Siblings die after falling into 6 ft-pit

Two children, aged 8 and 6, died after accidentally falling into an 6 feetdeep open pit in Kalwa's Saiba Nagar on Saturday. The pit had been dug by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) for drainage work. The aggrieved family and neighbours have demanded that the contractor be booked for negligence and have sought compensation for the deaths.

Siblings Nandini, 8, and Jitendra, 6, went out to play on Saturday afternoon and when they failed to return home, their parents and other area residents set out on a search for them. After a fruitless search, they decided to look in the area where the drainage pit had been dug. Their worst fears were confirmed when the children were found to have fallen in the pit. The rescue team managed to extricate them from the pit and rushed them to Kalwa's Shivaji Maharaj hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival.

The pit dug for drainage work at Saiba Nagar is 6-to-7 feet deep and is open at one end. No security personnel were around nor are there warning signs. "There are barricades on three sides of the pit and one side is usually kept open for work. We are investigating and the family will surely be compensated for the loss,"

said TMC Deputy Engineer Kailash Mumbaikar. "Jitendra would have begun school this year, joining his sister. We want justice for our children, their deaths were caused by negligence of the authorities," said their anguished father Kailashnath Gupta. Gupta and his wife are both handicapped, unemployed and have 2 more kids.