One electrocuted in Kishangarh

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11: Close on the heels of the electrocution of two children in Ram Durbar on August 8, one more person was electrocuted i...

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11: Close on the heels of the electrocution of two children in Ram Durbar on August 8, one more person was electrocuted in Kishangarh in the wee hours today, after he came in contact with a live overhead high-tension wire.

The victim, Sanjay about 32-year-old, died after he came in contact with overhead wires going above the roof of his rented house in Kishangarh. Sanjay was sleeping on the roof; when he woke to ease himself stumbled and came in contact with the live high-tension wires.

Sources say the incident occurred at about 2 a.m. His post-mortem was later conducted at the Sector 16 General Hospital and a viscera sample sent for chemical examination. He was cremated later in the day.

Describing the incident as quot;unfortunatequot;, UT Finance-cum-Engineering Secretary Rakesh Singh said: quot;Although the wires were only two feet above the house, there was no fault of the department as the overhead wires were 14 feet above the ground level as per the specifications.quot;

According to his neighbours, Sanjay had shifted to the rented house along with his brother only about a fortnight ago. Sanjay, alias Mehto, hailed from Vaishali district in Bihar, and was employed as a rickshaw-puller for the past few years. He is reportedly survived by his wife, a son and two daughters, all living in his native village.

The incident has also brought to the fore issue of unauthorised constructions outside village lal dora and the ubiquitous kundi connections. Department officials who visited the site of the tragedy said that decades ago when the high-tension wires went up across the area, the locality was uninhabited. Since then, constructions had come up outside the village lal dora with the result that the high-tension wires almost touched the roofs. The victim was living in one such house outside the village lal dora.

Neighbours narrated incidents when children had fallen on the wires, but had been spared since the last wire was the one for quot;earthingquot;, the second wire was for the street-lighting, which was live only during the night, and only the top two wires carried 24-hour power supply.