Bengaluru: Girl washed away in Bellandur drain

BENGALURU: A six-year-old girl playing by the retaining wall of a storm water drain near Marathahalli is suspected to have been washed away in the drain filled with rainwater on Friday afternoon. A search for the girl went on till night in vain and will be resumed in the morning.
Mallika N, younger daughter of Nityananda Kuli and Boni Kuli, was among a group of children playing near the drain. Mallika was trying to chase a boy when she slipped into the drain, police said.
Nityananda works as a security guard and Boni a housekeeper in a private apartment near the drain. Seven families, all from Assam, live in makeshift sheds near the drain and most of them work as housekeepers or security guards in the apartment. When Mallika fell into the drain between 2pm and 2.30pm, the other children alerted the elders. “A few women in the vicinity, too, raised an alarm. Soon, Nityananda and Boni arrived at the spot. Nityananda entered the drain and searched for his daughter for more than an hour, but in vain,” said Iqbal Khan, who resides near the sheds.
Incident worrisome, inquiry on: BBMP
Nityananda searched for his daughter for more than an hour. Owing to the depth and garbage, he met with no success. By then, police and fire and emergency services joined him,” Iqbal Khan, who was a part of the search operation, said.
Fire and emergency personnel, armed with metal hooks and four rubber boats, scoured the drain. The search operation was very slow as the water was too deep and the flotsam too became an obstacle.
Overnight rain pushed up water level in the drain. “It looks like we need assistance from National Disaster Response Force. At many places, the water is more than 10 feet deep with huge deposits of silt,” a senior officer said. The incident is “worrisome” as the drain is “completely fenced”, said a senior BBMP official from the storm water drain department, adding a miscreant may have cut the fence and the drain might have been in spate when the girl fell into it. “The Bellandur SWD has six cameras and sensors to alert us if water level breaches the 75% mark. But we received no such alert,” he added.
BS Prahallad, chief engineer (SWD), BBMP, said new sheds have come up in the buffer zone of Bellandur storm water drain. “We have ordered an inquiry,” he added.