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Madras HC asks TNEB to pay Rs 6 lakh to electrocuted girl's dad

Amount to be recovered from officials who assured relief.

Chennai: Madras high court has directed the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board to pay Rs 6 lakh as compensation to the father of a 12-year-old girl, who died due to electrocution in 2006 at Tiruvottiyur in the city.

Justice S. Vaidyanathan who gave the directive while disposing of a petition from P. Siva Shakthivel, father of the girl, Prema, directed TNEB to recover the amount from officials concerned who visited the petitioner, collected details and assured necessary monetary relief.

According to petitioner, his elder daughter Prema while returning from her school to her residence by her bicycle and while she was passing through water stagnated up to her ankle level at Mahalakshmi main road, fell down and came in contact with a live electric cable on the road with her right hand, as resulted of which, she was electrocuted and sustained grievous injuries and later she succumbed to injuries.

On his complaint, the EB staff came to his residence, collected the details of the incident and assured relief for the petitioner’s daughter’s death. But no action was taken by the board.

Therefore, he filed this petition. TNEB contended that the girl fell down into a pit filled with stagnated rain and drainage water due to poor maintenance of roads and improper drainage system. While down, she caught hold of an electric cable passing nearby the electrical post.

It was purely a case of an act of God and death was not on account of negligence of the board. The judge said TNEB has to pay suitable compensation to the petitioner. There was no codified law for arriving at quantum of compensation in these types of cases. Petitioner’s daughter was a school going child.

Since the girl succumbed to injuries, this court feels it appropriate to fix the minimum monthly income of the victim as Rs 3,000 and applying the multiplier method, the judge awarded Rs 6 lakh as compensation.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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