Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 15, 2014 News
A West Demerara man, whose son was killed earlier this year after being electrocuted, has officially complained to the utility regulators. The matter has triggered a public hearing which is to take place later this month.
According to a public notice yesterday in the Guyana Chronicle, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), an independent body which oversees the utilities sector in the country, has received a complaint from Haris Chandra Balkaran, father of the nine-year-old boy.
The lad, Satyanand Balkaran, was killed “apparently when he came into contact with a galvanized zinc fence which was allegedly energized” by a wire belonging to the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL), PUC said in the notice. The public hearings are set for Monday, October 27, at Cara Lodge.
On May 7, Satyanand Balkaran reportedly ventured into his yard in the company of his mother, Debbie Ramash, and his older brother. He was supposed to take a bath while Ramash did the laundry, but those plans were quickly shattered.
The boy collapsed in a pool of water near the zinc fence that supported a zinc shed.
Ramash said she frantically ran over to her son and grabbed him but “a shocking sensation” caused her to drop him instantly. Her maternal instincts forced her to grab the child and place him on a dry area. Seeing froth coming from of the child’s mouth, she sent her older son to get help.
Ramash recalled that her neighbour assisted in transporting them to the West Bank Demerara Regional Hospital where doctors tried unsuccessfully to save the boy’s life.
According to a relative, numerous complaints to GPL about the exposed wire that led from the utility pole to the neighbour’s house fell on deaf ears.
Kaieteur News had reported in May that following the incident, a team from GPL visited the area to work on correcting the issue.
GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal, had said that the state-owned power company concluded that the exposed electrical wire was an illegal connection. Dindyal said that investigations revealed that the connection from the utility to a nearby home was illegal since the account had been closed for a number of years.
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