Demand for action against those responsible for the death of mother and child after falling into an open drain in Ghazipur, East Delhi

New Delhi, 2 August (HS). A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court demanding action against those responsible for the death of a mother and child after they fell into an open DDA drain in Ghazipur, East Delhi. The High Court will hear this petition on August 5.

The petition has been filed by Jhunnu Lal Srivastava. The petition demands that Delhi Police be directed to register an FIR in this case and start investigation into the death of the woman and her child. The petition says that responsibility for this incident should be fixed. Till now Delhi Police and DDA have not fixed anyone's responsibility. The petition demands that action should be taken against the contractor who constructed the drain and a detailed audit of the construction of drains in Delhi should be done so that such an incident does not happen again in future. The petition demands that a plan should be prepared to deal with situations like rain in Delhi and an order should be given to cover all the open drains of Delhi. Apart from this, the general public should be made aware through sign boards so that they stay away from the drains.

The petition states that in this case, there has been a blatant violation of DDA's Circular No. 135 dated 26 February 1986 which states that deep drains should not be left empty and no manhole should be without cover so that any accident can be avoided. The lack of flood management in Delhi and leaving the drains open violates the fundamental rights of Delhi residents as this is a matter related to the right to live.

It is noteworthy that 22-year-old Tanuja, a resident of Khoda Colony in Ghaziabad, and her three-year-old son Priyansh were passing through Ghazipur on July 31. Due to heavy rains, the Ghazipur drain was overflowing. The woman fell into the drain along with her child and both of them died.