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Journalism of Courage
After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday held Kolkata’s power utility CESC responsible for the death of nine people from electrocution amid torrential rains that led to waterlogging in large parts of the metropolis, the CESC asserted that the fatalities were unrelated to its distribution network.
“We have investigated eight such cases. We found that in five of these cases, the deaths were caused by electrocution from faulty wiring within homes or a factory. The rest of the three cases happened outside. Two of them were due to electrocution from touching street light poles. These street light poles are generally not owned or maintained by CESC. The other case was from a kiosk near a traffic signal,” the CESC said in a statement.
Street lights and traffic signals are maintained by the civic body and the state government.
The CESC also stated that taking into account “public safety, due to extreme water-logging”, power supply to certain areas has been discontinued “proactively by us”.
“We shall be able to restore power only when we are informed by the appropriate authorities that the water has receded to safer levels. We have already restored about 50 to 60% of our operations. We expect to restore everything in the next few hours,” the CESC said late Tuesday night.
The CESC’s statement came after the chief minister blamed Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for the flooding of the city, and blamed the CESC for the death of nine people by electrocution.
“The state was already inundated because of unilateral water release by the DVC; rivers and canals were overflowing. On top of that, a large volume of water has been flowing in from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh through the Farakka Barrage, where lack of dredging has only worsened the problem. And now, this sudden, heavy downpour has added to it,” she said.
“Today, in Kolkata, some people tragically lost their lives due to electrocution caused by the negligence of CESC.. There is no compensation for death, and life has no substitute. Still, we will ensure one government job for a member of each bereaved family. I am also instructing CESC to provide compensation,” she said, adding that she was monitoring the situation along with Mayor Firhad Hakim and Chief Secretary Manoj Pant.
Meanwhile, the Opposition targeted the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government over poor flood preparations, alleging that inefficiency and mismanagement of the state agencies and departments were to be blamed for flooding.
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