Hyderabad: Negligence of the electricity department officials in repairing a faulty transformer forced two farmers to attempt the task themselves, resulting in fatal consequences in Sangareddy district on Thursday. A case of death due to negligence has been registered against assistant engineer Ramulu and lineman Gangaram of the electricity department. The victims were identified as Velu Ravinder Reddy, 35, and Marelly Srisailam, 37, both residents of Chikmaddur village in Hathnoora mandal.
Ravinder owned one- and-a-half-acres of land and Srisailam owned two acres of land in their village. But due to shortage of water supply, crops dried up in both the fields. The transformer from where they get electricity supply to their fields was under repair for more than a week. The farmers took the issue to the notice of the officials concerned but there was no response.
On Thursday morning, when Ravinder contacted lineman Gangaram, he was told that he would repair the transformer and will also switch off the supply when the repairing work starts. After getting a go ahead from Gangaram about switching off the power supply, Ravinder climbed the transformer. He took the support of Srisailam to climb up. But since the supply was on, both suffered an electric shock and fell dead at a distance. Based on a complaint from their families, a case was registered against the AE and the lineman.
