Three lives lost, staff shortage blamed for power line accidents

Three youths have lost their lives while working on power lines over the past one week in different parts of the state. Following the death of Pankesh in Sujanpur and Sushil Sharma in Shimla about a week back, T-Mate Ajay Kumar was electrocuted in Kangra on Monday. He was working on an 11kv HT line when he was electrocuted. All three were in their twenties and have left behind young families or elderly parents.

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Shocked by the three fatal accidents in just over a week’s time, the board employees are blaming the deaths on the “massive shortage of field staff”. “There’s a severe shortage of electricians, T- Mates, Assistant Lineman and Lineman in the department. It has increased the workload and mental pressure on the field staff, resulting in such fatal accidents,” said Laxman Kapta, president of the Technical Employee Union of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL). According to the Union, approximately 150 employees have lost their lives on the job in the past decade.

The union further says that the power consumers and infrastructure, including transformers, LT and HT lines, have increased significantly over the years but the strength of the field staff has gone down. The union alleges that the heavy workload, resulting from staff shortages, is forcing employees to compromise on safety protocols.

“As per the safety protocol, a team of two or more people should go to fix a fault in the lines or transformers. As there’s shortage of staff, more often than not a single person is sent to fix the snag,” said Kapta.

The union officials further say that it becomes tough for one person to carry tools like a ladder, earth rod, belt, helmet, gloves and material like cable conductor and insulator to the site, leading to accidents. “And at some places, especially in the rural and tribal areas, some safety equipment is not even available,” said an official of the union.

Meanwhile, HP State Electricity Board Employee Union has written to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to initiate the recruitment of T-Mates and Junior Engineers to ease the work pressure on technical staff. The union has also urged the CM to constitute a committee to look into the reasons behind the increasing number of such fatal and non-fatal accidents.