After Lokesh’s death, Bhopal administration to act tough on open borewell

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): To ensure that no other child faces tragic death as that of Vidisha's eight-year-old Lokesh, the Bhopal collector on Wednesday directed all panchayat officials to undertake closure of all the open and abandoned borewells in their respective areas.

The administration on Wednesday closed an open borewell in the Kolar area, said the officials here.

A boy Lokesh Ahirwar was rescued on Wednesday nearly 24 hours after he fell into a borewell but he could not survive. The tragic death of the little boy has awakened the administration and efforts are being made to put an end to recurrence of incidents of children falling into abandoned and open borewells.

Collector Avniash Lavania issued a standing order directing the closing of all non functional borewells in the district. An NOC about every closed borewell will be sought from village panchayat secretary and on failure of which action will be taken against the official concerned. In case of occurrence of any mishap, the owner of the borewell as well as the panchayat official will be penalized and appropriate action will be taken against them.

SP rural Bhopal, Kiranlata Kirkatta told Free Press that IG of Bhopal range Irshad Wali has issued directions on the open-borewells. “The IG has instructed that a person will be rewarded for giving information about the opened borewells. Police will initiate action against people if their borewell is found opened”, she added.