Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Apr 12: A worker of West Bengal origin was working on an electric pole to fix cables, when electricity suddenly started to be transmitted through the cable. The worker suffered electric shocks and was seriously injured. The incident happened in the outskirts of the city on Thursday April 11.

Two workers had gone up the pole and were working on repairs. When the electric shocks were felt, one among the workers immediately jumped to the ground and saved himself. The locals have squarely blamed the apathy of Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd (Mescom) officials for this incident.

The injured man has been identified as Manikya (24) from Kolkata. After providing him treatment in a private hospital here, he was shifted to Fr Muller Hospital at Mangaluru for further treatment.

The work of replacing old electric cables is in progress in and around the city. About 60 workers hired by Bengaluru-based Arvind Electrical, which has bagged contract for the work, were working on this project. As soon as the cable turned live, Manikya suffered shocks and began to hang upside down from the electric cable and got stuck there. He was brought down with the help of a crane. He has suffered severe burn injuries. A complaint about this incident has been filed against contractor named Anil, and Mescom engineer.

Mescom branch manager here, Ramachandra, stated that there was no negligence on the part of Mescom in this incident. He guessed that this accident would have happened because the workers went up the electric pole without switching off the earthing.