The Odisha CPI(M) on Monday filed an FIR against two top officials of the power distribution company, SOUTHCO utility, at the Baidyanathpur police station of Berhampur blaming them for the Sunday bus tragedy, caused by a low-hanging 11KV live wire, that claimed 10 lives.
State secretary Ali Kishor Patnaik filed the FIR against Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SOUTHCO P. Arun Kumar and its Authorised Officer (AO) Pradip Kumar Sahu. He demanded the arrest of the two officials for investigation and legal action. He termed the electrocution of the bus passengers a tragedy caused by human negligence.
Leading a team of senior party activists to the police station, he said it was the duty of SOUTHCO to properly maintain the 11KV power cables and their poles. “In 2008-09, the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) had cautioned that poles and cables in and around Berhampur were in a dilapidated condition and might lead to major accident. In the past 10 years, nothing had been done to rectify the problem.”
He also said the SOUTHCO authorities had not paid heed to the repeated complaints from the locals. Vacancies of posts of field staff since almost a decade and lack of proper maintenance as the work had mostly been outsourced also led to the accident.
The CPI(M) urged the police to investigate whether the road was suitable for bus journeys.
In 2013, Mr. Patnaik had filed an FIR in a Berhampur police station against the Reliance Infrastructure that was managing SOUTHCO at that time, alleging criminal negligence in managing power distribution after the Phailin cyclone and failure to restore power to the cyclone affected in time.
