Haridevpur child death: KMC suspends sub-assistant engineer

KOLKATA: The Commissioner of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) suspended the concerned subassistant engineer (SAE) and has ordered departmental proceedings against DG, EE (Executive Engineer) and AE (Assistant Engineer) in connection with the electrocution death of a 12-year-old boy at Haridevpur on Sunday evening.

Preliminary inquiry has revealed that there was no earthing and illegal hooking was done through the lamppost at Haridevpur that the boy had accidentally touched to keep his balance while wading through the waterlogged road.

Sandip Ranjan Bakshi, who is in-charge of the Lighting and Electricity department of KMC visited a number of places in the city to check the condition of the lampposts of the civic body in the city.

“It was found near Old Currency Building in Dalhousie that one of the lamppost was leaning precariously due to dangling of wires by a number of service providers like cable, telephone and particularly CESC who had used the lamppost for supporting a good number of electrical wires.

They were asked to immediately take corrective measures while the Cable association was informed immediately and asked to snap the defunct cable wires,” Bakshi said.

Bakshi visited CIT Road where he found that work has been undertaken to keep wires under cover so that there are minimal chances of electrocution. He stumbled upon a lamppost in the Park Circus area with tangled wires that may pose a hazard and immediately asked the executive engineer to take necessary action.

Ward 70 councillor Asim Bose took to the streets and along with officers of electrical department and removed wires lights in lamp posts that were being used for beautification by a section of shopkeepers on Elgin Road in Bhowanipore

“We have directed to use such decorative lights inside their respective shops but not on lampposts on roads to prevent any sort of leakage that may result in a mishap,”the councillor of Ward 70, Asim Bose said.

Ward 70 councillor Asim Bose took to the streets and along with officers of electrical department and removed wires lights in lamp posts