Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Spurt in electrocution deaths worries Discom

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI Nov. 26. The number of deaths of human beings and cattle in the rural areas due to electrocution has seen an abnormal rise in the Southern Discom's purview.

The figure for the first half of this year is high very when compared to the corresponding period previous year. What is causing concern is the steep rise in the number of such calamities, that the previous year's total figure has almost been touched in the first six months of this year. The pattern is similar and uniform in almost all the circles of Tirupati, Vijayawada, Guntur, Ongole, Nellore and Cuddapah, coming under the Discom's purview.

The circle-wise figures of human and cattle deaths for 2002-03 are as follows: Vijayawada (14 men and 92 heads of cattle), Guntur (23 and 11), Ongole (16 and 9), Nellore (15 and 15), Cuddapah (9 and 3) and Tirupati (25 and 14) totalling to 102 and 144. The same during the first half of the year 2003-04 (up to September 2003) are Vijayawada (19 and 23), Guntur (20 and 13), Ongole 11 and 12), Nellore (12 and 9), Cuddapah (6 and 1) and Tirupati (10 and 4) taking the sum to 78 and 62.

The issue assumes significance in the wake of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently directing the Southern Discom to hike the compensation of Rs. 10,000 paid to the kin of an electrocution victim to Rs. 1 lakh. While the incident had reportedly taken place somewhere in Cuddapah circle, the Discom sources are tight-lipped on the details of the case.

Most of the electrocution incidents occur due to the snapping of the high voltage wire in the rural areas and the inadvertent stepping on them by passersby or the grazing cattle. There are other reasons too. Farmers in the forest fringe villages normally erect electric fence during the nights to ward off wild animals from their fields. While this is allowed, provided it is taken up with due permission from the concerned line staff, many farmers casually "hook up'' to the high voltage line passing above. The people in the neighbourhood, unaware of such a setup, get a fateful end on coming into contact with the fence.

However, the Discom authorities are learnt to be dissociating themselves from such incidents where hefty compensation is involved, particularly after the Cuddapah incident. While the official compensation package does not go beyond Rs. 10,000, the balance, if any, would have to be borne by the engineering heads concerned, that too in rare cases.

In this NHRC case where the penalty amount is "too high'' for anyone to bear, the higher-ups are planning a revamp in the "penalty sharing pattern,'' it is reliably learnt.

Villagers demand top priority to concrete steps to tackle the snapping of wires to save precious lives.

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