By IANS,
Bangalore : More than 24 hours after an 18-month-old boy was washed away in a flooded drain here, his body has not been found and the search operation has shifted to a nearby lake, officials said Thursday.
Police, fire and city corporation personnel began searching the Madivala lake spread over around 115 hectares, about 15 km south of city centre, after they failed to find the body of Vijay in the drain in which he fell Wednesday morning.
The drain, flooded with heavy rain water, leads to the lake.
Vijay, son of migrant labourers from Tamil Nadu, slipped into the drain at around 7.30 a.m. Wednesday when he was playing near it. Soon after a 50-member team began the search for him.
“As they could not find the body in the drain, search has begun in the Madivala lake. Two dinghy boats have also been deployed at the lake,” a spokesperson of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (Greater Bangalore City Corporation) said.
Karnataka Transport Minister and in-charge of Bangalore rural district R. Ashok has announced a compensation of Rs.100,000 to the boy’s family.
Inconsolable parents of Vijay, Lakshamma and Vardharaju, are still in a daze.
“We need our son back, not money,” Lakshamma kept wailing.
The incident has brought lot of criticism from Bangaloreans who are agitated with the callous attitude of the Bangalore municipal authorities for not fencing drains in the city.
“It’s a known fact to all that drains get flooded during monsoon. City’s civic authorities don’t bother to fence the drains to prevent people slipping into them,” said Mamta Rai, a school teacher.
The city has witnessed heavy rains for last three days with flooded roads leading to traffic jams at several places. The meteorological department has predicted that heavy rains will continue over the next 48 hours.
Vijay is the second boy to die in the last few months after falling in a drain. On May 31, six-year-old Abhishek Prakash fell into an open drain. His body has still not been found.