Bhubaneswar: The housing and urban development department on Thursday suspended Santosh Kumar Das, who is the assistant engineer of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) drainage division, after the civic body in its report held the division responsible for the death of Abu Bakkar Saha, a nine-year-old boy who was swept away by rainwater in an open drain while playing in Unit-III area here on Tuesday following heavy rain in the city.
In its report to the housing department, submitted on Wednesday, the BMC mentioned that the drain where the incident took place did not have barricades, resulting in the accident.
Following the boy’s death, urban development department minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra had asked BMC to submit a report in this regard.
BMC also mentioned about the current situation of open drains in the city in the report and the steps being taken to cover them. “We have submitted the report to the housing department and have also expedited the work to identify and cover the open drains. Dedicated teams have been formed for the task and it is being done on a war footing,” city mayor Sulochana Das said. As per its report, the city has a secondary drain network of about 400km and natural drain length of about 70km. Das added that openings on the natural drainage channels have also been identified and steps are being taken to cover or barricade them to prevent any untoward incidents during monsoon season.
Last year, the civic body had formed a patrolling team and asked it to walk along the drain to identify the vulnerable points. BMC had also raised the edges and put barricades on several natural drains, including drainage channel number 10.

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