the times of india, new delhi wednesday, january...

THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 9TIMES CITY

New Delhi: Two days after law-yer Gaurav Rana and his dogwere electrocuted by a live wireleft unguarded at a park innorthwest Delhi, North DelhiMunicipal Corporation onTuesday accepted that neglecton its part led to the tragedyeven as angry residents of thearea said they planned to suethe civic body.

The corporation has or-dered a probe and indicated thatan electrician or an engineermay be suspended for “callous-ness”. “We have ordered an in-quiry and the report will comeby Wednesday. We haven’t sus-pended any official. Dependingon the report, we will take ac-tion. But it was the corpora-tion’s responsibility to see thatlive wire wasn’t kept in thepark,” said P K Gupta, commis-sioner, North Delhi MunicipalCorporation.

Residents of Vaishali, thecolony where the electrocutiontook place, said they would takethe agency to task. “We mustsue the corporation. We willprotest. Why should residentsface the consequences of such

negligence?” asked Shikha Seh-rawat, a resident.

Locals gathered at the parksaid the lights there were notworking for over a year. “A fam-ily had even complained thatthe lights are not working. Thepolice don’t know how to dealwith such cases. Why weren’tthey carrying wooden logs?They were looking for sticks inthe park after they reachedhere,” said Jyoti Khatri, anoth-er resident.

However, civic body officialsare also probing whether the

dog had dug up the live wirewhich caused the electrocution.

“Some zonal level officialsindicate the dog might have dugup the portion which led to thelive wire getting exposed. Evenso, our maintenance staffshould’ve checked,” he added.

Officials have been instruct-ed to inspect all parks and non-functional fancy lights have tobe replaced. “Our officials aredrawing up a list and within twodays, all parks in North Delhiwill be inspected and bulbs re-placed.” But the residents say

that they didn’t see any officialinspecting the park where themishap took place. TOI foundrusty wire meshes jutting outof most light poles in the park.

Residents of other coloniessaid no official had visited theirneighbourhood to inspect parksand repair non-functionallights. “These fancy lights go offafter some months. People aregetting killed and corporationsare squarely to be blamed. Thecontractor/officials do a shod-dy job by giving multiple elec-tric connections and people

have to pay through their lives.They must compensate the fam-ily,” said Ashok Bhasin, presi-dent, North Delhi ResidentsWelfare Forum.

North Delhi mayor, Yogen-der Chandolia, said a commit-tee had been formed to probethe matter. “Either the electri-cian or junior engineer will besuspended. It is sheer callous-ness on officials’ part. Our par-ty members met the family andstrict action will be taken.”

Meanwhile, Congress andAAP latched on to the opportu-nity, claiming that the accidentbetrayed the BJP-ruled corpo-ration’s “lack of governance”and “misrule”. “This is a veryunfortunate incident andshows total lack of governance.How can a live wire be left in thepark? Immediate action mustbe taken against those respon-sible in the administration,”said Congress leader HaroonYusuf. AAP lashed out at BJPfor ‘misrule’ in the corpora-tions. “The incident highlightsthe sorry state of governance.It’s been seven years that theyare ruling the corporations andyet the situation is so pathetic,”said AAP spokesperson, Atishi.

Lawyer’s neighbours may sue corpnAgency Orders Inquiry Into Park Tragedy, Hints At Suspending Those Responsible

IN GRIEF: Sister Vandana Kohar

Photos: Vipin

New Delhi: Gaurav Rana, the26-year-old lawyer and resi-dent of Pitampura who waselectrocuted by a live wire inthe colony park while walkinghis dog on Sunday night, wasknown for going out of his wayto help people and friends. Hiselder sister, VandanaKohar, describes himas dildar—someonewith a big heart.

On Tuesday, Gau-rav’s house was filledwith tearful friendsand family mourninghis sudden death andremembering him tobe a very jovial and caring per-son. Rana booked a car as asurprise gift for his father onSaturday which is yet to ar-rive.

