Overhead wires pose threat to life

Uncovered electric poles and loose hanging live wires in residential areas pose a serious threat to the life and property of Delhi citizens. Every year, over 9,000 people die due to electrocution across the country, according to the data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). In 2015 alone, 9,986 people died in India due to electrocution, while the figure in 2014 was 9,606.

In Delhi, almost all residential areas in all the three municipal corporation areas have loose high tension wires hanging from one electricity pole to the other. Several cases of accidents have also been reported from parts of the city where more than one person had lost their lives due to the negligence of the power distribution companies. The situation is worse during the monsoon when unauthorised colonies are most affected. Common Cause, an NGO dedicated towards public causes, had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking the fixing of responsibility of the authorities for such a negligent attitude.

A spokesperson of Common Cause said, “Recurrent fatalities by electrocution, whether due to old and substandard wires, short circuit, live wires or overloading is a negligent act on the part of the distribution companies and their responsibilities needs to be fixed if any such fatalities occur due to their negligence.”

However, on condition of anonymity, an official of the BSES Yamuna Power Limited, one of the power distribution companies in Delhi, said, “Laying underground power lines is very difficult because it incurs a lot on cost of laying underground power cables. The maintenance of underground cabling is also very expensive and we will not be able to convert all overhead wires into underground cables anytime soon.”