholes.
Bangalore has since long been complaining about the poor drainage systems, manholes and open pits that has at many instances resulted in deaths. In a recent case, 12-year-old Yashwant's body was fished out of an open pit, hours after he fell in it while playing with friends. Just a day ago, an eight-year-old girl met with a similar fate.
On Wednesday, a team of National Disaster Response Force found the decaying body of Geetha Lakshmi who fell into an open drain near IIM-Bangalore in Bilekahalli, Bannerghatta Road, on Monday. Her body was washed away in the heavy rain, which has lashed the city in the past few days, to a lake two kms away from where she had fallen, Hindustan Times reported.
Lakshmi's body was sent to her parents after a post-mortem, police said, adding that BBMP's failure in assuring safety while carrying out distillation programmes have resulted in the incident.
"We have taken up a case against the BBMP and an investigation will reveal the identities of the people responsible for the tragic incident. Maintaining the storm water drainage system in the city is the duty of the BBMP. Failure to do their duty has resulted in the death of an innocent girl," a police official told The Indian Express.
Lakshmi , who was visiting her grandparents in Bangalore on the occasion of Dussehra, accidentally fell into the open drain, which was overflowing. The child failing to figure out that the drain was uncovered stepped on it and fell into the pit, after which she was carried away to the nearby lake, The Times of India reported.
