NHRC issues notice over electrocution of a girl leading to amputation of hands

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that both the hands of a ten-year-old girl had to be amputated at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital following severe burn injuries due to shock from a high voltage electricity line passing over the roof top of her house in village Mirzapur of Rabupura area of Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

The incident happened on the July 7, when she accidently touched the 11 KV high voltage line while playing with other children.

The Commission has noted that in the reported incident, the State administration as well as the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited cannot escape their responsibility for not ensuring that such a high voltage line should not have passed through the residential areas at a height that even a child could touch it. Such inaction by the concerned authorities amounts to violation of Right to Life and Safety of the people.

Accordingly, it has issued a notice to the District Magistrate Gautam Budh Nagar and the Chairman Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited calling for a detail report in a matter within four weeks. They are also expected to inform about the steps being taken to avoid such incident in the future.

The Commission has also observed that it has come across many such cases where due to the negligence of the authorities, people were electrocuted.

Registration of a criminal case, fixing responsibility of the guilty and granting monetary relief to the victim would not alone compensate the loss in every case. It is imperative for the authorities to have a sensible approach to avoid occurrence of such horrific incidents.