Alarmed after the tragic death of two-year-old toddler who had fallen into an abandoned borewell, Punjab Government has swung into action and as many as 100 open borewells were closed in various districts of the state.
The closure of borewells came on the strict directions of the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, that too came when the two-year-old Fatehveer Singh was retrieved dead from an abandoned borewell after 109 hours on Tuesday morning.
The child, had stuck in a 150-foor-deep borewell shaft at the height of 125 feet in Sangrur district, and was pulled out dead bringing nearly five-day rescue operation to a tragic end.
Shaken out of deep slumber, the Chief Minister had ordered closure of all open borewells across the state on Monday and had also sought reports from the deputy commissioners within 24 hours However, no report had been received by the Chief Minister’s Office till Tuesday with the officers maintaining that they would wait for another day.
As per reports received from various districts on Wednesday, as many as 100 borewells have been closed. However, the Chief Minister’s Office’s official statement maintained that as many as 45 open and abandoned borewells have been sealed in a bid to prevent recurrence of the tragic incident.
Spokesperson said that the Deputy Commissioners have submitted reports on the status of the borewells in their respective districts to the Chief Minister, which indicated that of the 45 borewells sealed so far, 26 were located in Fatehgarh Sahib district — 13 each were found in Bassi Pathana and Khera blocks.
Another eight were closed in Mansa district, three each in Patiala and Kapurthala, two in Gurdaspur district and one each in Ropar and Hoshiarpur districts.
In Ropar, where 19 borewells were reported to be lying unattended, one has already been covered and the process to close the rest was on.
Incidentally, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Sri Muktsar Sahib, and Tarn Taran districts were found free of any open borewells, said an official spokesperson.
Taking serious note of the Sunam incident in which Fatehveer had failed to survive his prolonged ordeal inside the borewell, the Chief Minister had, on Tuesday, also asked the Disaster Management Group headed by the Chief Secretary to finalise a set of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to check and prevent such incidents in future. Captain Amarinder had made it clear that he did not want any more lives to be lost in the state in future on account of open borewells.
Meanwhile, Bathinda DC B Srinivasan maintained that so far, 50 open borewells have been identified in Bathinda and they have been closed and the work on finding more such borewells is going on.
Patiala Deputy Commissioner Kumar Amit said 18 open borewells have been so far closed in the district and the work on the closure of other open borewells was still continuing.
Notably, Punjab Government has come under fire from the opposition over the death of Fatehveer with rival political parties blaming it for the “botched up” rescue operation that led to the death of the toddler.
