12-year-old washed away in Deepanjali Nagar

The victim was watching a group of boys retrieving a ball from the fast moving waters

A 12-YEAR-OLD boy is presumed to have drowned after he was washed away in Deepanjali Nagar following heavy rain in the city on Friday.

Despite a massive search operation by fire personnel, there has been no luck in locating Arvind, a class VII student of Bapuji Government School in Vijaya Nagar.


Arvind was washed away in Vrishabhavati river. Firemen have launched a massive operation to recover the body.


The incident happened when Arvind climbed atop a pile of silt, which the BBMP had removed from the drain a month ago, and slipped while watching a group of boys retrieving a ball from the fast moving waters.

Difficult task
Chief Engineer Anand Swamy, in-charge of south zone, said, "It is a very daunting situation here. The stretch of drain runs about 20 km up to Shanmangala Lake in Kumbalgodu, where the perennial flow is heavy."

The officers, in co-ordination with the fire department, are manning the search operation and around 70 officials have been deployed for this purpose.

Officials of the fire department informed this reporter that it had to cut short search activity during the night, because of limited infrastructural facilities.

'Don't blame us'
Meanwhile, Chief Engineer Srinivas Reddy blamed slum dwellers for the accident. "The population of 1 crore and 40 lakh plus is too much for BBMP, BDA and BWSSB to handle.

The slum, where the victim lives, is built on encroached land, which happens to be beside the storm-water drain.
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If we evict them, they go to court and get a stay. And when such incidents occur, they hold us responsible," he said.

Deepanjali Nagar Corporator Chandrashekar said, "We have appraised the matter to higher officials.u00a0 BBMP commissioner, Mayor and Deputy Mayor had visited the spot on the same day and consoled the boy's family.

A compensation package will be discussed in a meeting tomorrow. Meanwhile, we have roped in a few fishermen and deputed them in nearby lakes to help to locate the body."

Similar past
The incident is a grim reminder of what happened on May 31, 2009. Abhishek Prakash (6), was washed away in Lingarajpuram and a prolonged search operation failed to yield results.