7-year-old drowns in pit left unattended at construction site in Bangalore

Our city just does not learn. Despite several children losing their lives in a series of absolutely avoidable accidents, yet another child died in an incident in Tilaknagar that could well have been averted with a little care.

Seven-year-old Subbu, son of a bangle-seller, studying in Std 2 of a government school in Jayanagar, died when he fell into a water-filled pit dug for an elevator at a construction site just a lane away from his residence in Tilaknagar’s Arasu Colony on Sunday afternoon. Subbu’s parents, Narayanaswamy and Manjula, said their son had left home at about 4.30pm to play cricket.

“Normally he returned home before 6pm, but yesterday he did not return home even past 10 in the night, when we decided to complain to the police.” The worried parents filed a missing complaint late on Sunday night after looking for him in the entire neighbourhood. Subbu’s body was found in the water-filled pit on Monday morning after policemen launched a search. The police said work at the site was stopped for several months and nobody drained the water from the pit.