Heroic attempts were made to save four-year old Mahi who was stuck in a seventy feet deep borewell in Manswar near the national capital. But she could not be saved. There was great earnestness in the effort to rescue her. But the incident exposed lack of elementary forethought. Personnel from the army, the National Security Guard and the Delhi Metro were deployed. Sophisticated equipments such as automated drilling machines and ground penetrating radar systems were brought in. But at the root was shocking apathy. Somebody dug a bore-well, could not strike water and did not fill the pit. It recalls the incident of six-year old Prince who was saved in Kurukshetra. The army did it. Darawath Mahesh fell into a bore-well in Warangal and died. Twelve-year old Bakul met the same sad end in Gujarat.
The Supreme Court had directed chief secretaries of all States to cap abandoned bore-wells two years ago. The highest number of incidents occurred in Haryana, UP, MP and Rajasthan. But Mahi’s death in Haryana proves that the directive is not followed. A magisterial enquiry will be made into the tragedy. The Haryana Government must punish the person responsible to set an example. Authorities who failed to ensure that the Supreme Court directive is observed must also be brought to book. Other types of callousness should also be officially dealt with as scrupulously, such as not doing anything about exposed electrical cables hanging loose. Or the fire that devastated the Mantralaya in Maharashtra recently.
