On the fateful day of November 14, 2017, D. Mallavva (65) and her daughter Buddavva (35) came in contact with a live wire and got electrocuted at their farm in Katriyal village of Ramayampet mandal in Medak district.
Media reports of this incident moved the Principal District and Sessions Judge B. Sai Kalyan Chakravarthy, who is also the Chairman of District Legal Services Authority (DLSA). There were also reports about live wires hanging low and endangering the lives of people.
Taking these reports as suo motu, Justice Chakravarthy issued notices to the officials of Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL) asking them to report about the number of cases pending with the department for grant of ex gratia for the death/ injuries of humans and animals due to electrocution because of low-lying live wires. TSSPDCL was also instructed to furnish details of remedial steps taken by it to avoid unforeseen incidents and the action initiated against the erring officials.
The result was encouraging . In addition to furnishing the reports, the TSSPDCL officials took up the case of the mother and daughter and sanctioned an ex gratia of ₹ 8 lakh to the kin of the deceased and handed over the amount to the legal heirs. Copies of bank passbook reflecting the transactions were also submitted.
The officials informed the DLSA that failure to submit relevant documents was one of the reasons for ex gratia being not paid or getting delayed.
As many as 11 documents have to be submitted to claim ex gratia, including detailed report by the ADE, DE, FIR, post-mortem report, panchanama copy, dependent certificate and death certificate. A total of 114 cases were pending out of the total 403 cases while sanctions were given in 289 cases.
To follow up the procedure and see that the remaining people get the ex gratia, DLSA chairman directed the Mandal Legal Services Committees to depute para legal volunteers to approach families of the deceased and explain about the relevant documents.
“Everybody should be made accountable. When negligence of the employees is taking away the lives of many people, I wanted to inquire what the department is doing and wanted to address the departmental inaction,” said Judge Sai Kalyan Chakravarthy.
