Jammu, September 1: Forum of Engineers & Tech.Staff met here at Gladni Jammu under the chairmanship of Er Sachin Tickoo,Convenor ,along with Sushma Parihar,Gen.Secty(Org.),Ajaz Kazmi, Gen Secty PPEU, Sanjeev Bali, President PPEU,Er.Ankush Sharma,Er.Vipul Sharma,Er.Mohd.Iqbal,Er.Ravi kha,Er.Pawan Dev,Er.Pankaj Dubey, Er.Abhishek Dutaa,Jasbir Singh,President ITI employees,Anil Slathia, Secty.Lineman Union,Tarun Gupta,PDD dailywager employees union.The members of the forum hailed the initiative of Er.Mohd Yosuf Baba ,Chief Electrical inspector J&K, DTTIC,wherein through a strongly worded communiqué he has called upon the Inspector General of Police Jammu to pass on the necessary instructions to the District Police officials and SHOs for following standard operating procedures while handling situations arising post Electrical accidents.
The said communication intimates to the IG Police that his office has received intimation of Electrical accidents that have happened in recent past in the Jammu Province. The recent incident that surfaced in media wherein a Junior Engineer had been tied to Pole by the miscreants in the public in Tehsil Bani of District Kathua .The enquiry of the incident had revealed that a person was electrocuted at home while repairing an appliance, but Junior Engineer was manhandled. In another incident,while fiddling with 11kv line got electrocuted,following which FIR was lodged against Junior Engineer resulting in his detention for 2 days and had to seek bail from Hon’ble Magistrate Jourian. The video of the said incident went viral through social media leading to serious resentment among the officials especially Junior Engineers of the Power
Development department. The wide spread protests had happened against this manhandling across Jammu Province by the employees of the Power Development department.
The Electricity ACT 2010 has granted powers of investigation to the Chief Electrical Inspector of the State in case of Electrical accidents.
The undersigned therefore wants to put a standard operating procedure as envisaged under the J&K Electricity Act 2010 before the licensee i.e. JKPDD in the instant case and the law enforcement agencies i.e. Police Department /Home department.
As per the procedure in Vogue and under Sec 44-A of the Electricity rules, 1978 electrical accidents are to be reported to the Chief Electrical Inspector by an officer Incharge of the Sub Division/Section Engineer within 24 hours telephonically and report in writing in “Form xiii” within 24 Hours of the knowledge of occurrence of electrical accident.
Further the Sub section(3) of Sec 123 of the JK Electricity Act 2010 which reads as under.
“Every Electrical inspector or other person appointed by government holding an enquiry under Sub Section (2) shall have all the powers of a civil court under the code of civil procedure and Samvat 1977 for the purpose of enforcing the attendance of witnesses and compelling the production of documents and material objects, and every person required by an electrical inspector be legally bound to do so within the meaning of Sec 176 of State RPC”
It is therefore evident that Chief Electrical inspector has been given due independence and superintendence to hold an impartial and sound technical enquiry into the electrical accidents under the JK Electricity Act 2010.The very purpose of vesting judicial powers in Chief Electrical inspector under Sec 176 of RPC also suggests that the report of the enquiry shall be the basis of holding the legal proceedings in the matters pertaining to Electrical accidents.
Forum of Engineers shall call upon the IG Police Jammu and seek that a circular in terms of Standard operating procedures as sought by the Chief Electrical Inspector is issued for all the subordinate police officers for handling cases of Electrical accidents in order to instil a sense of coordinated approach to tackle such situations arising post electrical accidents which will surely go a long way for confidence building among Engineering fraternity.
