This is the Pits

The Orissa High Court pulled up the state government and asked it to pay Rs 10 lakh each to the fathers of two girls who drowned in a pit in an anganwadi which wasn't barricaded

- Adarsh Kumar

THE Orissa High Court recently ordered the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh each to the parents of two 4-year-old girls playing at an anganwadi centre who drowned in a pit on September 7, 2012. It ruled that their death was a violation of their constitutional right to life.

The division bench, headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar, said the tragic deaths were entirely avoidable and would not have occurred if barricades had been erected around the excavated pit. A petition was filed by the fathers of the two children.

Monalisa Naik, the daughter of Jambeswar Naik, and Priyanka Das, the daughter of Pitabas Das, went to the anganwadi operating in Tentulihata Project Upper Primary School in Angul District on September 7, 2012. When the children failed to return after the anganwadi was closed, the fathers searched for them. The bodies of both children were found by the students in waterlogged pits in the school and sent to the local nursing home where they were declared dead.

The petitioners said the pits were left un-barricaded by the school authorities. They had been excavated for laying the foundation for new classrooms. Invoking Article 21 of the Constitution for violation of the right to life of the two children, their parents filed the petition.

The Court observed that apart from a sum of Rs 20,000 paid to each family by the district administration, no other relief had been granted to the petitioners who belonged to the Scheduled Caste. In response to the petition, the district social welfare officer (DSWO) filed a counter-affidavit. The fact that both children died due to drowning in the school was not denied. Work had been halted due to heavy rainfall and both pits had filled with rainwater up to a depth of 4.5 feet.