Law Kumar Mishra
The recent news of two young men dying in dug-up pits in New Delhi and Noida is heartbreaking.
One youth fell, along with his car, into a waterlogged pit that had been excavated for a nearby under-construction apartment complex and was found dead the next morning. In Rohini, a 26-year-old bank employee died after his motorcycle skidded into a pit dug by the Jal Board.
A similar incident of this nature had occurred about fifteen years earlier, though in that case a life was saved. At that time, Sanjeev Kumar Singh, then an Inspector General in the National Investigation Agency and a 1987-batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, saved a young woman’s life. During that period, the NIA in Delhi was operating from a temporary office located in the Okhla area. Sanjeev Kumar Singh passed away during the COVID period.
Recalling the incident, his wife Jyoti Singh says, “I am stunned and deeply angered by the negligence of those responsible for the recent incidents in New Delhi and Noida. Such tragedies are neither new nor recent, yet it is unclear when successive governments will suitably penalize the agencies accountable for these deaths so that human life is respected and not dismissed as just another forgettable number.”
Jyoti Singh recounts that on September 10, 2011, near Jia Sarai in Hauz Khas, Sanjeev succeeded in saving a young woman named Mamta Pant from drowning. At the time, the area had been dug up for some reason and heavy rainfall had submerged the entire locality. Continuous rain had reduced visibility to very low levels.
She further recalls, “That day, Sanjeev was unusually alert while heading to office. He sensed the possibility of an accident. The driver was at the wheel, and the road had turned into a slush filled with mud and debris, so the vehicle was moving slowly.”
“Sanjeev noticed a faint figure ahead, a thin girl holding a large black umbrella. Because of the heavy rain, very few people were outside. Suddenly it seemed as if the girl had vanished into thin air and only the floating umbrella remained visible.”
Sensing the situation, he immediately stepped out of the car and ran toward the spot where the umbrella was floating. He plunged his hands into the dirty water and tried to grasp the girl, who had already been fully submerged. Being an excellent swimmer, he was ready to jump in, but that was not necessary. He managed to grab the head of the drowning girl, who was somehow trying to keep herself afloat.
At that moment, Sanjeev did not realize that what appeared to be a waterlogged road was actually a deep excavated pit filled with rainwater. The water level was flush with the road, completely concealing the pit and creating the illusion of normal waterlogging.
Later, Mamta Pant had the opportunity to describe her terrifying experience on several television channels.
At the official level in New Delhi, it has been acknowledged that approximately 3,400 open pits or incomplete excavation sites still exist. The drainage system has not seen adequate improvement since 1978. The problem of open pits has continued to surface along National Highway 44 and in areas such as Mundka, Janakpuri, and Mayur Vihar. During the last monsoon, several underpasses and tunnels in Gurugram were inundated, where the difference between road and ground level was not visible, and water entered numerous vehicles.
