Boy’s death: SCB refutes charge

The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) has denied responsibility for the death of a seven-yearold boy who fell into the Chinna Thokatta nala in Bowenpally area and drowned.

An official of the board said the SCB had given the contract for the nala-widening works to an outside agency and it was the responsibility of the contractor to ensure safety at the worksite.

“A simple barricade along the site of excavation would have sufficed. The contractor told us that he had another work in progress and the Caution boards had been sent there,” the official from SCB’s engineering wing said on Sunday.

“Due to the rain over the past few days, the soil was soft and loose and the boy slipped into the nala,” he said.

An excavator at the site too had slipped because of the loose soil, he added.

Some of the tin sheet barricades erected there had fallen down in the rain over the past few days but they were not re-erected, indicating an absence of site supervision by the ● An official of the board said the SCB had given the contract for the nala-widening works to an outside agency and it was the responsibility of the contractor to ensure safety at the worksite. board.

It appears the Cantonment Board did not learn any lesson from an incident on the same stretch of the nala six years ago when a 31-year-old man fell in nala and also lost his life. The board has a six km-long nala network.

It was in 2016 that 31year-old Mekala Rakesh, a resident of Chinna Thokatta area, fell into the nala and died. Meanwhile, the inspector of police, Bowenpally, Ravi Kumar, said the case was being looked into.

Confederation of Cantonment residents welfare association (CCRWA) secretary D.L.S. Sreshti, said despite previous accidents, the SCB does not take residents in areas near the nalas into confidence when works are taken up.

“Earlier, there was some civilian representation. While the elected body has been dissolved, there is no one to hear our problems,” he said.