NHRC, India takes suo motu cognizance of the reported death of 13 people due to drowning and electrocution in the Delhi-NCR region amid heavy rain

Press Release

National Human Rights Commission

New Delhi: 3rd August, 2024

NHRC, India takes suo motu cognizance of the reported death of 13 people due to drowning and electrocution in the Delhi-NCR region amid heavy rain

Observes the reported incidents indicate negligence of the concerned authorities in Delhi, Gurugram and Gautam Budh Nagar

Issues notices to the Delhi Chief Secretary, DDA Vice-Chairman, Police Commissioner, Gurugram DM and Police Commissioner and Gautam Budh Nagar DM calling for detailed reports within four weeks

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that at least 13 lives were lost in Delhi-NCR including six due to electrocution and four due to drowning after falling into overflowing drains amid heavy rain magnifying the creaky infrastructure and civic negligence. Recently, the Commission had also taken suo motu cognizance of two news reports revealing a painful loss of human lives due to drowning and electrocution in the National Capital indicating negligence of the authorities.

The Commission has observed the contents of the news report about these ten more deaths due to drowning and electrocution in the Delhi-NCR region, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of victims. The reported incidents, as in the recent past, are indicative of the negligence by the civic authorities, which is a matter of concern.

Therefore, it has issued notices to the Delhi Chief Secretary, Vice-Chairman, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Police Commissioner, District Magistrate and the Commissioner of Police, Gurugram, Haryana, and the District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, calling for detailed reports in the incidents within four weeks.

The reports are expected to include the status of the FIR registered, action taken against the responsible officials/ officers and the status of compensation if any, paid to the next of kin of the deceased persons. The Commission would also like to know about the steps taken/ proposed by the authorities to ensure that such painful incidents do not recur.

As mentioned in the news report, carried on 2nd August, 2024, most of these deaths happened after heavy rain on 31st July, 2024. A 23-year-old woman, holding her three-year-old son’s hand, slipped into an overflowing drain in East Delhi’s Ghazipur area on 31.07.2024 and died. Reportedly, the rescue operation for them was delayed over a jurisdictional dispute between Delhi and Ghaziabad police. Another incident occurred in the Dwarka area of Delhi when a 12-year-old boy playing in a waterlogged area got electrocuted to death. In two separate incidents in Gurugram, Haryana, a 44-year-old man reportedly died due to drowning in a stormwater drain in Bhondsi and three pedestrians were electrocuted to death while walking on a waterlogged road near IIFCO Chowk. An elderly couple died in the Ambedkar Nagar colony of Dadri, Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh as a wall collapsed on their their make-shift accommodation due to heavy rain.

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