Kids drowning: Panel seeks report from Mohali DC, SSP

The Punjab State and Chandigarh (UT) Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of deaths of children by drowning in Mohali. The commission has sought report from the Mohali SSP and DC a week before the next date of hearing on August 27.

After perusing the news-item — “Day after two kids drown at Mohali park, admn bats for community vigil” — published in the columns of Chandigarh Tribune on July 4, indicating that despite three drowning related deaths involving children in the past 24 hours, the police and the district administration did not find anomaly in incidents.

The commission comprising chairperson Justice Sant Parkash and member Justice Gurbir Singh passed the orders.

The police said they had inspected spots and found that there was nothing unnatural, while administration officials did not even conduct a probe into deaths so far.

Two children lost their lives after drowning in stagnant rainwater at a vacant park in Sector 119. One of the victims, Aradhya, 8, was playing near the park when she stepped into 10-feet-deep water accidentally. Aryan, 10, who was also playing there reached for the girl, but both kids drowned in panic. Another 10-year-old boy, Harishanker, son of Hari Chander, a migrant labourer from Bihar, drowned in a pit in the low-lying area of Bakarpur village in IT City on Thursday.

Chandigarh