Two days after 10 persons were killed and 30 others injured when a bus came in contact with live 11-KV wire at Mendarajpur in the Golanthara area in Ganjam district, the Southco and the Rural Development (RD) Department have started blaming each other for the mishap, adding much to the agony of victims’ families and local people as well.
While the injured persons are now fighting for their lives in hospitals, mere suspension of four engineers i.e. two from each department is not suffice but a sheer eye wash, said an aggrieved local man who did not wish to be identified.
Addressing a Press meet, Bharatiya Bikash Parishad (BBP) State president Surendra Panigrahi and senior CPI(M) leader Ali Kishore Pattnaik demanded that the AO and CEO of Southco are immediately arrested for their negligence.
Panigrahi demanded that an FIR be lodged immediately at the Golanthara police station against the concerned engineers, including the Chief Engineer and the Southco MD and more compensation be paid to victims’ families by the both the Government and the Southco.
The documentary evidence clearly shows that the Executive Engineer of the RD Department appears to be responsible for the tragedy. According to information, the Executive Engineer of the Southco in its letter No 1272 (4) issued on July 4, 2018, addressed to the EE of the RD Department, had expressed serious concern as to how the road widening work from Mendrajpur to Dankalpadu and village Manikpur under Kanisi and Golanthara Electrical sections was undertaken without intimating the Southco authorities. Due to such widening work, the poles of existing 11-KV lines came to the middle of the road, posing threat for lives of road users, the letter read.
Even the said letter reveals further that the Southco had submitted an estimate to the RD Department for shifting and re-erection of the existing 3p-3w 11 KV OH line and a 63-KVA DP mounted 11/0.4 KV substation (without transformer) from middle of the road to the roadside to which the EE of the RD Department did not pay any heed.
Besides, the Southco gave an option to the RD Department to carry out the pole shifting and erection work by any authorised electrical contractor by depositing only six per cent of the total cost towards supervision charges. To this also, the RD Executive Engineer remained as a mute spectator.
When contacted, the Southco CEO said that if the NHRC gives a directive to pay compensation, the Southco would certainly consider such an order on humanitarian ground.