Days after the death of a software engineer whose car plunged into a water-filled pit in Noida, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said India's urban collapse is not about lack of money, technology, or solutions but about the lack of accountability.
Yuvraj Mehta (27), who worked in Gurugram, was returning to his home in Noida Sector 150 when his car fell into a deep, water-filled pit near an under-construction site on the night of January 16. He died after frantically pleading for help for around two hours.
In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said, "Roads kill, bridges kill, fires kill, water kills, pollution kills, corruption kills, indifference kills." "India's urban collapse isn't about lack of money, technology, or solutions. It's about lack of accountability.TINA m: There Is No Accountability," the Leader of Opposition said in a post on X.
The Congress leader shared a video carrying the remarks of an eyewitness, who said timely action could have saved the man, and that of the deceased's father, who lamented that there were several people there with some of them making videos but did not act to save his son.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday removed the Noida Authority CEO and ordered an SIT probe into the death of the software engineer, amid mounting outrage over the incident and allegations of official and developer negligence.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took cognisance of the incident and directed the constitution of a high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the circumstances leading to the accident and submit a report within five days.
Mehta, a resident of Tata Eureka Park society, worked with a Gurugram-based company and was returning home late at night when the accident occurred.
His body was recovered after a prolonged search operation involving the fire department, police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
The postmortem examination conducted on Monday revealed that Mehta died due to asphyxia followed by cardiac arrest, police said. The report noted that his nose was blocked with mud and water, indicating drowning. His last rites were performed later in the day in Haridwar in the presence of his father Raj Kumar Mehta and other family members.
The incident has sparked allegations of negligence, inadequate safety arrangements and delays in rescue efforts, with his father saying he had reached the spot and police, other rescue personnel were also there but could not save him.
Raj Kumar Mehta, Yuvraj’s father, said his son called him in panic after the car fell into a drain more than 20 feet deep. “I spoke to him shortly before the accident. He told me he was on his way home,” he said.
“A little later, he called again in panic and said his car had met with an accident and fallen into a drain. He asked me to come immediately.”
By the time the father reached the site in Sector 150, thick fog had reduced visibility to almost nothing. “Visibility was very low and somehow when I called him, he opened the torchlight of his phone inside the car because of which we could see a faint little light from the water body,” he told reporters.