Kalimpong, July 21: The authorities of Girls’ High School today demanded that West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) shift its transformer from Dumber Chowk after a live wire electrified the pipeline, fence and main gate of the educational institution.

“Last night, after the transformer exploded, a live wire fell on one of the pipelines. In the morning, a person called up to say that the wire had electrified the gate. I sent some people there to direct the children through the back door. At first, when I rang up the electricity department, there was nobody there. Somebody later turned off the electricity supply. We are lucky that there was no major accident,” said S. Pradhan, the principal of the school.

“Earlier, too, we had requested the electricity board to shift the transformer since we felt that it posed a threat to schoolchildren. But the board did not take any action and added another phase to the already overloaded transformer,” she added.

Echoing her words, Jyoti Karki, the deputy secretary of Kalimpong Consumers’ Association, which has also taken up the matter, said: “We are fortunate that nothing happened to the children. Not only that, lots of other people could have been hurt as the route to another school and the Kalimpong subdivisional hospital passes through this area.”

According to Pradhan, the association has asked officials of the electricity department to look into the matter.

Confirming today’s incident, S.K. Gupta, the assistant engineer of Kalimpong WBSEB, said: “As soon as we heard about the incident this morning, we cut off the main electric supply. We had also sent our staff members on an inspection. However, it was not because of the transformer that the wire fell. Since a conductor had snapped, the earthing collapsed. It was then that the live wire fell on the gate and transferred the current.”

He admitted that he had received a request from the school authorities to shift the transformer and promised to inspect the area tomorrow.