Boy goes after ball, meets end

BANGALORE: Even as rescue workers scoured the waters of Agara lake on Wednesday to fish out the body of Geetha Lakshmi, another child's life was nipped in the bud owing to callousness of authorities in charge of public spaces. Yashwant, 12, drowned in an unattended pit in the Government Arts and Science College next to Old Post Office Road around 2.30pm.Around the same time, 13 km away, rescue workers were pulling out Geetha's body from the lake.
The boy was playing cricket on the campus and rushed towards the pit to collect the ball which landed there. The 8-ft deep pit was dug up by a private contractor tasked with building a new office for the college's National Cadet Corps unit. Work was suspended 10 days ago owing to a problem between the college management and contractor.
Police sources said the pit, only metres away from the ground where children played cricket every evening, was dug up to lay a foundation. Left un attended, it got filled with wa ter following heavy downpour over the past few days.
Yashwant and his friend Thrilok were busy playing when, around 2.30pm, the ball fell into the pit.
Unaware of the depth of the water, Yashwant got into the pit and drowned. Crying for help, Thrilok managed to gather some passersby. But by the time they could take the boy out, he was dead, police said. Yashwant was rushed to St Martha's Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
A Class VI student of Jain Bhandari school in Chickpet, Yashwant was staying at an uncle's place in Kilari Road, Chickpet, Central Bangalore.His father Natarajachari, a goldsmith, and mother Reddiamma, stay with their younger daughter in Dommasandra in Anekal.