On Sunday, he went out forhis daily stroll with his dogand was speaking to friends onthe phone when his pet Caesarstrayed into the park. Rana

went after him before bothwere electrocuted by a livewire from a lamp post in thepark.

“Gaurav was an idealbrother. He was also an idealfriend. Ask his friends. Lastnight a boy came knocking onour door at 11.30pm callingGaurav. It was his friend who

came all the wayfrom London afterhearing about hisdeath. His friendsloved him,” saidVandana. The fam-ily was looking for amatch for Gaurav.

Gaurav’s neigh-bour Smita Chaud-

hury recalls how during Holilast year Gaurav poured fivebuckets of colour on her. “Iasked why you are pouring somuch colour and he said eachbucket is on behalf of differ-ent people who have movedout of the colony now. He wasvery jovial. He regarded me asan elder sister and was also ve-

ry close to his two sisters,”said Smita.

Gaurav studied in ArmyPublic School till Class X andLancer Convent for classes XIand XII and completed hisLLB from Amity University.

“Gaurav aspired to be a poli-tician. Our father is a memberof the Bar Council of India. Hewanted to be influential likedad,” recalls Vandana.

Gaurav’s friends had gath-ered, some in front of the park.

“It’s criminal negligence. Thecorporation should be booked.Also, police should have calledthe CATS ambulance which isequipped to deal with suchemergencies. It’s a huge loss tous,” Ajit Singh, a friend, said.

Tears for ‘ideal brother’, ‘big-hearted friend’SHOCKING NEGLECT

Jan2015

Two linemen are electrocuted while shifting high-tension cables to underground fixtures in

Noida. The incident happened when the line they were working on became ‘live’

Jul2014

A 10-year-old boy was killed after he fell on a high-ten-

sion wire from the terrace of his house in Swaroop Nagar, northwest Delhi

Jul2013

A documentary filmmaker, Anand Bhaskar Morla (33), is electrocuted when his

car’s door brushed an iron gate that was in contact with a live wire from a split AC in Green Park area

Oct: A 40-year-old man & his son (20) are killed after they came in contact with a live wire hanging from a trans-former in northeast Delhi’s Harsh Vihar

Aug: A 35-year-old man is electrocuted after he came in contact with a wire hanging from an overhead electricity meter in Holambi Kalan of northwest Delhi

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Not all schoolsare dealing responsibly withthe autonomy given to themto set nursery admission gui-delines.

At least one school’s web-site showed a change in reg-istration dates—from Janu-ary 20 to January 15.Authorities at The BanyanTree, Lodhi Institutional Ar-ea, claim “technical error”but parents are suspicious. Aparent has also complainedthat he was asked to submittwo demand drafts while tak-ing admission without beingtold what he was paying for.

Jasdeep Kaur hadplanned to submit the appli-cation at The Banyan Treeon January 17 as the sched-ule first uploaded on thewebsite said the last date forregistration was January 20.When she checked again,she found that the last date

was January 15. “Formswere accepted till January20,” says Chetna Saini, prin-cipal, The Banyan Tree,“there was no change ofschedule. May be there wassome error. As for the list, itwas probably the one for par-ents to see if they’ve filled allthe details correctly.” Theparents, however, are suspi-cious and have mailed a com-plaint to Action Committeefor Unaided Recognized Pri-vate Schools.

Another parent, PratikJain, has written that whenhe went to admit his daugh-ter to a Dayanand Viharschool, one of a large chain,he was asked to pay two DDs.“One was for Rs 25,000 andanother for Rs 30,000,” saysJain. When he posted his ex-perience on a social network-ing site, another applicantresponded saying he wasasked for donation by the Vi-kaspuri branch.

A third parent said theEast of Kailash branchasked for a hefty amount toteach “a poor kid whose par-ents had died.” Jain hasemailed the Directorate ofEducation officials.

Complaintsof donation,date change

pour in

Greater Noida: Motoristsusing the Yamuna express-way will now have to shell outmore money as toll. Morethan two years after it wasopened for commuters, theexpressway concessionairehas hiked the toll charges.The new rates have come intoeffect on January 19.

