Chennai rains: Madras HC directs state govt to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to family of electrocuted girls

The Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to families of two girls who were electrocuted on Wednesday due to a wire from an open pillar box.

Eight-year-old girls Bhavna and Vijayshri, who were playing outside their homes on Wednesday, were electrocuted in Chennai’s RR Nagar suburb, as heavy rains continued lashing the city and other coastal districts of Tamil Nadu.

Another girl escaped after she jumped on a cement slab. The girls were playing near their home since schools were closed following the rains.

Eight officials of the electricity board, including an executive engineer and an assistant engineer, were suspended for dereliction of duty, electricity minister SP Velumani told reporters.

He said leakage of electricity to the wire from an open pillar box was the reason for the girls’ electrocution. A five-member group has been set up by the Electricity Board to ensure that such incidents do not recur, he added.

He had also announced a solatium of Rs 2 lakh for kin of the dead. However, the Madras High Court has directed the government to provide more compensation for families of the deceased, CNN-News18 reported.

Velumani said chances of electrocution were less in Chennai because of underground cabling of electric wires, but the accident took place because of lack of proper upkeep of the pillar box. There were 40,000 such pillar boxes in the city, he added.

Meanwhile, angry residents staged a protest on Friday condemning government negligence. They said that the pillar box wasn’t fixed despite their complaints, and that’s the reason for the girls’ death.

The weather department has predicted rain and thundershowers at several places over coastal and interior Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the next two days. Intermittent heavy rains have also been forecast for Chennai and neighbouring districts of Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur.

With inputs from IANS