Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "While the nation celebrates Deepavali, in Tamil Nadu a race against time is underway to save baby Surjeeth, who has been trapped in a borewell for over 72 hrs now. I pray that he will be rescued & reunited with his distraught parents at the earliest."
The boy fell into the borewell at about 5.30 p.m on Friday in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirappalli district. He got stuck at 30 feet. Later, he went further down and got stuck at about 100 feet.
Presently, ONGC rig has been deployed to dig a hole near the borewell into which firemen would go down and reach out to the boy burrowing a tunnel inside.
On Saturday, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) took over the rescue operations as other techniques used to take the boy out of the borewell failed.
Initially, earthmoving equipment were pressed into service to dig a pit near the borewell to reach the boy. But it was stopped midway as the terrain was rocky.
Breaking it would result in vibrations that may loosen the soil inside the borewell, thereby slipping the boy further down.
Later, the rescue team used a special equipment 'borewell robot'. But that too was not successful.
( With inputs from IANS )