Mysore authorities wake up after Prince episode

Mysore, July 26: The episode of six-year-old Prince, who was saved from a 57-ft submersible well 50 hours after he fell into it in a village near Kurukshetra in Haryana recently, has come as a rude wake-up call to the authorities in this district of Karnataka to ensure proper maintenance of borewells.

A meeting of engineers working under Zilla Panchayats in the district will be held tomorrow to find out the condition of borewells. The Engineers would be instructed to ensure that each and every borewell, whether in use or disuse, was capped to avoid any eventuality.

Talking to UNI, Mysore Zilla Panchayat Deputy Secretary Kempe Gowda said open borewells, either in use or disuse, pose grave threat to the lives of children as in the case of Prince.

Stating that there were about 12,000 borewells in the district, he said it was not known how many were defunct or left uncovered.

However, he maintained hand pumps had been installed for borewells in use.

UNI