KSEB reduces a family of four into three

Kerala State Electricity Board officials have again proved their criminal callousness and dereliction of duty the other day by killing a school boy, Vishnu (14 years) at Kuttanad, Aleppey, district.

The tragic incident occurred when this unfortunate boy happened to get in contact with a snapped, but live, electric line while he, along with his friend, was having some fun fishing. It was providence that his friend Appu got saved.

The incident of a fallen electric post and cables was reported to the nearest KSEB office in the morning itself and, the locals say, these reckless officers did not have the common sense or a little sense of responsibility to switch off the link to that area. It took the life of boy to make them understand that electricity kills people.

The local residents say that they had appealed to the KSEB a hundred times to remove the old and dilapidated electric grid that had been posing a life and death situation to the people for long. But these officers get into action only when someone gets killed by a snapped wire. This is not the first time they kill people.

The incident created a commotion in the area, and when the KSEB officials came to the scene, the angry mob went berserk, and finally the law and order machinery was put into action to restore normalcy.

KSEB has killed hundreds of people so far, and every time an incident like this happens there will be a little hue and cry and the situation goes back to former stage when the near and dear ones of the victims come to teams with their misfortune and misery. And at times the Electricity board distributes an ex-gratia of a few hundred thousands. It is interesting to note that so far no officer of this mammoth board has had the bitter experience of getting jailed or punished for their gross deification of duty. The maximum they get is a few months’ suspension, and after that these officers will come back to their chairs to kill the innocents again.

The officers who are responsible for the death of this school boy need to be immediately booked and trialed for homicide. This is nothing short of that, and winding up a case of this nature by paying compensation needs to be made unconstitutional. The guilty must be brought before the court, trialed and punished. We just can’t allow a few officers to kill people. It is a democracy.

This white elephant, KSEB, needs to be privatized and these trade union hooligans should be made accountable to all their activities while on duty. Just see the plight of that small family of four! They are three now. Does the Electricity Minister Mr. A.K. Balan have got something to say?