SC notice on plea for saving kids from open bore wells

The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Centre, states and Union Territories (UTs) on a plea seeking action on authorities concerned for failing to put in place safeguards to prevent fatal accidents where children had fallen into abandoned or open bore wells across the country.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justice M.R. Shah agreed to hear the plea and issued notice on the parties concerned.

The plea, filed by advocate G.S. Mani, also sought direction against erring government official, for non-compliance of directions issued by the top court in 2010.

Mani said citizens were facing consequences due to failure of administration to close these open bore wells. He cited several deaths, which have taken place across the country. First incident was highlighted in 2006 when a child was rescued by the Army from an open bore well. Mani has urged the court to bring on record action taken by government authorities to prevent children from falling into open or abandoned bore well pursuant.

Mani filed a similar plea in October last year citing the deplorable incident of the death of a two-year-old boy, who fell into an open bore well in Tamil Nadu, which raised the issues of negligence by the authorities. The public suit had sought directions from the apex court to order the authorities concerned to take proper measures to avoid such a situation in future.

Two-year-old Sujith Wilson fell into an abandoned bore well at Nadukattupatti near Manapparai in Tamil Nadu. His body was later retrieved after over 80 hours of rescue efforts that proved unsuccessful.

The plea mentioned the incident of another two-year old boy who died after being stuck for 110 hours in a borewell in Punjab's Sangrur in June.

Requesting the apex court to issue direction to authorities concerned to comply with its order delivered on August 6, 2010, the petitioner said that these incidents are on account of the non-implementation and non-compliance of the Supreme Court's order.

Noting that there has been no compliance with the court's order, the petitioner said: "A judicial verdict must be implemented or complied with by the concerned authorities in full letter and spirit. A mere implementation or compliance only on paper direction will not give full effect of implementation of court verdict."

( With inputs from IANS )