THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Promises of a safe working environment for its staff notwithstanding, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is continuing to lose personnel to electrical mishaps amid duty.Between June 2011 and February 2012 - the first nine months of UDF rule - 24 staffers and contract workers of the KSEB have died in electrical mishaps, according to statistics tabled in the Assembly. Eleven contractor’s workmen, four electricity workers, six linemen, one overseer, one sub-engineer and one assistant engineer lost their lives during this short period.Assistant engineer Merin Issac and sub-engineer Prabha K S died in the explosion at the Moolamattam Power House of the 780 MW Idukki power project on June 20, 2011. The rest were attached to various electrical section offices across the state. As compensation in 17 of the 24 cases, the KSEB also sanctioned Rs 1,26,25,240 during this period. In a written reply in the House on March 6, Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed admitted that the number of deaths had been increasing during the past two years, but denied they were related to the conversion of electrical section offices into model sections. All this, however, should be read together with a set of recommendations submitted by the KSEB way back in 2003, soon after the mishap that crippled the Moozhiyar Power House of the 325 MW Sabarigiri hydel project in Pathanamthitta district. On the ‘Equipment Side,’ the report recommended phased replacement of old and obsolete equipment, periodical maintenance, modification of fire fighting facilities and imparting training to personnel.On the ‘Human Side,’ it recommended appropriate shift duty, appointment of qualified and trained personnel to man stations and works to be supervised by ‘competent persons,’ among other things.Most of the recommendations have remained on paper.
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