A seven-year-old boy was electrocuted while he accidentally touched a live electricity wire lying close to the ground at a garden in Kalaburagi on Wednesday.
According to the boy’s family members and residents in the area, the boy was out playing with his friends in the garden at NGO Colony, off Sedam Road. His friends said that he accidentally touched the live electricity wire connected to a switchboard of a high-mast light which is at the bottom of the electricity pole on the ground.
Residents around the park gathered immediately after the incident and expressed their anger against the City Municipal Corporation and Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company Limited (GESCOM) for what they termed “sheer negligence and irresponsibility” in the installation of high-mast light switch.
“The high-mast light switch is at the bottom of the electricity pole on the ground. The switchboard with a live electricity wire on the ground where children play every day is very dangerous. The officers in the municipal corporation and GESCOM are responsible for the child’s death,” Yeshwantraya Ashtagi, a resident of the area, told The Hindu.
A shocked mother of the child fell unconscious twice and was inconsolable.
The deceased child was one of the twin sons of building painters Suresh Kambar and Mahadevi. They are from Mugilnagaon in Shahabad taluk and migrated to Kalaburagi a few years ago in search of a living. The deceased child was studying at Sunrise School, Anne Marie Nagar, off Kusnur Road in the city.
