COIMBATORE: At least seven Tangedco workers, including four wireman, had died of electrocution while attending to power failure complaints in the last 20 days across the state, bringing into focus the risky conditions under which they work and poor safety standards and compliance.
According to Tangedco staff union sources, victims Anand of Nilgiris, Aththiyappan of Kallakurichi, Selvaraj of Vazhapadi, and Samuthiram of Kadayanallu were wireman, while the other three —Dinesh and Naveen of Tiruppur district and Senthilkumar of Jayankondam — were gangmen.
While officials said rules regarding the mandatory use of ‘safety app’ and uploading of photos showing usage of safety gear at work are honoured more in breach than in compliance, workers blame the manpower shortage for rising fatal and nonfatal accidents in the department.
Wiremen and helpers play a vital role in fixing power failures, but a large number of their posts are vacant across TN. This makes the staff force gangmen who are not well-versed in technical work to take up fieldwork, and they are the ones who frequently become victims of accidents.
‘Poor training, work pressure also reasons for accidents’
Increasing work pressure, poor training of personnel, and rising vacancies are the other reasons for the accidents, said Tangedco workers.
Officials, however, said that wireman and helpers, particularly gangmen, fall prey to accidents and lose their lives due to negligence in using belt rope, hand gloves and earth rods, which would give them protection from electrocution.
“Supervisors have been advised to ensure that field staff use safety gear without fail while attending to electricity failures. They have also been asked to upload photos with the detail of the work being done on the app to ensure monitoring and safety compliance,” a senior Tangedco officer said.
As per protocol, the supervisor who monitors the work has to upload all details, including their name, role, circle name, section name, workers’ name and work description on the Android Application Package. While taking photos, the app also registers the latitude and longitude of the location for record maintenance. If there is any mishap due to negligence, the supervisor would be held responsible, sources said.
However, some members of the staff union said that uploading photos and details consumes mobile data and want the corporation to bear that expense for better compliance.