Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government suspended an assistant engineer of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the death of a boy in an open drain.
According to a press statement of the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department, assistant engineer Santosh Kumar Das has been found guilty of not putting up a barricade on the open drain channel where 9-year-old Abu Bakr Shah was swept away Monday.
Das has been suspended and departmental proceedings have been initiated against him, it said.
The incident occurred at Masjid Colony in Unit-3 area of Bhubaneswar Monday afternoon when the boy accidentally fell into the open drain while trying to collect a balloon and was swept away by stormwater. Expressing grief over the incident, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had announced compensation of Rs 4 lakh for the deceased’s family.
Following the incident, H&UD minister Krushna Chandra Mohapatra had visited the site and sought a report from the BMC. After receiving the inquiry report, the action was taken Thursday, the department said.
PTI
