3-year-old drowns in water-logged house in north Delhi

New Delhi: Delhi flooding claimed a fresh victim, as a three-year-old boy drowned in north Delhi's Kirari area with his family blaming it on the negligence of the administration.

The deceased, identified as Arif, was the only brother among his five sisters.

His father Ashraf Ali, a rickshaw puller, said his son was playing alone when the incident happened on Saturday evening.

"He went downstairs where there was water-logging and drowned," he said.

The family used to live on the first floor of the house, which had two staircases. One of them is closed and they used the second staircase to come down.

Ali was not at home, and the mother was sitting outside the home when Arif, who was alone on the first floor, went downstairs using the second staircase where water was standing.

The whole Kirari area is facing water-logging after heavy rain in Delhi. Lack of water drainage in the colony has become a significant problem, leading to water-logging. The area has witnessed deaths due to water logging in the recent past too.

The locals said that even after the deaths, no officials from the authorities concerned or local MLA and councillors came to meet them. The locals said that due to negligence of the administration, the whole area is waterlogged, several houses have become ponds, and the victim's house was one of them where water was logged.