AKOLA, May 24: An official of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board has filed as many as 150 cases in the local court here against the plot/house owners who have constructed houses and shops in the vicinity of 66 KV high tension line passing through Shastri Nagar, Khedkar Nagar, Jawahar Nagar and Sindhi Camp on the outskirts of the city, by defying various electricity Acts.
The Executive Engineer (EHVO and M division), Akola, of MSEB, has filed these cases against the landowners and Akola Municipal Council through its chief officer.
The official has contended that the house owners had constructed the houses illegally. They had not maintained the requisite distance of 18 meters from the high tension line. The tendency of constructing houses in the vicinity of high tension lines can prove fatal if anyone came in contact with it.
The growth in the number of such complexes near high tension lines has resulted in many fatal accidents in the recent past. Nineteen-year-old Dilip Ambadas Sonone of Jawahar Nagar, Vijayendra Vinayak Gawande (9), Sunil Ashok Chawla (13) and Ashok Mathuricharan Shahu (25) of different localities, living in houses along the high tension lines were killed instantly when they came in contact with the live wire during the last seven years.
Raju, Vinod, Bhomrao, Nita, Narendra and Vijay (all in their twenties and of different families) received severe burn injuries due to the same reason).
The most surprising aspect is that while the MSEB rushed to the court for restraining the landowners from constructing houses along the high tension line, it has provided and supplied power to these illegal constructions and has been collecting electric charges regularly. However, MSEB officials are silent over this issue.
The provisions of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910, Indian Electricity Supply Act, 1948 and Indian Electricity Regulations, 1956 state that the landlord has to obtain permission from the MSEB to construct houses along the high tension line.
The official prayed for restraining the landlords from constructing houses who defied all such norms. It has alleged that the local municipal body too granted permission for works by passing maps “without paying heed to the anticipated danger from the high tension line.”
MSEB had placed the 66 KV high tension line from Paras to Amravati in 1962 when there were only agricultural lands. However, soon people purchased plots carved out of fields without properly sanctioned layout and the municipal body too allowed the construction without verification, he alleged.
The MSEB has no power to demolish the works being carried out along high tension lines. It has to go to the court to seek justice.
The MSEB has also contended that they were unable to carry out the maintenance and repairs of the high tension line because of the impediment caused by the profusion of houses.
It charged that the Akola civic body’s officials granted sanction for the construction work along high tension lines even though there were no sanctioned layouts. MSEB claimed that despite issuing warning notices people continue to construct the houses.
It is alleged that people even defied the injunction orders of the court and went ahead with the construction.