Noida: A four-year-old boy died on Friday after he allegedly fell into an uncovered water tank next to a slum cluster in Sector 122, prompting his family to file a complaint against Noida Authority.According to police, the child, Firoz Alam alias Golu, had gone to wash his hands at the tank next to a tubewell when he lost his balance and fell into a four-foot-deep water tank, or haudi. When his mother called him for breakfast, he was nowhere to be found, prompting his parents to search the area.Around 10 am, his parents spotted the boy floating in the tank. His father, Shirajuddin Alam, pulled him out and attempted to revive him, but the child showed no signs of life.Residents, who had gathered at the spot, alerted police on Dial 112. A team from Parthala police outpost and an ambulance reached the spot, and the child was rushed to the district hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.Alam, who works as a daily-wage labourer in the horticulture department of Noida Authority, lodged a complaint at Sector 113 police station against officials and employees of the Authority. He alleged that adequate safety measures were absent at the site, claiming the main gate had been left open and the water-filled tank was left uncovered, without protective barricading. He said the tragedy could have been averted had a security guard been deployed, the premises secured, or the tank covered.Police said they were examining the claims made by the family and determining which department was responsible for the site’s security and whether prescribed safety norms had been followed. So far, an FIR has been registered against Noida Authority under BNS Section 105 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), police said.The incident is the latest in a series of child deaths linked to uncovered water bodies and excavations across the region. On July 25, six-year-old Avyaan Surya drowned in a water-filled pit dug for a tubewell in Knowledge Park’s Kaladham Society, allegedly left unguarded by contractors appointed by the Greater Noida Authority.
