india

Updated: Jun 10, 2019 14:15 IST

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Sangrur administration have failed to rescue a toddler who has been stuck in a 150-foot-deep borewell in Sunam subdivision since Thursday afternoon.

His family, who were awaiting a miracle a day before his birthday, are fast losing hope. The boy turns two on Monday.

Throughout the day, the administration kept assuring people gathered at the spot in Bhagwanpura village that the toddler, Fatehveer Singh, would be rescued within an hour, but the rescue teams even failed to trace him till late night.

To retrieve the boy, a parallel borewell has been dug by installing reinforced cement concrete (RCC) pipes of nearly 36 inches in diameter. However, as rescuers were close to reaching the child, they were facing some technical issues. Having reached a depth of 120 feet, they have to dig horizontally for about two to three feet, where the boy is suspected to be stuck.

Meanwhile, amid shortage of experts, the NDRF team had to call two locals, who are engaged by villagers to dig borewells.

The child fell into the unused borewell in a field when he was playing near his house around 4pm on Thursday. The seven-inch-wide borewell was covered with a cloth and the boy accidentally stepped on it. His mother tried to rescue him, but failed. “We are quite close to reaching the child. We were hoping to complete the operation during the day, but we are facing some technical issues and hopefully these will be overcome,” Sangrur deputy commissioner Ganshyam Thori said in the evening.

No food could be provided to the child, who has been unconscious after he fell into the borewell, Thori said, adding that oxygen was being supplied to him.

Questions raised over lack of modern tech for rescue Punjab education and PWD minister Vijay Inder Singla, who has been camping at the site, claimed the rescue teams tried all methods, but eventually chose to dig manually as it was the “last and perfect” method available.

“The digging is being carried out by locals. It is a slow process,” said Singla, adding that chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has called him up multiple times to get updates about the rescue operations.

Meanwhile, followers of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda turned up in huge numbers to help with the digging work. Residents from neighbouring villages too turned up to serve langar prepared in the village gurdwaras. Youths of various social organisations were seen serving tea and water to the rescue teams and those gathered there.

“We are taking help of many social organisations besides the NDRF team,” said Singla.

However, the Opposition cornered the government over the issue. Leader of opposition Harpal Singh Cheema alleged the state government failed to ensure safe recovery of the child.

“The rescue operation is being run with traditional methods by locals. Captain Amarinder Singh’s government has failed. Though local Congress leaders had arrived, the minister concerned and technical experts are missing,” he alleged.

Earlier, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Gobind Singh Longowal also inspected the rescue operations and raised concern over “slow working” of the rescue teams. “When the world is using high-tech ways in such situations, why has the administration failed to do so here?”

Giving details of the operation, Thori said the NDRF personnel had managed to clamp both the hands of the child in the early phase of the rescue operation on Thursday, but given the peculiar position where he is stuck, they could not risk pulling him as he could be harmed.

Thori said a team of doctors are stationed at the site to provide the best medical assistance to Fatehvir whenever he is taken out of the borewell. He said an ambulance equipped with a ventilator has also been stationed at the site.

On Saturday morning, officials, who were monitoring the boy’s condition through camera, had said some movements of the child were noticed. Thori, who is supervising the rescue operation, described it as the “rarest of the rare”, and said it was quite challenging as there were a lot of technicalities involved.

The incident has again brought to fore the dangers posed by uncovered borewells, which have turned into death traps for children. In March, an 18-month-old boy was rescued from a borewell in Haryana’s Hisar district, two days after he had fallen into it. In 2006, five-year-old Prince had made national headlines as people stayed glued to their televisions watching the live coverage of his rescue operations after he fell into a borewell in a village in Kurukshetra. He was pulled out safely nearly 48 hours later.

State minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the government must frame a law and book the borewell owners for murder charge if any child falls into a borewell, which has been left open.

(with inputs from PTI)