NAGPUR: A 60-year-old woman was electrocuted when she stepped into a rain-filled pothole, where a live underground streetlight cable lay jutting out of the ground. As the woman repeatedly convulsed and collapsed in the electrified water, residents could do nothing but watch in horror as rain pounded the city on Wednesday night.The cable was damaged two months ago by a Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) contractor, but was left exposed and unrepaired at Ahuliya Nagar in Sakkardara police limits.
The body of Afroz Begum Azim Khan lay under water for close to 2 hours, say residents, who allege neither the power discom, police or civic body responded to the emergency. Helpless neighbours stood only a few feet away, unable to reach her as the live current turned the flooded road into a deadly trap. Anyone who stepped into the puddle risked suffering the same fate. By the time the power supply was snapped, Afroz was dead.No NMC official showed up at the spot till Thursday morning though the project was undertaken by the civic body, triggering widespread outrage in the area. The deceased, Afroz Begum Azim Khan, lived alone in a rented room near a dargah in Ahuliya Nagar.As per family members, Afroz stepped out during the downpour to buy essential groceries. She was carrying biscuits, detergent powder and other household items when she unknowingly stepped into the waterlogged stretch while returning home.“When we recovered her body, it was heartbreaking to see the grocery packet tightly clutched to her chest. We removed it before the body was taken to Government Medical College and Hospital,” said her relative, Ajaz Mohd Qureshi. Residents say they repeatedly dialled emergency services but to no avail.“A poor person’s life has little value. Her body remained in water during heavy rain for almost two hours, yet nobody came to help. When I finally saw her body, I was shell-shocked,” Qureshi said.Residents alleged the tragedy was the fallout of negligence during drainage work under the Amrut 2.0 scheme. They claimed an NMC contractor damaged an underground cable supplying power to streetlights and, instead of repairing it, merely buried the damaged section with gravel, leaving it exposed.“When the road flooded, electricity spread through the accumulated rainwater. We wanted to save her, but anyone entering the water would have been electrocuted too. We could only stand there and watch,” alleged local resident Niyamat Khan Tajee.Officials from discom, MSEDCL, maintained the damaged cable belonged to NMC’s street-lighting network and responsibility for its maintenance rested with the civic body. “Our officials rushed to the spot after and shut the power. But it was NMC’s jurisdiction,” said a MSEDCL official. Municipal commissioner Vipin Itankar on Thursday ordered an inquiry after preliminary inputs suggested the fatality could have stemmed from negligence during NMC’s sewerage project.Preliminary information indicated the cable connecting an electric pole to an NMC high-mast light had been damaged during drainage excavation and the exposed section was never repaired.
