[1]Greater Chennai has witnessed four electrocution deaths in the past one month and electricity cables and streetlight wirings in several lowlying areas continue to pose danger to pedestrians. While Tamil Nadu Electricity Board attributes the accidents to cable punctures caused by telecom service providers, the city corporation has been installing streetlights with cables just a foot below the road in the recentlyannexed suburban areas, particularly in Sholinganallur and Ambattur.
“Be it TNEB or the municipal administration, they have failed to address this issue and at least four electrocution deaths have occurred since last month.
Two deaths were reported in Tambaram and two more in north Chennai on Thursday. The worst part is that we do not know how many more such deaths are going to happen,” says advocate Subash Chandra Bose, also the DMK floor leader in the city corporation. According to corporation sources, three wards in Ambattur have streetlight cables buried within 1.5 feet from the road against the mandatory depth of 2.5 feet.
A senior TNEB official told DC that the telecom service providers and other government agencies do not cooperate with it while digging roads. The official asked people to desist from touching any electrical wire or objects found snapped on the road, or stand in stagnant water. They should switch off power instantly in case of any individual suffering electric shock, he said.
A senior corporation official said a probe has been conducted among the corporation engineers to look into Thursday electrocution if there was power leakage from corporation lights. But our streetlight systems are intact and the underground EB cable has got punctured and TNEB is looking into the issue, he added.
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