Meet JC Malhotra of Welcome Group CGHS, Dwarka. Read on to find out how he is working to get the authorities to cover these death traps found across the sub-city.
When JC Malhotra of Welcome Group CGHS, in his eighties’, fell into one of the open manholes on the footpath while walking towards Sector 4, he felt determined to turn things around.
After recovering from his injury, he went back to the same stretch and counted as many as 17 open manholes in about 200 metres. He somehow managed to mark those open death traps with dead tree branches lying around. He also shared photographs on several WhatsApp groups and also asked the concerned officials to immediately take action.
Speaking to City Spidey, he said, “This is a death trap for us. I was fortunate that I did not sustain any serious injury, but my wife didn’t have such luck when she fell into one of these earlier. She took months to recover.”
He continued, “I have connected with area MLA Gulab Singh Yadav over this, but am waiting for his response. The area councillor is also aware about the subject, but again, no action has been initiated. I have sent my complaint to the DDA too. I will continue my campaign.”
Malhotra is not the only victim, there are several others who fell into open manholes.
Sarita Singh, a resident of Sector 6, broke her leg in one such incident last year. She said, “I am not aware about whom to approach — the DDA or the MCD. This is really a sad state of affair.”
PC Xavier, a resident of Sahyadri Apartments, Sector 12, has followed up the issue with the DDA and has managed to have hundreds of such manholes covered in Sector 12.
He shared, “I started counting missing covers on footpaths in Sector 12 during my morning walks. I found 600 manholes with missing covers! It took some time to persuade the DDA, but they did it. The replaced covers must be monitored periodically to check whether they are still there or not.”
