Man booked for boating on flooded street after heavy rains

Photo used for representational purposes

A former councillor of Bhatinda was booked by the police for staging a symbolic protest on Tuesday by boating in the waterlogged streets of Parasram Nagar. Vijay Kumar Sharma has been booked under Section 336 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for endangering the life or personal safety of others.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Sharma took a few locals, mostly children, along for a ride on his pedal boat to draw the attention of the administration towards waterlogging problems in the locality every monsoon.

As per the report, Sharma was charged with taking children on the boat and putting their lives at risk as the kids were not wearing safety gear. The FIR was registered on Wednesday night on the basis of information received from an unspecified source.

The station house officer of Canal police station, Chamkour Singh, said that no arrest has been made so far and the investigation is underway.

Meanwhile, Sharma said that the police were trying to intimidate him for highlighting the failure of the administration. "I was wearing a safety jacket when I took out the boat to highlight the misery of hundreds of households in the locality. Parasram Nagar is a low-lying zone and vulnerable to waterlogging. After Tuesday's downpour, streets in the locality were submerged in waist-deep water," Sharma was quoted as saying.

He added that the police should take action against civic authorities for not doing enough to prevent waterlogging, rather than registering a case against me.

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