On Wednesday,a woman survived an electric shock when she caught hold of a railing while crossing the dividing road of Sector 25 As soon as she touched the railing,she suffered an electric shock and fell unconscious. Reason: an electric wire of an open junction box was hanging loose. Similar danger is lurking around the city roads with naked live wires hanging out of the open junction boxes. Little do the authorities realise that these wires can result in serious accidents involving pedestrians,especially schoolchildren. Some of the spots where one can find such open junction boxes are near the Bhujal Bhavan,Jat Bhawan,IFCI Bhawan and Punjab Water Supply & Sewerage Board,all in Sector 27. Significantly,most of these are government offices and everyday officers pass through these. But no one appears to be paying heed to it. Senior officers come here everyday but they are ignorant of this lurking danger. Unfortunately,they are not concerned about those walking on the road, said Manish,a resident of the area. Another place where one can find most of the junction boxes open is the area around Paryavaran Bhawan in Sector 19-B,Madhya Marg. Moving beyond it,near Jama Masjid,Sector 20,the scene is the same. In Sector 20,there are many places where the exposed wires from the junction box can be found touching the road. We have many open boxes near our homes. I used to park my Scooty near a lamp post. One day I noticed that the wire was coming out of the box and it almost touched my Scooty, said Shalini,a resident of Sector 20. Another resident of the area said,Some people in the locality have complained to the Municipal Corporation. It is really dangerous. In the rainy season,probability of current passing to adjoining railings increases. Blaming it on anti-social elements,S S Bidda,chief engineer of the Municipal Corporation,said,It is because of some anti-social elements that the junction boxes of streetlight poles have been rendered open. Covers of these boxes are stolen by them. We can get the boxes covered but it is the duty of police to ensure proper patrolling so that thefts can be checked.
