The death of 2-year-old Sujith Wilson in a borewell at a village in the district has triggered a political slugfest between Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin.
Rescuers pulled out the decomposed and mangled body of the boy early Tuesday from deep inside a borewell, after a futile 80-hour attempt to save the child who had fallen in while playing near his house on Friday evening.
Stalin, who is the leader of opposition in the Assembly, blamed the AIADMK government for "meandering," sans proper planning in carrying out the rescue operations.
The government took up experimental steps one after the other without a clear cut plan, and National Disaster Response Force personnel arrived at the spot very late, he alleged in a statement.
No strategy was devised by consulting experts,he claimed.
"Some ministers who were at the spot were giving ideas that came to their mind and were interfering in the work of rescuers," he said, adding, "time that was available to rescue the child alive was wasted."
Citing Supreme Court guidelines and state laws that mandate safety measures and proper closure of abandoned borewells, he said "all these things became a mirage in the AIADMK government's rule and snatched away the toddler's life."
On Stalin's comment that the government took three days to find out soil conditions, he mocked at him for talking as if he were a "scientist."
The DMK chief's views merely echoed "political vendetta," he said, adding "he should talk with conscience."