Haryana announces ₹5 lakh aid for kin of Faridabad girl who died in borewell

Officials said the compensation will be disbursed after documents and bank details are collected, with help offered if the family lacks an account.

The Haryana government has announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh for the family of the three-year-old girl who died after falling into a borewell at Sihi in Faridabad on Sunday, officials said.

The three-year-old fell into the 12-inch-wide, 250-foot-deep borewell at Sihi on Sunday after slipping from a tractor loader bucket. (HT)

Chief minister Nayab Singh Saini announced the compensation on Monday night, officials said. Faridabad district administration officials said the amount would be handed over to the family after completion of the necessary formalities.

A senior district administration official said the authorities would collect documents from the family, including bank account details, to facilitate disbursal of the compensation. “In case it is found that the family doesn’t have a bank account, we will help them in getting one opened as per their suitability for disbursing the compensation amount,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yashpal Yadav, public relations officer of Faridabad police, said the victim’s post-mortem report is expected to be handed over to police by doctors on Wednesday. “From the report it will be clear if she had died of suffocation or had drowned after slipping deep in the borewell, which was filled with muddy water from 120 feet depth,” he said.

She slipped from the bucket while trying to flee and fell into the borewell after hitting its cover, which was made of two bricks that became displaced, police said. She fell upside-down into the 12-inch-wide, 250-foot-deep borewell.

Police officials said family members and neighbours, after hearing the children raise an alarm, made a makeshift rope by tying multiple sarees and lowered it into the borewell in an attempt to pull her out.

A police official involved in the initial rescue effort said there was no chance of her grabbing the rope because she was upside-down inside the narrow borewell.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team reached the spot from Noida at 9.05pm on Sunday after receiving an alert from the district administration and launched the rescue operation. The girl was pulled out at 3.50am on Monday and taken to a nearby private hospital, where she was declared dead.