On safety protocols for linemen, power consumers
PANAJI
The Goa government on Friday informed the Legislative Assembly of a series of steps undertaken to implement and enforce safety protocols after the electrocution deaths and injuries of linesmen. The government also admitted that consumers often flout safety norms when installing generators and inverters, thereby risking the lives of power department staff.
In a detailed written reply to MLA Deviya Rane’s postponed Calling Attention motion, Power Minister Ramkrishna Dhavalikar said that safety gear, regular training and stricter regulation of private inverters were being enforced to prevent such incidents.
“Regular training is being conducted by the Department for all categories of staff, right from Line helpers to the most senior Engineers of the Department at various resource centers. Such training is also regularly conducted at our in-house training center at Curti Ponda, besides regular 6 training sessions to line staff by our Engineers at Division and Sub Division levels,” he said in the written reply.
He also revealed that line staff are provided with safety gear like hand gloves, shorting rods, safety shoes, line testers (contactable/non contactable), safety belts, etc besides the mandatory working tools required to ensure safe working by them. The department is also ensuring that they follow due safety protocols while availing shutdowns on lines they are expected to work on.
Dhavalikar also disclosed that it has been engaging with inverter manufacturers and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) through forums like the National Federation of Engineers for Electrical Safety (NFE) to ensure safer designs of generating devices used by the public.
“They have also been interacting with organizations like the NFE to highlight such incidents to forums like the Bureau of India Standards. So that proper safety measures are incorporated in the manufacturing of generating devices like Inverters to eliminate incidents...” he added.
The MLA had raised the issue of fatal incidents including that of Chandru Gaonkar, who died on May 20 while working on a GOAB switch at the Honda Bus Stand Distribution Transformer Centre in Sattari during an officially declared shutdown. Although both HT and LT departmental supplies were isolated at the time, it was alleged that abnormal voltages on the LT side back-fed from an untraceable source such as a private inverter or generator, and eventually stepped up to lethal levels via the transformer.
In another incident on April 19, 2024, lineman Manoj Zambavalikar died after receiving a shock from a consumer’s inverter while disconnecting a neutral conductor in Bicholim. Similarly, line helper Krishna Pawar died under unclear circumstances in November 2023, though officials ruled out both departmental and inverter-based supply as the cause in that case.
The minister said that there are regulations in the public domain which require the electricity consumers to abide by strict protocols while installing generators, inverters, solar inverters in their systems. However, he added, “The public pays scant respect to these very important and lifesaving regulations and installs generating devices of questionable make, using unprofessional workmen/contractors to carry out the works, thus jeopardizing the lives of Departmental workmen.”
