Blackout at Hesaraghatta as truck crashes 35 electric poles; drunken driver held
Bengaluru: A major electrical disaster was averted on the Hesaraghatta main road early Saturday morning when the locals stopped a tipper truck, driven by a drunken driver, which pulled down 35 transmission poles. The driver has been taken into custody.
No casualties were reported in the incident that happened post-midnight, Times of India reported. The tipper pulled down 35 transmission poles of 11kv low tension (LT) power installed within a stretch of one kilometer, disrupting electricity supply to areas like Soladevanahalli, Chikkabanavara, Dwaraka Nagar and Bagalagunte.
Chikkabanavara traffic police stated that the truck was transporting sand to a construction site near Hesaraghatta around 1.30 am in the morning. The driver, identified as Subramani, was under the influence of alcohol and made an error in identifying the gear lever and the hydraulic switch. As a result, he used both, the lever and the switch, resulting in the dumper on the tipper being lifted and getting entangled with the transmission lines beside the road. Unaware of the impending disaster, he continued to drive the truck down the road for more than a kilometer, pulling down the conductors and transmission poles along.
The power lines tripped because of his rash driving and residents of the area, who heard a loud noise, rushed out of their houses in panic. They saw the truck plucking out the electric poles and hurriedly stopped the driver. They also informed the BESCOM officials and the police about the incident. The driver was taken into custody and a breath analyzer test revealed that he had consumed alcohol beyond the permissible limit.
A BESCOM official said that their engineers realized the intensity of the damage done after reaching the spot. However, an alarm had gone off at the control room earlier when the feeder got tripped immediately after the transmission lines snapped, indicating a disastrous situation. The severity of damage to the electrical infrastructure resulted in loss of power supply to nearly 10,000 houses.
HJ Ramesh, Director (Technical) of BESCOM, concurred that there was heavy damage to the conductors and insulation at various points and the company would have to replace them. BESCOM succeeded in completing a major part of the replacement work and ensured that power supply was re-established to the houses in the affected areas by 6 pm on Saturday. BESCOM engineers were involved in estimating the value of the overall loss and the details would be shared with the police department later. The losses would be recovered from the tipper owner, sources in BESCOM stated.
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Maharashtra Congress chief Patole meets Kharge, dismisses resignation talk as 'rumours'
New Delhi, Nov 25: Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Monday dismissed as "rumours" talk of his resignation following the assembly polls debacle and stressed on "collective accountability" for the defeat.
Patole made the remarks after meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge during which he conveyed that the result had not reflected the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra.
"Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and other national and state leaders were leading Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) from the forefront during the assembly polls. So, we were sure that the trends were in favour of Maha Vikas Aghadi, even the citizens believed that," the Maharashtra Congress chief said.
"If I talk about Nanded, the Lok Sabha bypolls and assembly elections were held on the same day. In Lok Sabha bypolls, our candidate was winning in six assembly seats, whereas, in the assembly elections, we are not winning even a single seat," he said, adding that there cannot be such a "huge difference".
This is the sentiment among the people also and they have stated that this government in Maharashtra was not being formed on their votes, he claimed.
"So, I spoke to Mallikarjun Kharge on this," he added.
Asked whether he had offered to resign or the party had asked for his resignation after the Maharashtra assembly polls defeat, Patole said, "These are all rumours and there is no truth in them. There is collective accountability."
Patole also said he will meet Rahul Gandhi in a day or two and discuss all issues.
"Democracy is being finished. We have discussed that... there was no talk of resignation," he said.
The MVA alliance, comprising the Congress, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT), was restrained to 46 seats by the Mahayuti that reaped a rich harvest of 230 seats in the 288-member House.
