A three-year-old girl got trapped at about 30-feet depth in a borewell pit in Mungaoli village of Sehore district on Tuesday afternoon. Rescue operations have been launched by a state disaster emergency response force (SDERF) team along with the Sehore district administration.
Four JCB machines and six excavators have been pressed to dig a parallel pit and till writing of this report, they had reached 20 feet depth. A tunnel will be dug when the parallel rescue pit reaches the level where the girl – Srishti Kushwaha – is trapped, district administration sources said.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has instructed the local administration to take all possible steps to rescue the girl safely and is taking constant feedback. “I have instructed the local administration to take necessary steps. I am also in constant touch with the administration. The rescue team is trying to save the baby girl safely. I pray for the well-being of the daughter,” the CM said in a tweet.
Ex-chief minister and MP Congress chief also prayed for safe rescue of the girl, but flayed the state government for failing to take stringent steps to get all borewell pits covered. “The open borewell pits are turning fatal for the children. Had the administration promptly got the open borewells closed, this situation would not have happened. A campaign should be launched again to get the open borewells closed in the state so that innocent people and their relatives can be saved from unpleasant situations,” Nath said in a tweet.
Fourth incident in six months; two kids died
This is the fourth such incident of a child falling in open borewell pits in Madhya Pradesh during the past six months. Two of the children–both boys aged eight years in Betul and Vidisha–unfortunately could not be saved in incidents that occurred in December 2022 and March 2023, while a three-year-old girl was rescued safely in February 2023.
The incidents continue despite the periodic statements of the state government that strict action will be taken on those leaving borewell pits open. Home Minister Narottam Mishra had said after an incident in June 2022 (when a four-year-old had been safely rescued in Chhatarpur district in a joint operation by the Army and SDERF) that criminal offence will be registered against landowners if borewells on such lands were found open. He had also said that the cost of the rescue operations in case of children falling into such pits would be recovered from the landowners.
However, incidents continued and there have been no reports of any stringent action or a proper policy.
The strong statements were repeated by other ministers and Chief Minister Chouhan himself after eight-year-old Lokesh Ahirwar died after remaining trapped in a pit for 24 hours in Vidisha in March this year.
Interestingly, following CM’s directive Sehore district collector (like other collectors) came out with an order on March 16, 2023, saying that action under section 188 of IPC will be taken against those leaving borewells open in the district. However, another unfortunate incident occurred on Tuesday.
Srishti, only daughter of Rahul Kushwaha, was playing outside her home on Tuesday afternoon when she ventured towards the newly dug borewell pit in the farm of a neighbour and fell down, sources said. Oxygen is being supplied to the pit through a pipeline and attempts were also made to provide food and water to Srishti.
Inspection cameras were inserted in the pit to keep an eye on the movements of the child. Sources said that earlier she was speaking, but there has been no sound from her for the past one hour (at 7.30 pm). Medical and ambulance teams and senior officers of district police and administration were camping at the rescue site.
