CHANDIGARH: Following the unfortunate death of two-year-old boy Fatahveer Singh who was stuck in the borewell for over 100 hours, the Punjab government has detected around 130 borewell 'deathtraps' across the state. So far, as many as 45 of these have been sealed in an attempt to prevent recurrence of such tragic incident.
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had sought details on open borewells and has ordered an immediate closure of all open borewells across the state.
Deputy Commissioners of 12 out of 22 districts have submitted reports on the status of the borewells in their respective districts to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
Of the 130 open borewells, 48 of them were found in Bathinda alone.
Sources said that Bathinda the backyard of the Badal family has the highest number of borewells as the district has 48 of them and the district authorities have issued directions to close all of them, followed by Fategarh Sahib where 26 such borewells were found. Bassi Pathana and Khera have 13 each.
Furthermore, 19 of 20 borewells in Ropar district were reported to be lying unattended. Eleven of these in SAS Nagar (Mohali) district of these four in Lalru, two in Mehmedpur and one each in Dera Bassi and Kharar and two in Mohali city. Another eight were closed in Mansa district and the same number of borewells in Sangrur, three each in Patiala and Kapurthala, two in Gurdaspur district and one each in Jalanadhar and Hoshiarpur districts.
Incidentally, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Muktsar Sahib, and Taran Taran districts were found free of any open borewells.
Taking a serious note of the Suman incident in which two-year-old Fatehveer had failed to survive his prolonged ordeal inside a borewell, Amarinder on Tuesday, also asked the Disaster Management Group headed by the Chief Secretary to finalise a set of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to check and prevent such incidents in future. He had made it clear that he did not want any more lives to be lost in future on account of open borewells.
Meanwhile, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking framing of policy on borewells in the state was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.