Search on for boy who fell into flooded drain in Meerut

Meerut: An 11-year-old boy who was trying to cross a temporary iron bridge placed over a flooded drain slipped and fell into it on Monday morning. The drain in Kamela road locality here is full of silt and garbage. A team of six people from Meerut Nagar Nigam and four JCB machines were deployed to search for him. Till evening, no trace of the boy had been found.

Tasneem Ali, father of Anas who fell into the drain, told TOI that he was eldest among his three children and was last seen crossing the iron bridge over the drain.

“My neighbour saw him slipping off the portable bridge. A few locals jumped into the drain to save him but the flow of the water was so swift that he vanished within seconds. The fact that the drain is full of garbage, has made it all the more difficult to find him,” added the wailing man, a daily wager.

According to officials, the drain is about 12 feet deep. The iron bridge from where the child slipped into the drain was placed a few years ago though residents had repeatedly complained to the authorities concerned that it was a very unsafe way for commuting as its width is barely 2.5 feet.

Ramsajeevan Yadav, Lisadigate police station in-charge, said the boy fell into the drain around 11:30 am and the rescue operation started around noon.

“ A team of six workers from Nagar Nigam and four JCB machines continuously searched for the boy in the stretch of around 2 km. The rescue operation continued till late evening but the boy couldn’t be traced,” added the policeman.

Meanwhile, the city road turned into a virtual pond with barely 50 mm of rainfall till 5:30 pm on Monday. At many places, drains, including the Abu Nallah, were overflowing with dirty water and filth. Interior areas in Lal Kurt and Hapur Adda witnessed waterlogging.


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