Rajasthan MLA dismisses youth's drowning with 'insensitive' remark

Two days after a 17-year-old student drowned in a pit filled with rainwater in Sikar, an MLA dismissed the death saying it was routine affair.Ye to roj hi marte hain... They drown in rivers, they drown in ponds, Mahadeo Singh khandela said when a reporter asked him about the incident.The student drowned Saturday evening when he was returning from his coaching.

Two days after a 17-year-old student drowned in a pit filled with rainwater in Sikar, an MLA dismissed the death saying it was routine affair.

''Ye to roj hi marte hain... kya baat karte ho aap... nadiyon me doob gaye talabon me doob gaye (They die every day... what are you talking about? They drown in rivers, they drown in ponds),'' Mahadeo Singh khandela said when a reporter asked him about the incident.

The student drowned Saturday evening when he was returning from his coaching. The pit was dug for a sewer line project on Nawalgarh road. An executive engineer of the Sikar Municipal Council was suspended for negligence.

Khandela, a former union minister of state, is currently an independent MLA from Sikar's Khandela constituency. He is also the Rajasthan farmers commission chairman. A video of the MLA's comment is doing the rounds on social media. When contacted by PTI, Khandela defended the ''insensitive'' remarks. ''They asked me about the death of a boy in Sikar. Such incidents happen. Some drown in ponds and some in rivers. What did I say wrong,'' he said.