Public demands action against responsible officers Death of Child in Jawahar Sarovar indicates serious security lapse around water reservoirs

DJ Venkatesh
Port Blair, Mar 22: Death of a child after drowning at Jawahar Sarovar located at Lamba Line has exposed serious security flaws around water reservoirs in the city. A local boy was swimming with four of his friends at the water body when the unfortunate incident occurred on Monday.
He was rushed to GB Pant Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. The mishap, however, has sparked concerns about water reservoirs which are believed to be possible potential targets of militants and anti-social elements.
While Andaman Public Works Department is being criticized largely for security lapses, non-involvement of other agencies like Police, IRBn, CISF etc is being question as these agencies are mainly responsible for security of water reservoirs like Dams in other parts of the country.
“If small children can sneak into water reservoir like Jawahar Sarovar, why can’t terrorists. Anti-social elements are known to target water bodies to create havoc. For instance, contaminating water reservoirs with poisonous substance can wreak havoc in the city killing thousands of people. Terror groups like Taliban and Al-Qaeda have in the past threatened governments to pollute water bodies like Dams to execute mass killings,” said some residents of Lamba Line.
“In almost every part of the country, water sources and reservoirs are provided with a thick blanket of security so that any attempt to pollute the water supplied to thousands of households can be foiled. But sadly, security of water bodies and reservoirs in Port Blair City remains far from ensured. Officials responsible for the drowning accident of Monday should be immediately placed under suspension for the lapse,” say some others.
The responsibility of ensuring safety of all large water bodies lies with the Police, APWD and overall the Administration. There is a need to find out why there was such security lapse regardless of the purpose that water from Jawahar Sarovar is used for drinking water or not.
Efforts to contact the staff of Jawahar Sarovar for a response proved futile. It remains to be seen whether the administration takes some serious action against those responsible for the security lapse or waits for some more drowning deaths.
A few days back Andaman Sheekha had reported that how fearleslly people are indulging in open defecation around Kalpong Dam of Dilgipur and now this incident of children entering openly for swimming in Jawahar Sarovar shows that how much we are prepared to face any future security challenge.
A few days back in a programme on DDK the Lt. Governor had said on record that Administration has a SOP ready for any emergency situation but it seems department under the Administration are taking too lightly.