Residents of Mango stage a blockade on Dimna Road. Picture by Uma shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, Sept 29: Residents of Mango today blocked Dimna road for hours in protest against the death of an electrician in an accident yesterday.

Police said Suraj Sharma (35) was repairing a 11,000 HT line at Sankosai in Mango last night when the power was accidentally switched on. Mahato was electrocuted and thrown off the electric pole that he had climbed for the repair work.

Sharma, a resident of road number one in Sankosai, had climbed a pole to mend the defect on the request of a Jharkhand State Electricity Board linesman called Mahtojee.

The victim was rushed to MGM Medical College Hospital by employees of a JSEB contractor where he was declared brought dead.

Police said the agitators were residents of Sankosai, Daiguttu, Parasnagar and Kuwar Bustee. The protestors demanded compensation and a government job for Sharma’s widow. They also demanded that those responsible for the electrician's death be immediately arrested. Attempts by the officials to pacify the demonstrators failed. The blockade was finally lifted after the administration paid a compensation of Rs 10,000.

A protester, Dinesh Kumar, said this was the fifth such incident in the past year.

“JSEB linesmen rarely do any manual work. They employ local electricians for repairing faults in the HT and LT lines. They hire these poor electricians with the lure of jobs in the JSEB. The linesmen are backed by senior officials,” he alleged.

Sharma a father of five, was the sole earning member of the family. “He was about to have his dinner when the JSEB linesman asked him to repair the fault...And now we have lost him,” said the victim’s father, Satya Narayan Sharma.

General manager of JSEB’s Singhbhum circle Devender Kumar refuted the charge that higher officials lure local electricans with jobs in the power board.

“We have fixed procedures for recruitment and we strictly follow the rules. However, I am aware of the fact that many linesman utilise the services of private electricians.”