Boy’s death in borewell: HC raps civic bodies and media
◗ Rescuers pulled out the decomposed and mangled body of Sujith Wilson early Tuesday from deep inside the borewell, after a futile 80hour attempt to save the child
Chennai,
Oct. 29: The Madras high court on Tuesday made strong observations asking whether the government needs a corpse to act on implementing each and every statute, hours after the decomposed body of a two-year-old boy was pulled out from an unused borewell.
Rescuers pulled out the decomposed and mangled body of Sujith Wilson early Tuesday from deep inside the borewell, after a futile 80-hour attempt to save the child who had fallen in while playing near his house in a village in Tamil Nadu.
In oral observations, the court also rapped the media, saying it was not streaming anything constructive in creating public awareness on the implementation of rules and regulation on borewells and tubewells, except giving a live relay on the rescue operations that eventually ended on a tragic note.
It further observed that everybody has a social responsibility to bring awareness and it is more on the media in publishing the guidelines issued by the state government based on the SC order.
A division bench of Justices M. Sathyanararayanan and N. Seshasayee was hearing a petition seeking a direction to authorities for strict implementation of guidelines issued by the top court and for enforcement of The Tamil Nadu Panchayats Rules 2015.
The court impleaded the civic authorities and directed them to produce details on the action taken against violators who had failed to comply with the conditions stipulated for digging borewells and tubewells. The plea was filed by V. Ponraj, a scientist who had worked with former president late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and was the director, Technology Interface.
The court said the counter-affidavit to be filed by November 21 should have details on the number of permissions granted and the list of contractors and entities who were accorded permission to dig borewells and tubewells and list of unused and abandoned borewells and tubewells as well as the penal action taken against the violators.