New Delhi: A day after Delhi High Court directed Delhi Jal Board to pay Rs 22-lakh compensation to the parents of a nine-year-old boy who died after falling in a pit in 2016, a three-year-old girl drowned in a waterlogged vacant plot in Rohini's Prem Nagar on Sunday morning.
The incident came to light when police received a call around 9 am from the girl's parents, who are daily wage labourers. The parents said that their daughter was playing outside their home since 8 am and had gone missing. "They initially suspected kidnapping. However, during the search, the child's body was discovered in a water-filled depression in a vacant plot near their residence," said an officer.
"Locals claimed that the plot frequently faces waterlogging due to sewerage issues. The situation worsens during monsoons. The residents said that they had repeatedly complained about the situation to the authorities concerned," the police officer added.
Preliminary investigation suggested that the toddler, who was playing unattended, accidentally fell into the plot and drowned. Police have initiated proceedings under relevant sections of BNS. The body was sent for post-mortem examination.
Earlier this month, a 13-year-old boy, who was walking to a playground near his house in Rajendra Park Extension in outer Delhi, slipped into an open drain and drowned. A few passersby tried to rescue him, but in vain. In Aug, a seven-year-old boy drowned in a waterlogged park in Rohini's Sector 20 while playing. In another incident that took place the same month, two boys lost their lives due to drowning in a water-filled pit in Rohini's Prem Nagar.