Residents stage a protest at Gauria Math in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Residents of the Gauria Math area under the jurisdiction of Gardanibagh police station on Tuesday staged a protest against the disappearance of a one-and-a-half-year-old child.

The child, identified as Kishan Kumar, disappeared on Monday evening, during another protest — against scarcity of water in the area for the past five days.

Kishan’s father Baleshwar Prasad is a tea stall owner in the area.

On Monday evening, Kishan had accompanied his father to the protest site.

Prasad made his son sit on a parked hand-pulled cart and joined the protest.

Residents of Sitasun Lane, New Jakkanpur, Muslim Gali and others had also assembled to protest against the water shortage.

Police evicted the protesters by 7.30pm. When Prasad went back to get his son, Kishan had disappeared.

“Residents of the area have been suffering from acute water shortage for the past few days. The heat has intensified the suffering. Despite repeated complaints, there has been no relief. So, the residents of the area staged a protest at 6.30pm yesterday (Monday). Prasad, too, had joined the protest and his son went missing,” said a resident.

On Tuesday, residents blocked the Gauria Math roundabout around 8.30am. Traffic was held up till Bhikhari Thakur Bridge.

The protesters raised slogans against chief minister Nitish Kumar and the administration.

Prasad said the officers at the Gardanibagh police station had refused to lodge his complaint.

“He is my only son. I have looked all night for him but in vain. What will I do if the police don’t help me?” he said.

The police arrived around 10.30am to pacify the crowd.

A missing complaint about Kishan was lodged later in the day at Gardanibagh police station.

“The police are investigating the matter. But we can’t help the water supply,” a police officer at the Gardanibagh police station said.

Till the filing of this report the boy was yet to be found. The water scarcity problem has not been solved still.

“The child is missing. It is a cause of concern. But water is also a major problem. The heat is intolerable. There is no water for five days now. You can understand our situation,” Amarnath Gupta, a resident of the Gauria Math area.