Open sewer claims elderly man’s life in Odisha capital

Bhubaneswar: Just a week after an elderly woman struggled for life after falling into an open manhole here, an open sewer claimed life of a senior citizen in the city on the occasion of Local Self-governance day yesterday.

The deceased was identified as Nandia Nayak (65), a resident of Bijay Lakhmi Narayanpur under Digapahandi block in Ganjam district.

According to reports, Nandia had visited his nephew’s house at Panda park slum in Old Bhubaneswar to attend his elder brother’s funeral rites. The incident occurred on the last day of the rituals on Thursday.

Reports said that while going for toilet outside at around 3.30 am, Nandia fell into the open sewer in front of the house and fainted. At around 5 am, his son Sudarshan found a person fallen into the sewer and called other members of the house. After identifying him as his own father, his son rescued him from the sewer and rushed the Capital Hospital.

Nandia had sustained injury on his head for which he went unconscious. As his condition was critical, the doctor referred the patient to SCB hospital in Cuttack for treatment. Just hours after he was shifted to the SCB, he died.

The family members and locals could not accept the sudden death of Nandia easily. After the body reached the slum area here, the irate locals expressed outrage over open sewer drain for which Nandia died.

Corporator Debi Prasad Mallick reached the slum and tried to tackle the situation. He provided monetary assistance under Harischandra scheme.

This was the second death incident due to open sewer in the area. Seven months ago, an elderly man of Harekrushna nagar slum had died in the sewer. After the incident, the PWD had not taken any step to put slab on the drain to avoid any further incident.

“The PWD has completed the sewer construction in the past two years. The locals in the slum used to go to the main road crossing over the open drain. Except the drain in front of the houses, slabs have not been put on the open drain due to lack of interest of officials in the area, which comes under Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik,” said Judhisthir Nayak, a slum dweller.