The new toll rate for four-wheelers is Rs 330, up by Rs 10,while it is Rs 165 for two-wheelers, up by Rs 15, for aone-way trip to Agra fromGreater Noida. Tax for othervehicles—commercial andlarge—has also been hiked byup to 10%. Buses and truckswill pay Rs 1,150, minibusesand other light commercialvehicles Rs 550, and othermulti-axle vehicles Rs 1,765.

The concessionaire, Jay-pee Infratech, said that thetoll hike was notified by theUP government earlier thismonth and endorsed by the

Yamuna Expressway Indus-trial Development Authority.According to the new rates,expressway users will have topay Rs 2.20 per km for lightmotor vehicles like cars andjeeps, Rs 3.45 per km for medi-um heavy vehicles and lightcommercial vehicles likeminibuses, and Rs 7 per kmfor buses and trucks. Heavyconstruction machinery orearth moving equipment will

be charged Rs 10.75 per kmand multi-axle heavy vehicleswill be charged Rs 13.75 perkm, officials said.

“Commuters travelling toJewar are charged toll for 0 to48 km. However, the rate forthis section of the express-way has not been increasedfor two-wheelers and four-wheelers like cars, jeep orlight motor vehicles. It re-mains at Rs 50 and Rs 100, re-spectively,” said a Jaypee spokesperson.

Yamuna e-waytoll up, but Jewarride costs same

Vandana.Keelor@timesgroup.com

FIRST HIKE

Ghaziabad: Around 600 SIM cards, 25 modem hubs, twoCPUs and a laptop, among other electronic items, were reco-vered from the possession of a person, purportedly a residentof Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar, from a house in Ghaziabad onMonday night. His father, Rajiv Sapra, who also lived withhim managed to escape. The accused, Chirag Sapra, wasnabbed from a house in Radheshyam Colony Phase I in Mu-radnagar. Cops are trying to find out why Sapra had amassedthe huge cache of communication devices. He failed to pro-vide relevant documents too. TNN

600 SIMs seized from house

AGRA TRIP TO COST JUST 10 MORE

Category of vehicle

Jewar Mathura Agra Total

OF RF OF RF OF RF OF RF2/3 wheelers 50 50 50 65 50 50 150 165

Car/jeep/van 100 100 120 130 100 100 320 330

LCV 150 160 200 210 150 180 500 550

Truck/bus 300 335 400 430 350 385 1,050 1,150

MAV 450 515 600 660 550 590 1,600 1,765

Oversized vehicles 600 660 800 845 700 755 2,100 2,260

OF (Old fee) RF (Revised fee) in( )

NURSERYADMISSIONS

This newspaper has consistently held that we must establish asystem for pinning individual responsibility for this sort of

criminal negligence. We have also argued that there must beappropriate compensation for those dying or injured in accidentscaused by the negligence of civic agencies. This must include threecomponents. First, compensation for the loss of potential earningsfor the victim’s household. The second should be for the traumasuffered by the family. While no monetary value can be placed onthis, the figure should be at least Rs 10 lakh. A third componentshould be a punitive fine imposed on the agency that has beennegligent. This again should be no less than Rs 10 lakh. For a youngperson, like in this case, these would add up to well over a crore ofrupees. At least 1% of the compensation amount should be recoveredfrom the official held directly accountable for the negligence. Onlysuch a system can act as a real deterrent to such callous negligence.

Times View

Noida: The National HumanRights Commission on Tuesdayasked the UP government andthe GB Nagar administration tosubmit reports on theelectrocution of two linemen inNoida within two weeks. Takingsuo motu cognizance of reportsin TOI, the rights panel issuednotices to UP’s principalsecretary (power) and thedistrict magistrate and policechief of Gautam Budh Nagar. Thetwo linemen, Mohammad Hasanand Saddam Hussein, werecharred to death on January 11while working on a high-tensionline that suddenly went live. TNN

NHRC notice onlinemen deaths

Gaurav Rana

Maria.Akram@timesgroup.com

TIMES NEWS NETWORK