Cuttack: A 21-year-old youth reportedly died after falling into an open drain at Jhola Sahi in Odisha’s Cuttack city on Saturday night.
The deceased has been identified as Rahul, a native of Rajasthan. He was staying with his relatives here.
According to sources, he slipped and fell into the drain while on his way to a tea shop in the city, where several low-lying parts of Cuttack were waterlogged following heavy rain. He died at the spot. His father, who runs a tea stall in Puri, has lodged a complaint in connection with the incident with Purighat police. “I lost my elder son in such a freak mishap. I request the authorities to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the city,” he told the media.
“We have been long hearing about box drains. This is condition of the city after a few spells of heavy rain. Open drains in the city should be covered with slabs. This particular drain had broken during cyclone Fani and I had informed the municipal corporation about it,” said local corporator Gagan Ojha.
He blamed the the government and the Cuttack administration for the incident. “An estimate of Rs 1.4 crore was prepared for the restoration work. However, it was stopped and the tender was given to JICA, which has failed miserably in carrying out the work,” the corporator added.
In May, a 13-year-old girl had sustained grievous injuries after a decades-old iron bridge collapsed at Gamadia locality of Kesarpur under Purighat police limits and succumbed while undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital. The housing and urban development department later suspended two assistant engineers of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) for dereliction of duty.
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