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Agonising wait for Abhishek’s body

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Effort in vain: Fire and Emergency Services personnel searching for the body of Abhishek at an open drain at Hennur Main Road in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: More than two days later and still counting, the body of six-year-old Abhishek Prakash, who was washed away in an open drain on Sunday night in Lingarajpuram, has still not been recovered.

Rescue efforts spread close to 10 km away from the boy’s modest house on Lokesh Tent Road.

The search was called off for the day around 7 p.m. on Tuesday after the squads of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and the Fire Department worked all day scouring the drainage lines till the Nagavara Tank in vain.

S. Puttuswamy, Additional Commissioner (East), BBMP, told The Hindu he would depute four additional batches of pourakarmikas on Wednesday to resume the search even if it meant extending it to the raja kaluve (main stormwater drain).

Residents allege that the BBMP only swung into full action on Tuesday morning after media criticism, while the civic officials claim the search began on Sunday night. “We could not do a thorough search that night because of the heavy rain,” said a senior BBMP official. This cut no ice with the locals who described that effort as an eyewash.

BBMP Commissioner S. Subramanya visited the Prakash residence on Tuesday evening after much flak from all quarters. “A compensation of Rs. 1 lakh was given to the family,” he told The Hindu. He rubbished TV reports of the BBMP offering to fund Abhishek’s sister’s education, or offering Bharati, the mother, a job.

The tragedy that befell Abhishek’s family comes in the wake of the equally horrendous death of 60-year-old Venkateshwarlu, who drowned in an open stormwater drain in Fraser Town on May 22. He was riding his two-wheeler when the powerful current in the drain dragged him to his death. His wife has not been given any compensation. Both these incidents have raised many questions about the civic authority’s monsoon preparedness which it had boasted about a fortnight ago.

Abhishek’s neighbours say had silt been removed from the drains, his body would have been found by now. However, a senior BBMP official claimed the work had been stalled because of the Lokayukta inquiry — instituted in 2005 — into an alleged scam involving removal of silt from drains.

On his part, Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde does not buy this argument. “The inquiry is independent of the work,” he clarified.

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