NEW DELHI | An Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) delegation met the grieving family of Sandeep, who died after being electrocuted by a live PWD (Public Works Department) streetlight pole in Surajmal Vihar, East Delhi, and assured them of all possible assistance. The delegation, comprising MLAs Sanjeev Jha and Kuldeep Kumar along with other party leaders, took details from the family about the incident.
AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj held the BJP government’s ‘khataara system’ (dilapidated system) responsible, saying that people continue to lose their lives in Delhi due to government negligence. He said PWD Minister Parvesh Verma had not even offered condolences, while no FIR had been registered so far, and questioned why the BJP government was shielding the officials responsible.
AAP Delhi Unit Chief Saurabh Bharadwaj said on social media platform X, “Not a word of condolence from PWD Minister Parvesh Verma, even PWD refused to give a comment in the news report. Death by Electrocution at broken divider & streetlight of PWD. No FIR registered. Banana Republic in the making.”
Saurabh Bharadwaj also attacked the BJP government over the death of a 15-year-old boy who drowned in an open drain. Regarding the suspension of the MCD Junior Engineer (JE) in connection with the incident, he said that the drain belongs to the Delhi Jal Board, which comes under Minister Parvesh Verma. Yet, the MCD JE was suspended.
He further said, “The Chief Minister, ministers and Chief Secretary keep shifting responsibility to other departments and forget that those departments are also an engine of the BJP government. Everything in Delhi has been under the BJP’s control for the past one-and-a-half years. From pollution to waterlogging, from the Yamuna to traffic jams, from the bicycle scam to the health scam, and from the rice scam to private school fees, the BJP government’s failures are being exposed every day.”
Meanwhile, after meeting the grieving family of the deceased youth, Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha said, “Twenty-eight-year-old Sandeep died after being electrocuted because of potholes on the road and exposed wires. He was the sole earning member of his household. The family is very poor and lives in a rented house. Who will compensate the family for this loss?”
Sanjeev Jha added, “The family says that no representative of the Delhi government has even come to meet them. The government is sleeping like Kumbhakarna and has no concern for them. We demand that the government provide adequate compensation to this poor family so that they can sustain their household.”
Sanjeev Jha said that according to the family, an FIR has not been registered yet, but the police will reveal the truth. “The police should properly investigate the matter, and whoever is responsible should not be spared. It should not be the case that suspending a JE is treated as the end of the matter. In every major incident, these people suspend a junior official and use that to evade their own responsibility,” he said.
He further asserted, “This will not work. We demand from the Rekha Gupta government that the matter be properly investigated and senior officials be held accountable, so that their attitude changes whereby they leave potholes and excavations open anywhere, resulting in people dying sometimes by drowning and sometimes by electrocution. This is not the first such incident.”
Sanjeev Jha added, “Four such incidents have taken place in Delhi in the past four days. We hope that the government will wake up from its Kumbhakarna-like slumber and take appropriate action.”
Meanwhile, Kondli MLA Kuldeep Kumar said that we cannot understand how many more people will lose their lives due to the government’s negligence. “The government is learning nothing from these incidents. People are dying after falling into pits and being electrocuted. A person is walking along the road, and there is a government pole standing there,” he stated.
Kuldeep Kumar questioned, “How would a person know that a government pole standing on the roadside is a pole of death and could be carrying live current?” He asked the Rekha Gupta government whether it did not bear responsibility for a death caused by its negligence. He said that no BJP leader, MP, MLA or Chief Minister had come to share the family’s grief. He said the incident was a result of the negligence of the BJP government and the PWD, as the pothole was on a PWD road and the live current was coming from a PWD pole.
The AAP MLA said, “Who will now support that young man’s family? He was the sole earning member of the household. Lives are continuously being lost due to the government’s negligence, and the BJP government has ruined Delhi. We clearly demand that since young Sandeep died due to the government’s negligence, the government should provide adequate compensation to his family and give a government job to one member of the family.”
Kuldeep Kumar stated that Sandeep’s death did not happen without reason; the government’s negligence and the live current in the pole claimed his life. “He belonged to a very poor Dalit family that lives in a small rented house. The ramshackle system of this ramshackle government has claimed the life of a young man from such a poor family. We met the family today, and their demand is also that the government provide them adequate compensation and a government job so that the family can be supported,” he concluded.
