Lineman killed in freak accident

Jamshedpur, April 12: Had the telephone call to repair an electric line come a few minutes later, Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) lineman Haridwar Singh would be alive today. But fate had other plans.

About 9.30 pm yesterday, the power board employee and his family were about to leave their home to catch the 11.30 train to Rourkela when he received a call from his superior requesting him to attend to a faulty line.

Half-an-hour later the family received the message that the lineman had died of electrocution.

The family, who were going to Orissa to take part in the last rites ceremony of a relative, were planing to leave early to catch the train as they did not have confirmed tickets.

Kamini Kumari, daughter of the deceased, said her father had just returned home for the day at 5.30 pm when his supervisor J.P.N. Singh telephoned him requesting him to repair a snapped line near Kharkai River.

“After he left we got a call from my mother’s sister in Rourkela, who said that her father-in-law had expired. We immediately contacted the officer and requested him to inform my father that we had to leave to Rourkela and so he should return home as soon as possible.”

After Haridwar returned, the family packed their bags and were about to leave to the Tatanagar railway station in a few minutes when the supervisor called again, at 9.30 pm, and requested the linesman to repair an overhead jumper on Gauri Shankar Road before boarding the train.

“We kept on telling him to refuse the order as we were to leave for Rourkela. But he said it would hardly take a few minutes to repair the line,” said Kumari.

“After half-an-hour, a neighbour told us that while my father was repairing the jumper, someone switched the line on from the sub-station, and he was electrocuted on top of the pole.”

JSEB engineers blamed the supervisor for the death of the lineman. “If the line was switched on while the lineman was on top of the pole, the responsibility is on J.P.N. Singh,” said an engineer.

According to rules, they added, it is the responsibility of the officer (concerned) to ensure that the line in not live.

He has to wait for the confirmation from the lineman in question before supplying power to the line from the substation.

The utility board’s general manager P.R. Ranjan said he has constituted an inquiry panel, under the chairmanship of superintendent engineer Vinay Kumar, to look into the matter.

“While a lineman is repairing a snag on top of a pole, the line should not have been switched on. I have ordered an inquiry,” said the general manager.

“If there is a fault on the part of the officer — who asked the deceased to repair the line without keeping a watch on the operator at the substation — he will have to face departmental action,” Ranjan added.