Lunch time at a school turned traumatic, when 20 persons including 18 children suffered electric shock at Kondareddypalle municipal high school, near here, on Saturday. The injured were students of class 3 and 4.
During lunch time, mid-day meal contractor Ranemma's son Dileep (22) was drawing drinking water from a sump using a bucket. Accidentally the bucket fell into the sump. He tried to remove the bucket with a help of an iron rod, which came in contact with an electric transformer nearby. This gave an electric shock to everyone in the vicinity. As Dileep was the first to receive the shock, his brother Vinay came to his rescue and he too suffered from shock. As the whole area was wet and students were washing their hands near the sump, they too suffered experienced electric shocks, with four of them seriously injured. The injured were shifted to Chittoor government hospital.
On hearing the news, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy ordered an inquiry into the incident. Joint collector Vinay Chand and municipal commissioner Sachidananda Sharma rushed to the spot and questioned the headmaster R Krishnaiah.
A parent said that five years ago a fire accident took place in the same school due to electric transformer being placed close to the school building. Though, none were injured, parents had asked the officials to shift the transformer away from the building, but no action was taken so far.
The parents urged the district administration to take stern action against the officials who failed to relocate the transformer, which led to the mishap.
The joint collector ordered Chittoor divisional engineer to relocate all transformers near private and government schools in the district within 48 hours.