The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) has taken up an inquiry into the death of three children by drowning in an agricultural pond in Ankanahalli village in Mysuru district last week.
A team from KSCPCR led by its president Antony Sebastian visited the site on Saturday and issued notices to officials of various departments for their alleged negligence that led to the tragedy. Children of migrant labourers belonging to the Lambani community, who had been brought from Ballari to work in sugarcane fields here, had died by drowning on September 22.
The police had booked a case after the bodies of Kaveri, 2, Rohit, 3, and Sanjay, 4, were found floating in the pond behind the migrant labourers’ settlement and assured the parents that the sugar factory management would provide them ₹1 lakh compensation each, but the commission representatives, during their visit on Saturday, found that the migrant labourers were not only denied basic amenities, but also exposed to dangerous living conditions with live wires around their tents.
Also, several children of the labourers were allegedly found engaged in labour in the field. Notices have been issued to the Deputy Tahsildar of Bannur, Block Education Officer, Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC), besides officials from the Labour and Revenue Department for the glaring lapses, commission member Parashurama M.L. said.
About 950 labourers from Ballari district, who had been brought for work in the fields, were living in tents on an adjoining plot of land by paying ₹200 for each tent for every 10 days. Making the living conditions even more dangerous was the unsafe electricity wiring. “Live electricity wires were found lying on the ground covered with plastic,” said a KSCPCR official.
