Criminal negligence!

The unfortunate accident of 11000v overhead wire snapping in Pipla village and causing death of 3 minor children and a 70-year-old woman is really heart-rending and shocking.

Four innocent lives have been lost due to criminal negligence of those who are paid lakhs to ensure that no such incidents occur.

The first task of any organisation dealing in a hazardous business like electricity and chemicals should be to ensure complete safety.

However, for the state electricity department, safety has always been the last concern. Wires are not changed for years and are perhaps not checked regularly to see if they need replacement.

The tragic loss of 4 human lives underlines the need to fix responsibility for such criminal negligence. SOPs must be checked, audited and reviewed and responsibility be fixed if they were violated in any way.

Any 11000 volt overhead wire poses immense risk to the people living in the nearby areas. The departments, agencies and the officials responsible for ensuing safety in electricity transmission and distribution must learn from this tragic incident and take effective steps to ensure that proper SOPs are put into place and possibilities of such accidents are completely ruled out.

It is really unfortunate that despite repeated reminders from people’s representatives, especially the MP of Jamshedpur Bidyut Mahato, the administration did precious little to take corrective steps in time. The consequence has been tragic and four precious lives have been lost.

The state government must extend a helping hand to the affected families. And it should also ensure that proper action is taken against those who have been responsible for such dereliction of duty thereby causing such a shocking tragedy.