MUMBAI, March 31: Two girls, Anupama (3) and Rupa (4), died on Monday when they fell into a 14-ft deep septic tank near their Shastri Nagar residence in Kalyan. The two had gone along with their elder sister Usha Phulkumar Jha (8) to a two-seater toilet block atop the Shastri Nagar hillock around 3 pm when the mishap occurred.Their father Phulkumar Jha, a kulfi vendor, today said his eldest daughter Usha was inside the toilet when she heard her sisters' screams. However, before she could come out and raise an alarm the girls had been swallowed by the filthy waters. Eye-witnesses said they saw Rupa's hand groping for a hold, but didn't know what to do. Though the neighbours managed to fish out her body with a pole within minutes, it was too late. Anupama's body could be removed only after the fire brigade emptied the tank in an operation that took over three hours.
Angry residents pointed out another girl had died after falling in the same tank on March 12. ``But as she died in the hospital two dayslater, the mishap did not come to the notice of media,'' said a resident. When this reporter visited the spot he found that the narrow approach path leading to the toilets had an open drain flowing through it leaving him with little choice but to walk along the septic tank. The covers on the two manholes have been missing, residents said, for a long time now. ``There have been innumerable accidents. People have fallen into the tank and suffered serious injuries,'' said Prakash Gawli, the local BJP ward president pointing at Lalita Sitaram Sawant (24), who was pulled out in the nick of time two months back after she fell into the tank. He showed a file full of correspondence with the KDMC in this regard. ``Looks like they are waiting for enough people to die,'' he said angrily. The `D' ward officer K S Chavan when contacted said, ``We had replaced the covers on receiving a complaint from the local corporator Balaram Gawli after the March 12 incident.'' He could not say why these lids were notsecured.
Interestingly for the 5,000 plus population of Shastri Nagar, this is the only toilet block. ``There were four blocks, but the other three were demolished for reconstruction and work on them is in progress,'' explained Deputy Engineer Ghanshyam Navangule. However, he admitted that ideally ``we need to have a block each for 500 people.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
