TURA: A young man lost his life due to electrocution in what is being alleged to be a case of poor maintenance of power lines at Soragre village of Edenbari, near Tura, on Wednesday night prompting the district administration to order a magisterial probe into the death.
The 26 year old man, Rikrang B Marak, was electrocuted inside his house when he reportedly tried to cut power by shutting down the main switch box to stop a sudden power surge.
The victim had just returned from a bath at around 7 and 7:30 PM when he noticed a sudden power fluctuation and the lights of the house flicker. To try and avoid damage to the bulbs and other electronic items in the house he reportedly tried to pull down the lever of the main switch box to cut the power when a massive surge of electricity passed through his body killing him on the spot.
What caused live power to pass through the main switchboard remains a mystery but villagers allege that sudden high voltage and fluctuation has been a common problem in the area for many years. There are also allegations that MeECL maintenance teams seldom scout the area through which the power lines pass through to check for fallen trees and branches on the live wires which most of the time is blamed for electrocution deaths.
West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh informed that a magistrate has been directed to probe the cause of the electrocution death at Soragre village.
Garo Hills has one of the highest electrocution deaths in the state with both man and animal falling victim to fallen live wires left unattended. A few years ago a young child had both his hands amputated due to electrocution while a couple in Purakhasia area were killed when they accidently stepped on a fallen high tension wire while returning from a bath in a nearby stream.
Most recently, five labourers were killed near Mendipather when their road construction machine touched a powerful 33 KV high tension wire that was lying dangerous low.