VIJAYAWADA: A two-year-old girl accidentally drowned in an 8 feet deep roadside drain near Kabela centre on Saturday morning. No one noticed her fall into the drain. The mishap occurred while Sankella Supriya, daughter of Ravi, a lorry cleaner, was crossing the drain using a narrow cement slab laid across it to go the house in which her mother Varalakshmi is a domestic servant. When she was not found, Varalakshmi and neighbours started a search for Supriya. After a 90-minute search, they found her body in the drain. Her uncle Nageswara Rao got into the drain and retrieved the body. Ravi and Varalakshmi were in a state of shock as they lost their younger daughter. The couple got two children. Their elder son is four-year-old. Enraged over the incident, locals staged a rasta roko demanding payment of compensation to the family members of the deceased girl. Tension prevailed in the area for some time when they raised slogans against the apathy of corporation officials in covering the drain constructed a year ago.K Ramana, a lorry cleaner, said the drain was overflowing following heavy rain last night. Some locals said three kids drowned in the drain earlier. But the VMC officials failed to cover it properly. They gave up their protest following an assurance from Vijayawada West MLA Velampalli Srinivas that he would get compensation paid to the family of the deceased girl. He also promised a job to her mother and a house to the couple under JNNURM.
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