Hyderabad: Four children of a family who went to take bath at a lake drowned on Tuesday in Kandukur. Another girl who accompanied them to the lake alerted villagers. Their bodies were retrieved by afternoon. The victims are G. Shilpa, G. Srujan, G. Shiva and G. Nani.
Police said the victims belong to the Debbadaguda hamlet in Makhan village. As Thursday was a holiday the children were at home. At around 9.30 am they along with another girl Sandhya Rani left home without informing parents and went to the Makhan Cheruvu on the village’s outskirts.
The four girls entered the lake to take bath while Sandhya stood on the bank. After sometime, when they started drowning she started shouting for help. By the time the villagers arrived, all the four kids had drowned.
“We retrieved the bodies with the help of villagers. None of the girls knew swimming. They entered the lake without knowing its depth,” Kandukur inspector K.V. Vijay Kumar said.
The Balala Hakkula Sangham demanded that the government should revive the system of appointing a guard, neerutodu, at lakes and tanks when they reached full capacity. “Earlier, the neerutodu used to keep watch at tanks. The abolition of the neerutodu system is leading to tragedies,” BHS president Anuradha Rao said. A case of suspicious death was registered. The bodies were handed over to the families.
