Hyderabad: With a video showing a girl being electrocuted upon touching an electric pole during rain is doing the rounds, the electricity department has instructed staff not to neglect even minor complaints and to increase awareness among the residents to stay safe in monsoon.
There was one death reported last month due to an electric pole in a public place, after nearly four-and-a-half incident-free years.
On June 3, 2019, at BK Guda in SR Nagar, an 18-year-old student was electrocuted when his umbrella reportedly touched an electricity pole. The victim, K. Shivaji, died on the spot.
Residents also need to be careful and should maintain a distance from poles, electric wires and transformers when there is rain, to be on the safe side. These equipment are usually well producted.
It was said that residents should not dispose of garbage near a transformer — a common sight in the city — as it reduces the earthing capacity according to experts.
People should neither throw garbage nor urinate near transformers, as both of them affect earthing.
Transformers are usually fenced and in case of a broken fencing, one should immediately reach out to the department and inform the officials. One can reach out to 1912, a toll free number for electricity problems.
Lack of proper earthing culprit
Experts say that most of the electric shocks could have been avoided if there was timely and sufficient technical support at the ground level and good-quality work.
Mr G. Nagaraju, founder president of Telangana Vidyut Contract Workers Union, said, “It is usually assumed that the accidents are caused due to metal electric poles, which is not true. Before we started using cement poles, metal poles were used everywhere. The main culprit is lack of proper earthing.”
He added, “If there is proper earthing to the pole, then the fuse goes off immediately during any incident, stopping any danger associated with it. The same applies to electric shock with household gadgets as well, most of them are avoidable.” Earthing is a method used to protect from an electric shock. It does this by providing a path or the current to flow to the earth. It causes the protective device, either a circuit-breaker or fuse, to switch off the electric current to the circuit that has the fault.
