Hyderabad: Girl dies after falling into drain

Hyderabad: The poor infrastructural facilities in the so-called global city came to fore once again as a 11-year-old girl died after she fell into a pit on the road near her home following a heavy spell of rain on Saturday morning.

Police said the girl died after being washed away in the drain at Secunderabad. The girl's body was retrieved after the police, rescue personnel and residents joined hands to take her out of the drain. The girl had stepped out of her home along with her 15-year-old brother to buy milk from a nearby store.

The State Government claims it was striving to make the city one of the top 30 cities in the world. But at the ground level, it is unable to avoid such grave incidents.

This summer, the city is witnessing frequent unseasonal rains and monsoon is just a month away but the GHMC is yet to start pre-monsoon works like desilting of nalas. No serious efforts to make the city monsoon-ready has been taken. Between the last monsoon and now, the areas that get flooded still face the same threat.

GHMC Mayor Vijayalakshmi visited the site of the incident and expressed her anger over officials about the incident and suspended two civic body officials and announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of the girl.

Vijayalakshmi said regular meetings are held with GHMC officials on the condition of roads and other civic issues in the city and they are told that such incidents should not happen.

This incident has led to a war of words between BJP and BRS. Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, who visited the place, alleged that lack of coordination between GHMC and the water board in executing civic works led to the girl's death.

Reacting to this, Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav asked Kishan Reddy to spell out what he has done as Member of Parliament during the last four years and claimed that massive works are happening in the city under the Strategic Nala Development Programme. But so far neither the MAUD department nor GHMC has stated what short-term and long-term measures they would take to avoid such incidents before the monsoon enters the city in June. But no one is ready to take responsibility and ensure that such incidents do not happen.