The Chhattisgarh High Court did not find any good ground for interference in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the respondent authorities to mitigate the problems which happened in short circuits and damages occurred to the public life and property.
The PIL filed by one Keshari Rajpal further seeks direction to the respondent authorities to use the electrical wires in an underground manner by which short circuits will be prevented.
Ajay Kumar Barik , counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is constraint to approach before the Court as he is deeply aggrieved by the willful, negligent and neglectful attitude/ act/ omissions of the respondents by which resulting in the fatal incident of fire taking place at Yadunandan Nagar, Tifra due to short circuits which causes massive hazardous to the public life.
He further submits that the petitioner through various life reporting/ newspaper reports and personally visited the officers concern and stated before them and the petitioner came to know that the fire broke out as a result of short circuit.
It is further submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner has written legal notice to the respondent authorities and stated about the factual matrix of the cause of short circuits due to use of electrical poles by the cable TV networkers and internet service providers and number of complaints has been lodged before the competent authorities, but there is no fruitful response from the competent authorities.
He also submits that due to short circuits which causes massive damages in public life and the respondent authorities are kept mum, but the petitioner has taken photographs of dangling wires or cables which is tied to electric poles and lamp post which causes major threat to the road users and residents of society.
The department of Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Ltd. has setup for guidelines for use of underground cable system and overhead conductor system.
The counsel for the petitioner submits that the electricity department has set guidelines and charges for cable TV operators and Internet Service Providers and Telecom Companies to use electric posts, but there is no change on the ground and there have been several instances of electric posts having been brought down by the weight of the cables causing power cuts.
Though residents put the wires back up with the help of poles it is immense safety issue.
He also submits that repeated representations/ oral discussions to the authorities concerned have failed to yield a proper solution unfortunately number of times due to emerge of cable TV Wires and Internet Service providers are the cause of short circuit due to poor installation of fuse by which short circuit arose and it destroy the transformers and also harm to articles and human beings in nearby houses.
Barik submits that the Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company which is a successor company of CSEB has issued schedule of rates to the citizens as well as for the users who have used the electricity pole of the company as cable workers has issued schedule rates on dated 31.07.2018, but there is no schedule rates for the users of cable networkers and Jio Fibre Cable companies who have used the electrical poles by which dangling of wires which cause massive hazardous due to short circuit.
He also submits that the petitioner has filed paper cutting clips of various dates where the news of short circuits have been published by the local newspaper and it has been given awareness through the news article how to prevent short circuits in day to day life.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi noted from the prayers and pleadings that the petitioner, who is aggrieved by the several instances of short circuits due to use of electrical poles by the cable TV networkers and internet service providers, has filed only a newspaper cutting in this regard, but has not filed any authentic report of any Governmental body.
The grievance expressed by the petitioner has not been substantiated by pointing/ depicting the incidents which may have occurred in the past.
In view of the same, the Bench does not find any good ground for interference in the petition and accordingly, the petition is rejected by the High Court with a liberty to the petitioner to file a proper one.