Udupi, July 30: Two teenagers lost their lives after accidentally slipping into a percolation pond on Sunday afternoon at Kaikana in Vandse village of Kundapur tauluk in Udupi district.
According to police, Abhijith (17), son of Narasimha Nayak and Ananth (18), son of Gopal Poojary, were returning home after purchasing books at Noojadi when the incident occurred. Both were perusing their PUC at a local college.
They had got into the pond to wash their feet and Abhijeeth accidentally slipped and fell into water. When Ananth tried to save Abhijith, he too slipped and fell into water.
This is the fifth drowning incident in Kundapur taluk since monsoon and as many as eight lives have been lost.
The pond is nearly five to six feet away from Noojadi-Vandse road. It is 250 metre long and 100 metre wide. It was rejuvenated last year, at an estimated cost of Rs five lakh.
The pond is 10 to 12 feet deep. The pond gets filled during monsoon. Abhijith was a first PUC student and Ananth was studying a computer course in a centre. The duo hail from a poor family. Ananth was pursuing computer science course after the PUC.
As the news of drowning began to spread, the villagers rushed to the spot and staged a protest against the authorities. They urged the government to distribute a compensation to the poor families. Assistant Commissioner Sadashiv Prabhu who rushed to the spot said that a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh would be paid to the family of the deceased.
The Assistant Commissioner also directed the engineer to lay a protection wall around the tank. A case has been registered at the jurisdictional Kollur police station.
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