Proved: Civic body negligent, but will it own up?

Local residents say their complaint about the open crater was left unattended for one week. After the unfortunate incident, 8220;barriers have been placed around the 10-feet deep crater and work to close it is going on a war-footing,8221; said a local shop owner, who saw Jivaji fall into the drain.

Jivaji8217;s body was fished out after a long search operation on Thursday morning, from the Pirana sewage water treatment plant where the pipeline ends, fire brigade officials said.

Jivaji made a living by plying an auto-rickshaw GJ7-TT-5399, which he had purchased through private finance. While he had cleared Rs 70,000 of the loan, Rs 10,000 is still to be paid.

Father of three children, two of them school-going, Jivaji lived in a rented room paying Rs 500 a month and had difficulty making both ends meet, say his neighbours.

Whether the AMC will give him family compensation or not is unclear, but there is a precedent of the civic body offering job to the widow of a man who died at Saijpur Bogha pumping station, on compassionate ground despite the man not being a civic employee. Of course, it was done under tremendous public pressure, as people had refused to perform the last rites of the deceased until the matter was settled.

The AMC is still to take a decision on the responsibility it will take in another case of death caused by negligence at a skating ring in Paldi area where a girl died after coming in contact with an exposed live wire of a nearby electric pole.

When contacted, municipal commissioner I P Gautam ruled out any compensation saying it was a case of accidental death wherein the AMC had no role to play. 8220;However, looking at his poor economic condition, we are trying to help out the family in some other way,8221; he said.