Hubli: The State government is in a dilemma with the people of Sulikeri village stepping up their demand to stop rescue operation to extricate the six-year-old boy trapped in 160-foot borewell. The rescue teams fear the wall adjacent to the borewell may collapse due to digging operations.
However the district administration has sought more technical experts from the government to continue digging. The officials claimed that around '50 lakh has been spent for the rescue work and they need to spend an equal amount to complete the entire operation.
Around 550 people and more than 50 machineries, including JCBs and tipper trucks, were pressed into service. The local legislator J.T. Patil claimed that the rescue operation will take several days and arrangements are being made to bring more machinery to speed up the work. The villagers also unanimously resolved to bring more pressure on the government to stop the operation as the boy Thimmanna Hatti has already been declared dead by the health officials.
“We have decided to launch protest if the government failed to close the trench and hand over the agricultural land to the farmer in its original form. It will be a futile exercise to extract the boy from the borewell as his body is totally decomposed and more foul smell is emanating from it. Therefore, government should provide compensation to the debt-ridden farmer, instead of wasting lakhs of rupees for rescue operation,” saida village elder Bhimsen Kulkarni after a meeting.
