For not following safety norms,contractor held for lineman death

Gurpal was repairing a fault at Gill Road when he died of

electrocution.

The power corporation,meanwhile,has said the responsibility of the lineman lay with the contractor. PSPCL Chief Engineer K M Sharma said: “ The compensation will have to be given by the contractor because he was not on our rolls. We had paid a lump-sum amount to the contractor at the time of recruitment of the temporary staff and now he is responsible for all payments”.

Gurpal was cremated on Tuesday at his village Latala and his family were inconsolable as he had to work with the contractor for only ten more days.

Gurpal was the sole bread earner of the family as his elder brother had passed away during the first week of September and his father is bed-ridden.

The unemployed lineman association has said that the contractor should compensate the family. “ We will be giving some token amount to the family as a support by contributing money and we also demand that contractor should compensate the family for this loss,” said Raghbir Singh,senior vice-president of the association.

“ Most of the helpers employed by the contractor are not much trained and even the staff employed are being paid very less. This is the reason we are demanding recruitment of 5000 linesmen as per the promise done by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited,” he added.