Consumer body seeks minister’s intervention
Poor implementation of safety norms, highlights UP Upbhokta Parishad
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad has sought the intervention of energy minister Shrikant Sharma to control the high rate of electrocution deaths in the state.
To note, 3,491 electrocution deaths have occurred in the state in the past four years. Besides, about 300 field fires caused by electricity have been reported, in which crops of farmers were burnt, resulting in a huge loss.
Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, Avadhesh Kumar Varma met the minister on Monday and highlighted the fact that due to poor implementation of electrical safety norms, 3,491 people died in the past four years.
He said it was disturbing that the number of deaths due to lax approach of the power corporation was increasing every year instead of decreasing.
According to the figures released by the directorate of power safety this year, the number of deaths due to electricity accidents reached 958. Last year
it was 723 and before that 629.
Varma said deaths occurred due to petty mistakes like breaking of insulators or poor quality of insulation, breaking of binding wires and lines, poles, jumpers, cross arms, poor quality of safety devices, absence of proper earthing, poor infrastructure and above all careless working.
In some cases, employees of power companies died because they were repairing the lines without proper safety gear.
“Besides these deaths, a number of people have become permanently disabled and some of them have had to battle severe injuries,” he said.
The minister assured Varma that he would try to ensure proper measures to minimize accidents.
The figures released by the directorate of power safety are alarming because on an average, around 2.62 deaths are reported per day from the state due to electrocution.
Most of the people who die don’t even get proper compensation from the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited.
Varma said, “It’s the insensitive attitude of authorities which is responsible for the high casualties due to electricity. I have always drawn the attention of authorities to this because more than half of the casualties were a result of failure of safety devices.”
The directorate of power safety always sends a report to various discoms after investigating the cause of accidents but power companies rarely follow the recommendations.