Electricity Department learns nothing from recent fire accidents
Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Sept 20: Just one day after the Babuline Fire Accident when a resident of Round Basti saw terrible sparking inside the meter box of his house, he ran to the nearest Electricity Site Office for help. But instead of getting any help he heard abusive words for the person who was in duty at the Aberdeen Site Office (Near Hyundai Show Room). The employee of Electricity Department who was in duty was so rude that he refused to even lodge the complaint. As there was no other way the said person wrote complaint by his own in the register and started making calls to people, who are known to him in press and electricity department. Later as the resident of Round Basti had made noise, nearly after one hour some staffs visited his house to check the fault.
This is not the only such incident in Port Blair city. Almost every resident of A & N Islands have got this kind of response from their respective site offices. Often the staff at the Site Office remain clueless about the electric fault, often they keep receiver of the phone down to avoid calls, sometimes employees could be seen working under heavy influence of liquor.
Under this kind of situation one can imagine what will happen in case of a major electric fault in places like Round Basti, Haddo or Dairy Farm, which are densely populated.
“The Site Office must be maintained as emergency response centre as in case of delay simple spark may lead to a major fire accident but sadly in these Islands, site offices work at their own pace putting lives of thousands of people at risk,” said a resident of Aberdeen Bazaar.
The Electricity Department must immediately act and organise training for all the staffs, who are posted in all the site offices. There is also a need to motivate them to act promptly in every such cases, which may lead to a disaster anytime.
