Cuttack: A young man, aged 21, died after falling into an uncovered drain at Jhola Sahi in Odisha’s Cuttack, a source said Sunday.
The deceased youth was identified as Rahul. He came from Rajasthan to visit his relatives in Cuttack.
While Rahul was en route to a teashop via Jhola Sahi Saturday, he fell into the open drain. Later, he was rescued and admitted to a nearby hospital. However, he breathed his last while undergoing treatment, the source informed.
It is worth noting that heavy rainfall had caused waterlogging in several low-lying areas of Cuttack Saturday.
Following the incident, the father of the deceased, who operates a tea shop in Puri, lodged an FIR at Purighat Police Station. He expressed his resentment over the abundance of open drains in the city and appealed the administration for prompt action.
Gagan Ojha, a local corporator, criticised the state government and held CMC (Cuttack Municipal Corporation) responsible for the incident.
Ojha said that he had previously requested the CMC Commissioner to put slabs on the open drains following which a restoration work of Rs 1.4 crore was planned. He further claimed that the sanctioned money was held back and he was told that JICA has taken tender for work in CMC area. JICA has miserably failed to do any fruitful work in Cuttack, he alleged.
Comments from CMC officials regarding the matter could not be obtained at the time of filing this report.
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In another such incident, a nine-year-old boy died after tumbling into an open drain in Bidanasi area of Cuttack January 15 this year.
PNN