Mahi death makes HC come alive to other such tragedies
CHANDIGARH: A week after fouryear-old Mahi died after falling into a 68ft borewell in Manesar, the Punjab and Haryana high court has issued a notice to the Haryana government, asking it to submit a detailed reports about similar incidents in the state.
On June 20, Mahi fell into the borewell at around 11pm after celebrating her birthday. After a mammoth effort by the army and other rescue teams, that lasted more than 80 hours, her body was recovered.
Justice MMS Bedi had taken suo motu notice of the news item featuring Mahi’s story - published in an English daily - and had sent it to the acting chief justice for treating as a public interest litigation (PIL).
On Monday, the case came up for hearing before the division bench, which issued a notice of motion to the state government for July 21.
According to the news report, Mahi had fallen in a well that was drilled in violation of the Supreme Court’s 2010 directions and a notification issued by the central groundwater authority prohibiting digging of borewells in Gurgaon district.
In his report, Justice Bedi said that in order to verify compliance of the apex court’s directions, immediate directions needed to be issued to the Haryana government and various authorities. The purpose being so they could answer questions such as how many inspections had been undertaken by the executive officer/district collector to monitor and check the status of borewells/tubewells drilled since the Supreme Court order.
Justice Bedi also suggested: “A detailed report be submitted regarding status of bore wells/ tubewells drilled, in use, found open, to be filled up to ground level, and filled up in various districts/ blocks/villages of Haryana.”