The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL), its franchise SNDL, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) to file its reply on the report tabled by the HC appointed committee to make power distribution system safer and fixing the responsibility of authorities concerned and all stakeholders.
A division bench of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Shriram Modak also directed Registry to supply copies of four reports of its committee in high tension line to respective lawyers. The HC had constituted a committee that submitted its findings and the bench said now its property of the PIL and lawyers should study and submit their say. The matter is now posted for further hearing on August 1.
The Special committee had surveyed nearly two thirds of the city by May 31 in 2019 and submitted its report before the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay HC on Tuesday. This was the fifth report of the special committee and the recommendations have been elaborated in it.
The committee has termed NIT, NMC, MSEDCL, SNDL and citizens equally responsible for making the electricity distribution network unsafe. According to the report, it was the collective responsibility of all the stakeholders to make the power distribution system safe, but it seems that those concerned did not strictly perform their respective duties and bend the norms. Hence, it is necessary to fix the responsibility of NIT, NMC and MSEDCL (25 per cent each), power distribution franchise SNDL at 15 per cent and citizens concerned at 10 per cent. The committee has further recommended fine of rs 10 per sq ft from residential consumers and Rs 20 per sq ft from commercial and industrial consumers for violating the norms.
The committee was formed after the death of twins Priyash and Piyush on May 31 in 2017. They were playing at the gallery of their house at Nara in Sugat Nagar when they were electrocuted. Adv Shrirang Bhandarkar is amicus curiae while Adv Sashibhushan Wahane, Adv Sudhir Puranik and Adv Ulhas Aurangabadkar represent other parties.
The committee has detected 3,934 dangerous constructions, of which 3,912 have electricity connections. This includes 3,100 residential, 650 commercial and 122 industrial connections.
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