“Take 1.5 lakhs, give me my son back,” says Pupun’s mother

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 29:

Two days after 10-year old Pupun drowned to death in an uncovered drain in Odisha capital, his mother has shot back at the city administration asking it to return her son and offering to give the government one and half times the Rs 1.5 lakh compensation ti has offered.

“My son is no more. My world has come to a halt. The city Mayor promised me a compensation of Rs 1 lakh. I am willing to pay him one and half times that money. Can he bring me back my son? It is easy to say, but only the mother who has lost her son knows what is feels like,” said a choking Rani Biswal.

It may be noted that she lost her elder son in an uncovered drain in front of Nayapalli cemetery in Bhubaneswar. The incident happened when she was coming home with her son on a flooded street. Unaware of the uncovered drain, the child walked into it only to be pushed away some 200 metres by gushing water that ultimately killed him.

The city administration was blamed by one and all for the untimely demise of the kid with the locals taking to the streets demanding action and compensation.

Her family is yet to recover from the shock. While mother Rani barely manages to speak without crying and choking, his younger brother hardly speaks at all. Shock apart, his family members and relatives are quite unhappy with the way the incident was dealt with by the city administration.

The father of the kid Muna Biswal can’t comprehend why the post-mortem and last rites were performed overnight when the cops had promised them to carry out the post-mortem at 10 AM the next day.

Even though the family has accepted a compensation of Rs 1 Lakh from the State Government and Rs 10,000 from the Red Cross, his uncle Karunakar Biswal brought a serious allegation against the City Mayor Anant Narayan Jena in front of the media.

“Mayor Jena, three corporators, Police DG Sanjeev Marik, DCP Satyabrata Bhoi, ACP and IIC of Nayapalli PS visited our CRP house at midnight on the day of the incident. While they were leaving the Mayor got a signature from us in a plain paper. We don’t know their motive behind this,” said Karunakar.

The unfortunate parents on Wednesday celebrated his 10th bitthday at the same spot where he slipped into the drain creating a heart wrenching scene.  New clothes bought for him complete with a birthday cake and traditional sweets were all brought to the spot and immersed in the drain with a hope that it would make his spirit happy.