Lawyer’s neighbours may sue corporation

NEW DELHI: Two days after lawyer Gaurav Rana and his dog were electrocuted by a live wire left unguarded at a park in northwest Delhi, North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Tuesday accepted that neglect on its part led to the tragedy even as angry residents of the area said they planned to sue the civic body.
The corporation has ordered a probe and indicated that an electrician or an engineer may be suspended for “callousness”.“We have ordered an inquiry and the report will come by Wednesday. We haven’t suspended any official. Depending on the report, we will take action. But it was the corporation’s responsibility to see that live wire wasn’t kept in the park,” said P K Gupta, commissioner, North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Residents of Vaishali, the colony where the electrocution took place, said they would take the agency to task. “We must sue the corporation. We will protest. Why should residents face the consequences of such negligence?” asked Shikha Sehrawat, a resident.
Locals gathered at the park said the lights there were not working for over a year. “A family had even complained that the lights are not working. The police don’t know how to deal with such cases. Why weren’t they carrying wooden logs? They were looking for sticks in the park after they reached here,” said Jyoti Khatri, another resident.
However, civic body officials are also probing whether the dog had dug up the live wire which caused the electrocution.
“Some zonal level officials indicate the dog might have dug up the portion which led to the live wire getting exposed. Even so, our maintenance staff should’ve checked,” he added.
Officials have been instructed to inspect all parks and non-functional fancy lights have to be replaced. “Our officials are drawing up a list and within two days, all parks in North Delhi will be inspected and bulbs replaced.” But the residents say that they didn’t see any official inspecting the park where the mishap took place. TOI found rusty wire meshes jutting out of most light poles in the park.
Residents of other colonies said no official had visited their neighbourhood to inspect parks and repair non-functional lights. “These fancy lights go off after some months. People are getting killed and corporations are squarely to be blamed. The contractor/officials do a shoddy job by giving multiple electric connections and people have to pay through their lives. They must compensate the family,” said Ashok Bhasin, president, North Delhi Residents Welfare Forum.
North Delhi mayor, Yogender Chandolia, said a committee had been formed to probe the matter. “Either the electrician or junior engineer will be suspended. It is sheer callousness on officials’ part. Our party members met the family and strict action will be taken.”
Meanwhile, Congress and AAP latched on to the opportunity, claiming that the accident betrayed the BJP-ruled corporation’s “lack of governance” and “misrule”. “This is a very unfortunate incident and shows total lack of governance. How can a live wire be left in the park? Immediate action must be taken against those responsible in the administration,” said Congress leader Haroon Yusuf. AAP lashed out at BJP for ‘misrule’ in the corporations. “The incident highlights the sorry state of governance. It’s been seven years that they are ruling the corporations and yet the situation is so pathetic,” said AAP spokesperson, Atishi.
TIMES VIEW
This newspaper has consistently held that we must establish a system for pinning individual responsibility for this sort of criminal negligence. We have also argued that there must be appropriate compensation for those dying or injured in accidents caused by the negligence of civic agencies. This must include three components. First, compensation for the loss of potential earnings for the victim's household. The second should be for the trauma suffered by the family. While no monetary value can be placed on this, the figure should be at least Rs 10 lakh. A third component should be a punitive fine imposed on the agency that has been negligent. This again should be no less than Rs 10 lakh. For a young person, like in this case, these would add up to well over a crore of rupees. At least 1% of the compensation amount should be recovered from the official held directly accountable for the negligence. Only such a system can act as a real deterrent to such callous negligence.