Kolkata: Boy touches light post, dies in tragedy rerun

KOLKATA: A 13-year-old boy died of electrocution in Saheb Bagan near Narkeldanga after he came in contact with a light post that had been defunct for over four years but its electricity connection had not been snapped.
The incident sparked anger in the locality with locals blaming the KMC. The incident came six days after a similar accident at Haridevpur in which a 12-year-old had died in similar circumstances at the other end of the city.
Locals said Farzan Ansari was walking down Raja Ramnarayan Street with his father Md Fakruddin when they saw water accumulated in a section of the road. Shortly before, there had been an hour-long spell of heavy rain that had led to waterlogging in parts of the city. The rain had been more intense in the north than in south.
To avoid water, Fakruddin went to one side of the street while Faizan took the other. While negotiating a narrow dry path, he reached out to grab a lamppost and was instantly electrocuted. Witnesses said they saw him jerk, hold still with the hand around the post for a few seconds and then slump to the ground.
Fakruddin, a motor mechanic who worked in Dubai (he had returned last week on holiday), tried to jump to his rescue but locals stopped him as he too ran the risk of getting electrocuted. It was only after power supply to the locality had been switched off that the boy - a Class-VII student - could be rescued and rushed to Calcutta Medical College & Hospital where he was declared dead.
DC (ESD) Priyobrata Roy said the father took him first to a nursing home and then to a private hospital before finally accepting that Faizan was no more.
According to Md Aslam who runs a provision store in the area, two cows that had come in contact with the very lamppost had received a shock last year. "Residents had appealed to KMC to remove the lamppost as it served no purpose for more than four years now. Had they acted upon it, a young life would not have been lost today," he fumed. There are many loose wires in the locality where hooking is rampant, said a resident.
KMC had installed LED lights at a lower height on other poles in the area. A similar post was removed from an adjoining street last week. The post that Faizan touched was perhaps the last one there. The department will check why it was still electrified and if an earthing problem had led to the accident.
Ward 28 councillor Ayan Chakraborty termed it avoidable. Power minister Aroop Biswas, who also went there, said he would hold a meeting with KMC and CESC.