11 workers electrocuted in Uttar Pradesh (Second Lead)

LUCKNOW - Three women and eight men, engaged in Uttar Pradesh government-sponsored construction work, were electrocuted and two others injured in the state’s Lakhimpur Kheri district Tuesday. Two officials overseeing the project have been suspended, an official said.

“The accident took place at a construction site, where labourers were working for a housing project undertaken by the State Urban Development Authority (SUDA),” District Magistrate Sameer Verma told IANS on phone from Lakhimpur Kheri, some 150 km from Lucknow.

“It occurred when some pipe of a concrete mixer fitted on a vehicle came in contact with a high tension wire, subsequently electrocuting the labourers handling the machine,” he said.

Verma said the labourers were deployed for the Integrated Housing Slum Development Programme sponsored by SUDA.

Two people injured in the accident were being treated at a hospital.

The district administration has announced a compensation of Rs.1 lakh to the bereaved families of each of those killed.

The contractor of the construction site escaped soon after the accident took place. “He (contractor) is still absconding. Teams have been constituted to trace him,” Police Inspector Vinod Mishra said.

According to district authorities, two government officials - project manager (R.P. Pandey) and the site manager (junior engineer K.N. Srivastava) - who were supposed to monitor the construction have been suspended for their negligence.

“The two must have ensured removal of the high tension wire at the construction site viewing the safety aspects,” said Verma.

A First Information Report (FIR) has also been registered against the junior engineer and contractor Rampal. “Both of them have been booked under section 304 A (causing death by negligence). The two are absconding,” Mishra said.