Two minor girls killed in Odisha as live wire snaps on them

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Jeypore, Oct 22:

In a tragic incident two minor girls were electrocuted in Jeypore town in Odisha’s Koraput district this afternoon after a live electric wire fell on them on snapping from the electric pole in front of the hostel building of the Vikram Dev College, which is a crowded place with shops lined up on both sides of the road.

They have been identified as Kanak Bhuyan (10) from Mundipadar village under Kotpad block and Pratima Amanatya, a class III student. They had come to Jeypore to watch the famous Dusshera Yatra.

Their bodies have been completely charred under the impact of the electric shock, reports said.

Two others also sustained minor injuries in the mishap. They were shifted to the local government hospital here and have been discharged after being given first aid.

Jeypore town police have seized the bodies while locals had staged a road block in protest blaming the electricity department for the mishap. However, on intervention of the local Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati the locals vacated the road block. Bahinipati announced an assistance of Rs 25,000 each for the family of the deceased minors.

According to eyewitnesses people had gathered in large numbers and were busy buying from the shops lined up on both sides of the road in front of the hostel of Vikram Dev College when suddenly some people noticed sparks in the overhead electric transmission wire near a pole and started running helter-skelter.

Suddenly, the live wire snapped from the electric pole and fell on the two minor girls who were caught in the melee.

Locals said the department had allowed both legal and illegal connections in a hazardous and unsafe manner to pandals for the ensuing Durga Puja which caused the accident.

In another incident in a different locality here, two buffaloes were torn apart to pieces after a live electric wire snapped on the animals today earlier in the day.

Following the deaths of the minors a pall of gloom prevailed in the town which was otherwise in a festive mood for the Dusshera Yatra, which is compared with the Mysore Dussehra.