BHUBANESWAR: Even as Anil Singh of Patharbandha slum remained untraced more than 24 hours after he was swept away in a drain near Vani Vihar on Saturday, the incident has once again brought into focus the failure of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to identify dangerous stretches along water channels and secure them to prevent such accidents during rains.
Around 25 personnel from two fire services teams and a strike force continued the search operation along the downstream stretch of the main drain no-4 up to Gangua and Kuakhai through Sunday.
“The teams resumed the search operation in the morning and continued till evening. However, the victim remained untraced,” said deputy fire officer Narayan Dash.
The incident has exposed BMC’s abject failure to adequately barricade open drains and install warning signs, particularly during the monsoon season.
A fire services official said when the rescue teams reached the spot where the 35-year-old man had allegedly slipped into the drain while collecting waste, they found that one side of the structure had no barricade, making it highly vulnerable to such accidents.
Although the civic body implements safety measures such as installing warning signs, erecting barricades and deploying civic staff to monitor vulnerable locations during the monsoon, these initiatives are often taken only after a tragic accident and resultant public outrage. The corporation’s drainage wing has failed to sustain these initiatives on multiple occasions, allowing safety measures to lapse until another tragedy occurs, locals alleged.
After a 15-year-old boy died after falling into a drain in Satabdi Nagar area in September 2021, the BMC had temporarily barricaded around 35 vulnerable locations and installed warning signs along major drains during the monsoon.
Similarly, after a nine-year-old boy was swept away in an open drain in June 2024, the civic body barricaded around 30 vulnerable locations along natural drains in the city.
However, such preventive measures, including barricading vulnerable stretches and installing warning signages, are yet to be taken this season.
Municipal commissioner Chanchal Rana and officials of BMC drainage wing could not be reached for their comments.
A senior official from the corporation, however, said directions have now been issued to engineers of the drainage wing to identify vulnerable points and install barricades along with warning signs.
