Uttar Pradesh: 2-year-old Pari, braveheart Puja among 13 dead in Kushinagar

KUSHINAGAR/LUCKNOW: A day after at least 20 women and children were sucked into a wide, deep well in Kushinagar after a concrete slab atop the water spring collapsed, the death toll climbed to 13. The dead included seven minors and six women, who had converged at a house in Naurangiya village of the district to participate in a pre-wedding ritual, said district officials on Thursday.
Tragedy struck late Wednesday, hours after women family members of Parmeshwar Kushwaha along with relatives and friends, joined in the pre-nuptial ceremony near an old village well.
When the concrete platform on which the women were standing crumbled, others standing a few feet away too were pulled into the sinkhole by those grappling for support during the death plunge.
By the time, victims were extricated from the well, 13 had died of drowning, including 2-year-old Pari.
PM, state declare Rs 6 lakh ex gratia each to kin of deceased
Even before district authorities swung into action, Naurangiya’s braveheart girl, 20-yearold Puja Yadav jumped into the well and rescued her mother and four others, before she lost balance and was drowned. Puja, who was preparing for admission in the armed forces, couldn’t fulfil her dream.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and chief minister Yogi Adityanath condoled the deaths. The PM also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. Earlier, the Kushinagar administration had declared Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia to kin of the deceased. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav too expressed grief and urged the state government to provide financial aid to the families and medical support to the injured.
The deceased included Meera, 22, Sundari, 9, Radhika, 20, Mannu, 12, Puja Yadav, 20, Shashikala Chaurasia, 16, Jyoti Chaurasia, 17, Puja Chaurasia, 17, Mamta, 35, Shakuntala, 34, Brinda, 20, Aarti, 7, Pari Chaurasia, 2. Among the dead, only Mamta and Shakuntala were married, said police. Narrating the sequence of events, the groom’s father, Parmeshwar Kushwaha, said, “Around 8.30 pm around 40 women went to perform a pre-wedding ritual (matkorh), after the haldi ceremony of my son, Amit.
Men are not allowed in the ritual, so we remained indoors. When I heard about the tragedy, I rushed to the well and tried to take out the women and girls with ropes. The well was over a decade old and covered with a concrete slab, but it collapsed under the weight of the women. The village is in shock and I have decided not to take out a ‘baraat’ of my son. Amit will marry in a simple ceremony.”
SHO, Nibua Naurangiya, Girjesh Upadhaya, who was the first to reach the spot, said, “We pumped out the water, pulled out the women and children and took them to hospital. The doctors declared 13 of them dead,” he said.