The Delhi High Court on Friday directed all public and land-owning agencies, including the government, to cordon off and regularly inspect all manholes, pits, holes, tanks in the Capital.
The High Court gave the direction while ordering the Public Works Department (PWD) to pay over ₹12 lakh as compensation to the mother of a child who died after falling into a pit in a south-east Delhi park in 2015.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar ordered the PWD to deposit ₹12,47,500 with the Registrar General of the court within four weeks.
The court’s order came on a case initiated by it after taking suo motu cognizance of a news report on the death of an 11-year-old boy, who had gone on a school picnic and died after falling into an uncovered rainwater harvesting pit at the Millennium Park in December 2015.
The Bench ordered all public authorities, land-owning agencies, Chief Secretary of the Delhi government, the Central Public Works Department, the Delhi Development Authority, the PWD, municipal corporations, the Delhi Cantonment Board, the New Delhi Municipal Council, the Delhi Jal Board, electricity companies, telephone companies, and the Delhi Police Commissioner to ensure all pits and manholes are regularly inspected.
“These sites (manholes, pits, holes, tanks) shall be cordoned off to render them inaccessible to the public,” the court said. It directed that the sites should be clearly marked with signboards and signages. “If they are required to be covered, the authorities shall ensure that the covers are in place,” the Bench ruled.