An undated photograph of the deceased Saundarya.
Credit: Special Arrangement
The death of a 23-year-old woman and her nine-month-old daughter after coming in contact with a live wire lying on the footpath at Hope Farm points to the criminal negligence of the Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM), a state government undertaking.
Hope Farm in Whitefield is part of Bengaluru’s IT corridor. The incident took place around 6 am when the woman, Soundarya, was on her way to her mother’s house, carrying her child Suviksha, and accompanied by her husband Santosh.
While Soundarya, who stepped on the wire, and the child were electrocuted, the husband escaped by sheer providence. What was most heart-breaking was that the husband and other onlookers could only watch helplessly, unable to save the mother and daughter.
The area is usually crowded and the tragedy would have struck somebody or the other as the live wire lay unattended for hours.
Five BESCOM employees have been suspended by the department and enquiries are pending against senior officials.
Energy Minister K J George has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family and said that the government would take steps to ensure that such incidents did not occur in the future.
This is not an isolated incident. Some 70 deaths attributed to accidents related to power lines have occurred since 2018.
BESCOM officers have said that the cause of Monday’s incident has been traced to a nearby apartment where rodents had gnawed the transmission wire, causing the feeder line to trip.
Power transmission to the snapped wire was supposed to turn off automatically, but it continued due to some technical glitch.
As per Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission's (KERC), more than 95per cent of electrical accidents are associated with the 11KV and 400 V distribution systems as these are close to residential or other buildings.
Failure to promptly attend to defects in the distribution system is one of the causes for electrocutions, according to KERC.
Whatever be BESCOM’s defence, two lives were snuffed out due to its negligence.
Minister George’s statement is perfunctory and does not list out any concrete steps to prevent such incidents.
One recommended method to minimise electrical accidents, voltage fluctuations and power leakages is to take the cables underground.
BESCOM, which had launched a project in 2018-19 to install cables underground, claims that 90 per cent of the project is complete.
But the question is why transmission lines are still hanging overhead in most parts of the city.
While the criminal proceedings launched against the officers concerned should be pursued, all safety measures, including the installation of underground cabling, should be put in place without delay across the city.