Three-year-old boy falls into borewell; rescue operation on

Sangareddy: Efforts are on to rescue the boy who accidentally fell into an abandoned open borewell at Bommareddigudem under Phulkal mandal of Medak district on Saturday.

Ramulu, a resident of the village, drilled two borewells on his farmland twice since Friday night. But they failed to yield water. He left the borwell open.

Meanwhile, Bairu Rakesh, 3, and his brother Balesh, 8, whose house is located adjacent to the farmland, were playing near one of the open holes when accidentally Rakesh fell into the borewell head first. His brother Balesh tried to grab the legs, but in vain.

The incident took place at 7 am on Saturday morning. By 8.30 am fire fighters, police, medical help and other officials reached the spot, deploying five earthmovers to dig and rescue the boy.

A camera was sent into the borewell, which ascertained that Rakesh was 30-31 feet underground and his legs could be seen as his body was upside down.

The earthmovers have been working continuously since morning, but until evening, only about 10 feet deep trenches were dug around the borewell. The delay was attributed to large boulders and rocks coming out of the ground, which made it difficult for the low-capacity earthmovers to carry out the work swiftly.

The villagers have been expressing their anguish against the use of low-capacity machines. However, by 7 pm, three high capacity L&T earth movers were brought from Miyapur to speed up the rescue efforts.

Medak RDO Nagesh, Jogipet SHO Nagaiah, Phulkal SI Satyanarayana, Irrigation Department SE Ramulu, 108 ambulance, medical and health officials and several policemen were stationed to assist in the rescue efforts. Zaheerabad MP BB Patil personally supervised the rescue efforts in the evening.

Bairu Sailu, father of Rakesh blamed the owner of the land for being careless and failing to close the open borewells, causing the accident.

Ramulu, the property owner is still absconding. He had no prior permission from the MRO before drilling the borewell, which is mandatory according to the WALTA (Water Land and Trees) Act. Many people from the village and neighbouring villages came down in huge numbers to witness the rescue efforts, praying for a safe rescue of the kid.