BANGALORE: The JP Nagar police have charged BBMP officials with negligence and the heat is likely to turn up over the next few days with Mayor Shantha Kumari asking for an enquiry report on Thursday.
Police have booked an FIR against the Assistant Executive Engineer of Arakere ward and the contractor tasked with the drain work. A case of death due to negligence under Section 304 A of IPC has been registered and after further investigation, cases will be booked against others responsible, police said.
To a query on incidents of drowning in stormwater drains, BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said so far, six cases have been reported. He added that BBMP has to take the blame for the nine-year-old girl’s death.
Stone slabs meant to cover the storm water drain were missing in places and the child fell into the drain at one such spot. “It is possible that somebody moved a slab but it is the responsibility of the officials to make sure that the slabs are put back in place,” he said.
When asked if action will be taken against the contractor, he said while contractors could be warned no action can be taken against them.
The Mayor said action will be taken against the officials concerned based on a preliminary report that will be submitted on Thursday morning.
She said BBMP had covered the drains three days ago after desilting works were completed. Why a single slab was left open will be probed into, she added.
Considering that one engineer monitors four wards including a ward as big as Bommanahalli, she said steps will be taken to address this as well.
Frenzied Crowd at Site
As soon as the body was removed from the lake, chaos reigned near Ranka Colony. People crowded around the body and tried to console the distraught relatives. With the crowd refusing to budge, KSRP and the jurisdictional police wielded their lathis to make way for the body to be shifted out.
After the postmortem, the body was handed over to the family, which then left for Tamil Nadu for the last rites.
‘slabs will be covered up soon’
With rescue operations coming to an end, Lakshminarayana said the slabs that were removed for search operations will be put in place immediately and the roads that were dug up will be covered. Desilting works were completed recently, he said. “Ironically, because of this, the flow of water was not constricted, which resulted in the body travelling so far, so fast,” he added.