Nearly a week after a carelessly kept iron gate fell on a 6-year-old girl crushing her to death near a pond in Vasai, the civic authorities are yet to wake up from their slumber and file a police case. To prevent more such accidents, a bunch of local youth have taken it upon themselves to secure the other gates around the Papdi talav with ropes and wires. The tribal girl, Bhumi Mere, was playing with a cousin at the entrance of the Papdi talav when a gate fell on her. Locals said the heavy iron structure had come off its hinges and was kept leaning against a wall.

“We waited for a few days for civic officials to visit the spot where Bhumi Mere was crushed under the heavy iron gate. When no one visited, I along with my friends Darshan Bager and Raj Jaiswal tied the iron gates with coconut fibre ropes and wire to the iron fencing so that they don’t fall on passersby,” said Nikhil Mhatre, a local resident. He said, “Since all the gates have got delinked from hinges for over two years, motorists park their vehicles on the talav campus.”