Cuttack, June 17: Orissa High Court has directed five power companies to pay compensation for 10 deaths linked to "negligence" and "lackadaisical attitude" in maintaining electric lines.

The high court, in the past two months, has disposed of nine petitions regarding compensation for deaths caused by electrocution and awarded Rs 20 lakh in interim compensations in the 10 cases. The court ruling said the power companies "cannot shirk their responsibility of maintenance on trivial grounds", while awarding Rs 2 lakh interim compensation for each death.

Justice A.K. Rath issued the order to pay compensation to the North Eastern Electricity Supply Company in four cases, the Central Electricity Supply Utility in two cases and the Western Electricity Supply Company, Southern Electricity Supply Company and the Grid Corporation of Odisha in one case each.

Though the petitions claimed compensations ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, the court directed the companies to pay the interim relief, while leaving the door open for the petitioners to approach the common law forum for higher compensation.

The interim compensation has been awarded to Meina Bhoi, Bijuli Bhoi, Rabindra Singh, Mangal Singh, Malati Sutar, Kanchan Bagarti, Judhistir Rout, Subhadra Sahoo, Sankar Paramanik and Salgu Tudu. The victims died after coming into contact with live wire that had snapped from the pole at their villages. The court said that in any such event, had a live wire got snapped and fell on public road, the power should have automatically been disrupted.