Naveen Patnaik orders inquiry against 7 officials for jumbo deaths

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Sunday ordered an inquiry by the crime branch into the electrocution of seven elephants in Dhenkanal district even as one official was dismissed and six others were suspended by their departments in connection with the incidentSix officials three each from the Central Electricity Supply Utility CESU and forest department were suspended and a junior engineer of CESU dismissed after the jumbos died after coming in contact with sagging live wire Saturday an official saidA general manager one subdivisional Officer SDO and a lineman of CESU were placed under suspension while a junior engineer was sacked an CESU official saidSimilarly a forest range officer a forester and a forest guard were suspended for the incident he saidBesides ordering a crime branch inquiry into the incident the chief minister has ordered appropriate action in case of any criminal negligence an official in Chief Ministers Office saidSeven jumbos including a tusker and five females were electrocuted as they came in contact with an 11KV power line near Kamalanga under Sadar forest rangeThe death of the elephants drew sharp criticism from the opposition parties with both the Congress and the BJP accusing the state government of utter negligenceBJP leader and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan slammed the state government for the incident and claimed that earlier too several animals were killed due to lack of coordination between the forest department and the CESU under the energy departmentIt is a matter of regret that one hand of the state government is not aware of what the other hand is doing Pradhan tweetedSenior BJP leader and former MP Rudra Narayan Pani also hit out at the government and sought resignation of both forest and energy ministers He said both the energy and forest departments were responsible for the incidentBlaming power authorities for the tragedy Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray had on Saturday said the CESU had been warned about the matter long ago but no corrective step was takenNonrectification of sagging lines and noncabling of transmission lines led to the tragedy Routray and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Wildlife Sandeep Tripathi saidThe PCCF said the mishap took place as the energy department failed to take step to raise the height of the hightension wire which was hanging much below the height stipulated by guidelines of the union governmentEnergy Secretary Hemant Kumar Sharma said a threemember team was probing the incident and on the basis of their report appropriate action would be takenThe line acted as a temporary feeder for a railway construction site in the area where the incident took place he said adding that meetings between the forest and the energy departments were being held on a regular basis to ensure proper coordinationEnvironmentalist and wildlife expert Biswajit Mohanty said there were 200 places in Dhenakanal district where high voltage electric wires were sagging at a low height and left unattendedDespite repeated letters to the CESU by the Forest department and stakeholders nothing tangible has been done till date he saidCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever