Pune: BBA Student’s Drowning at Pavana Dam Sparks Outcry Over Safety Measures
Tragic Drowning Accident Claims Lives Of Two Fergusson College Students
Advaitha Verma, a BBA second-year student at Symbiosis College in Pune drowned on June 23 while on an outing to Pavana dam backwaters in Maval taluka with friends. His body was recovered by a search team late the same night. Advaitha’s mother, Renu Kaul Verma, a publisher and former journalist, called for better patrolling at the spot. “We hear there are drownings every month so we are planning to raise safety awareness campaigns. We have lost our child. We do not want more parents to lose their children,” she said.
Sudesh Verma, Advaitha’s father and a senior BJP leader, expressed his outrage, saying, “It’s a tourist place where he drowned. It’s a camping site that a lot of people visit. But are there arrangements as precautionary measures in case of any eventuality? Life boat or life jackets, ropes or other rescue materials, nothing was there.” He criticized the government for not ensuring adequate safety measures despite generating revenue from tourism. “The state cannot abdicate itself from its responsibility like this. Just by putting up a board, you cannot say you have done your duty.”
Verma stated that the rescue team and the police took long time to come. Why wasn’t there any system in place at such locations which are so popular among tourists ? There are no boards alerting tourists about the danger spots ? Sudesh Verma questioned how the rescue team could be unavailable on a busy Sunday ?
The warning signs on the day of the incident were missing, noticed the friends of Advaitha. When they revisited the spot on July 20, there were notice boards being put up. Sudesh Verma also highlighted the absence of emergency numbers at the site. “If you put up a board warning people to not enter water, there should be a helpline number in different languages on the board of rescuers or expert divers,” he said.
