Pay Tk 50 lakh to the family

The High Court yesterday directed the Rural Electrification Board (REB) to compensate the family of a college student with Tk 50 lakh for losing his hands after being electrocuted in April this year.

The HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah came up with the order following a writ petition that sought compensation for victim Siam Khan, a college student of Shariatpur.

Deputy Attorney General Tapas Kumar Biswas told The Daily Star that the REB has to give Tk 50 lakh to Siam's family in 30 days after receiving the verdict.

The HC passed the order on the ground that Siam has lost both hands due to neglect of the REB men and his family is very poor.

According to a report published in the daily Prothom Alo on April 24, Siam, son of ship worker Faruk Khan from Jhijari village under Naria upazila in Shariatpur and an intermediate student of Naria Government College,was electrocuted on April 6. The electric cable of REB got snapped and fell on the ground after a storm the previous day.

The REB authorities did not repair the cable in time although local union parishad representative Mojibur Rahman informed the Palli Bidyut Samity the next day, the report said.

Critically injured Siam was admitted to the Burn Unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital where his two hands had to be amputated.

Based on the report, Supreme Court lawyer Sifat Mahmud filed the writ petition with the HC seeking necessary orders on the issue.

Following the petition, the HC in May issued a rule asking the REB authorities to explain why their failure to ensure public safety should not be declared as neglect, why they should not be considered responsible for Siam's state and why they should not be directed to compensate his family.

The court also summoned the REB member (distribution and supply), general manager of Palli Bidyut Samity, assistant general manager of Naria Sub-Zonal office and the secretary of Shariatpur Palli Bidyut Samity to appear before it on May 29 to explain their roles.

They appeared before the HC that day and prayed to the court to exonerate them from personal appearance before the court, saying a three-member probe body led by REB official Md Omar Faruk Bhuiyan was already looking into the matter.

The HC that day asked the REB officials to submit the probe report before it yesterday.

REB's lawyer Sheikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain yesterday submitted the probe report to the HC, saying that his clients could not note the complaint about the snapped electric cable, as lineman Mizanur Rahman, who was in charge, did not record the complaint on the registration book.

If the complaint was recorded, the electric cable could be repaired in time and the accident might have been avoided, the report said.

After accepting the report, the HC yesterday passed the order for compensation and disposed of the rule.

Earlier in May this year, the SC directed the authorities concerned to compensate the family of one Shanu Miah from Brahmanbaria's Kasba upazila with Tk 50 lakh. Shanu died falling into a sewer through an open manhole on a box culvert in the capital's Paltan area on March 6.

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) gave Tk 25 lakh and Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) the rest earlier this month.

On February 18 last year the HC ordered the government to compensate the family of Jihad, a four-year-old boy who died falling down a 300-foot unprotected well shaft in the capital's Shahjahanpur Railway Colony on December 26, 2014.

In its full verdict, the court would fix the amount and say who should pay it.

The full verdict is yet to be released, Deputy Attorney General Biswojit Roy told The Daily Star yesterday.