Three-year-old Rishikesh’s life was rudely cut short due to an Open Manhole in Mira Bhayandar

Posted on 16th Feb 2014 by admin

Three-year-old Rishikesh’s life was rudely cut short due to an Open Manhole in Mira Bhayandar By PDBHATIA(Mira-Bhayander) Thane , Maharashtra “A three-year-old-boy died after falling into an open manhole in Bhayandar (E) on Tuesday night. He was returning home with his mother, after visiting a doctor. MBMC has blamed rampant theft of iron manhole covers for the mishap. Rishikesh Gupta and his mother were walking on the pavement on their way back to Om Shri Balaji Darshan Apartment in Bhayandar (E) on Tuesday night, when he suddenly fell into an open manhole. His mother was unaware of it as she was walking ahead. When she realised that Rishikesh was nowhere in sight, she started shouting for help.

Locals helped her search for Rishikesh. When she neared the open manhole, she could see her son’s slippers through the opening. The Fire Brigade was called and after a two-hour search, they were about to leave the area, when a fireman spotted a hand in the dark gutter.
It turned out to be the body of Rishikesh. The child had been trapped in the huge garbage mess of vegetable leftovers which had clogged the gutter, said Classo Fernandes, chief fire officer, Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) Fire Brigade. He has blamed the local vegetable vendors, who openly throw discarded vegetable ends in to the manhole. Senior PI Rajendra Mohite of Navghar Police Station visited the site and took stock of the situation. A case of accidental death has been registered, he said.

Meanwhile, MBMC Deputy Commissioner, Sambhaji Panpatte said the MBMC would replace all iron manhole covers with fibreglass covers to prevent theft. He said even concrete lids were not spared by thieves.

The MBMC will conduct a survey of all manholes in Mira Road and Bhayandar within a fortnight and undertake the replacement job, he added. In February 2009, an 8-year-old boy, Irshad Ahmed, had fallen to death into an open manhole in the same area.” This is the report which has been carried by the most of the News papers, But here’s the truth!! Which can be seen on the Citizen Journalist show on CNN-IBN in few days, as per the reports by the News papers the Fire Brigade was called, yes they were called but as per the parents of Rishikesh Gupta no one was ready to even check the Manhole where the kid had fallen down, the fire brigade personnel were not agreeing to get down in to the manhole to search for the kid , after the mother saw the slipper of the kid and raised a huge cry and when the local citizens started screaming at the fire brigade personnel one of them picked up a heavy bamboo and started pressing inside the gutter to see if he could find anything “ By pressing a heavy bamboo rod inside the manhole even if the child would have been alive, he would have got pressed by it and died, Finally after an search of 30 minute’s finally when the fireman decided to entered the gutter due to excessive pressure from the parents of Rishikesh and local citizens his body was located inside the manhole. These are the words of the parents of Rishikesh who were inconsolable when I met them along with Ms.Aruna the CNN-IBN correspondent and Mr. Mohnish their Camera person. It was shocking to hear & read how much the media has been given a fabricated sad incident in to a masala report. As per the media reports .Senior PI Rajendra Mohite of Navghar Police Station visited the site and took stock of the situation. A case of accidental death has been registered, The truth is till now there has been no report filed by the Police even as of today, now, there was no report filed by the police station, the father of Rishikesh has been pleading with the PI Rajendra Mohite of Navghar Police station to file a FIR to which he got a reply “he can only file a FIR after getting a approval from his Senior-Ups !! That’s ridiculous isn’t this a blatant denial of Justice to a already a pain stricken family, which is yet to recover from the shock of losing their 3 year old child. I even met the Commissioner of the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation Shivmurthy Naik who first even refused to meet us and finally met us after a wait of over more than an hour in the evening on 17th December, 2009 when we refused to budge from his office without meeting him. What the Commissioner of the MBMC told us was even more shocking!! First he bluntly refused to take any responsibility for the Negligent and unruly pattern of working of the MBMC which has left a Yawning Gap in the City’s civic Administration due to which the life of 3 year old Rishikesh was lost. Secondly he fabricated a story of the manhole covers being robbed “The Manhole covers which he described to us as being stolen are made of Concrete and not iron. In the entire Mira-Bhayander Area there may be hardly 10 or 15 manhole covers which are made of Iron, the third lie the manhole where Rishikesh fell in was open for more than a year for which repeated Complaints were given to the MBMC office…. But nothing changed and finally …..the entire areas manhole covers were covered in one night itself when Rishikesh’s life was rudely cut short due to an Open Manhole. What is the MBMC hiding?? Their failure as a system?? The Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation has become a office of Corruption where Corruption rides on its peak. Even after having a population of over 9, 37,284 citizens there is no City Engineer for the city from last 3 years, A suspended water department Engineer Shivaji Rao Barkund who himself is under suspension and under trial for Corruption Charges has been given the additional post of City Engineer, His cabin carries the sign of City Engineer but he refuses to take any responsibility as an city Engineer…… It’s a pity and Shame for the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation which has not been able to get a City Engineer from last 3 years who has to be supervising the overall Maintenance work of the area. And finally the last Lie of the MBMC Commissioner which he told on camera…… As per the reports in the news papers the MBMC Deputy Commissioner, Sambhaji Panpatte said the MBMC would replace all iron manhole covers with fibreglass covers to prevent theft. He said even concrete lids were not spared by thieves.

The MBMC will conduct a survey of all manholes in Mira Road and Bhayandar within a fortnight and undertake the replacement job…… the Commissioner of MBMC went on tell us on camera that they had put fibre glass covers in few places and even they have got stolen already…. Who is lying here the Deputy Commissioner or the Commissioner it’s up to the readers of this article to understand. This is a wake up call for all the residents of Mira-Bhayander and other citizens don’t believe what you are told unless you are aware of the real facts. Wake up and fight back………JAI HIND