The death of a 23-year-old woman and her nine-month-old baby, after they were electrocuted owing to a live wire on the footpath at Hope Farm, has yet again raised concerns about the safety of pedestrians in the city.
Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom), in a release, said, “Taking serious note of the non-departmental fatal electrical accident that occurred on Sunday morning at Kadugodi sub-division in which a mother and daughter died at spot, Bescom has suspended five of its officials for dereliction of duties on prima-facie inquiry and issued showcause notices to two senior officers.”
The victims came in contact with a live 11kV wire fallen on the footpath of Hope Farm signal and got electrocuted on Sunday morning around 5.30 a.m., the release said.
“Energy Minister K.J. George has taken serious note of this electrical accident and ordered for suspension of the officials. Following the directions of the Energy Minister, the General Manager of Administration and Human Resources of Bescom has suspended Assistant Executive Engineer of E-4 sub-division Subramanya T.; Assistant Engineer of E-4 sub-division Chetan S.; Junior Engineer of E-4 sub-division Rajanna; Junior Powerman Manjunath Revanna, and Lineman Basavaraju for dereliction of duties and detailed investigation will be conducted in the matter. Bescom has also issued show-cause notice to Superintendent Engineer of East Circle Lokesh Babu, and Executive Engineer of Whitefield division Sriramu, and asked them to reply to the notice within three days,” the release added.
The incident has left citizens across Bengaluru shaken as entangled cables and wires are seen hanging from trees and electricity poles in several parts.
Murali G., a resident of Whitefield, said people now fear to walk out. A few days ago, a resident posted a video of the poor condition of footpaths in Hope Farm, which showed how optical fibre cable work had made the pavement unsafe. Digging near the electricity poles makes these poles unstable, which may cause untoward incidents, he said.
In August, a 21-year-old Christ University student suffered severe burns when a live wire fell on her after a water tanker accidentally pulled an optical fibre cable, causing an electricity pole to fall.
After this, Bescom promised to remove all such cables entangled to their poles. While the drive picked up pace in the beginning, it was later halted, said Sudarshan Yadav, a resident of J.P. Nagar.
He further said that in J.P. Nagar also he had seen a few wires broken, but he could not make out whether these were electricity or telecom cables. “I have stopped using some roads because of this and these are deadly traps especially during the rain. There are some poles and transformers where one can see hundreds of wire entangled,” he added.
