Trinath
Billyground, June 23: It seems that in middle Andaman region, disaster preparedness has taken a backseat. The best example of Disaster preparedness has been demonstrated by Electricity Department yesterday night, when an electric pole with live wires fell on the road at Billyground.
According to reports, villagers, PRI members and Police personnel were continuously calling the officials of Nimbudera Power House but sadly there was no one at the Power House to attend the calls and send a team to restore power or to remove the pole. At last villagers took some DRMs of Electricity Department and switched off the power supply from nearby transformer, which took atleast 45 minutes. Luckily within this 45 minutes no untoward accident took place.
To add to the dismay, the Electricity Department took 12 long hours to reach to the spot to remove the fallen electric pole. According to villagers the team of Electricity Department reached Billyground at around 11.00 in the afternoon with only a few workers.
To utter surprise the AE of electricity Department soon after reaching the spot asked the PRI members to provide some labourers, without which they refused to start the work. He reportedly threatened that if no labourers are provided by Panchayat for next four or five days power won’t be restored by the Department. Angry but helpless, Panchayat Members then provided 10 labourers and with the help of these labourers only by night 8.30 pm, power could be restored in the entire region.
This incident shows that how carelessly the officials of Electricity Department are managing the show. In case of a major disaster in future such negligence will cost many precious lives.
Moreover, in many occasions in past Andaman Sheekha had reported how weak all the electric poles of Middle Andaman region are but sadly none of these poles have been replaced yet.
Villagers allege that the area doesn’t have a regular JE, which is the main reason behind such mismanagement. The Administration must conduct an inquiry in this regard, which should not end with only asking for a clarification from the Department as like always the clarification will carry only lies and lame-excuses and will not solve the purpose.
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