A tragic incident in Tamil Nadu's Namakkal district has highlighted the grave dangers of civic negligence. A four-year-old boy lost his life after falling into an open pit dug for drainage work, which was left uncovered during the New Year holiday.
How the Namakkal Tragedy Unfolded
The victim has been identified as Rohit, son of Manikandan and Rathipriya, residents of Chinnamuthalaipatti. On the evening of Thursday, New Year's Day, Rohit was playing on Kadakkal Street in ward 4 of Namakkal corporation.
His grandfather, Veeran, later realized the child was missing and alerted the parents. The frantic family searched the area and made the horrifying discovery. They found Rohit's body in an approximately five feet deep pit that was stagnated with drain water.
Investigation Reveals Shocking Negligence
The Namakkal police were immediately informed and recovered the boy's body. It was sent to the Namakkal Government Medical College Hospital for a postmortem. Following the incident, corporation commissioner Sivakumar and other officials visited the site for an investigation.
The inquiry revealed a chain of failures. The civic body had dug the pit for underground drainage work a couple of days prior. However, on Thursday, workers did not turn up as it was New Year, and the hazardous pit was left completely uncovered, with no safety barriers or warnings in place.
"A notice has been issued to the contractor and the official in charge of the work, and appropriate action will be taken," assured Commissioner Sivakumar. A case has been registered, and further investigation is ongoing.
Compensation and Aftermath
The boy's body was handed over to his grieving family on Friday after the postmortem procedure. Responding to the heartbreaking loss, the district administration has issued a compensation of ₹20 lakh to the boy's family.
This incident in Namakkal has sparked outrage and renewed calls for strict enforcement of safety protocols at all public work sites to prevent such preventable accidents.
