Mumbai: Taking serious cognisance of past accidents of children falling into borewells, Maharashtra Government has issued guidelines for its construction.
"The guidelines are issued after the Supreme Court's directives in the backdrop of number of cases in which children had been trapped and fallen into borewells, tubewells and abandoned wells," an official from Water Supply Department said.
As per the guidelines, it would be mandatory that a person must inform in writing at least 15 days in advance to the authorities concerned in the area about construction of the borewell.
The drilling agency should be registered and a sign board to be put up near construction of the well displaying address of drilling agency and owner of the well, it said.
During the construction, the well should be surrounded by barriers or fencing, it added.
The tube should be covered and abandoned wells should be filled up with clay, boulders and pebbles.
District collector is empowered to verify that the above guidelines are being followed, it said.
A two-year-old boy, who fell into a 50-feet deep borewell died near Beed in Marathwada last month. The rescuers pulled out his body, 20 hours after the incident.
Such cases came into light after a child named Prince was saved after 50 hours of him falling into 60-foot-deep pit four years back at Kurukshetra in Haryana.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, June 20, 2010, 16:17