Sadness hangs in the narrow stripes of old Ramanthapur, a suburb of working class on the eastern edge of Hyderabad. It seems that inside the Yadav house, every corner echoes with the absence of a 21-year-old Mr. Krishny,-a unique son in a family of daughters, the boy all relied on. A few days earlier, his right arm was crowded with Rakhis, lovingly tied with his sisters, which will now have only this memory to which you can connect to.
August 18, Krishna, kindly known among his friends when “Diamond” stepped into the rain to bring his father from the parade Janmashtami. Often seen on sharp white shirts, on the day of the festival was wore a yellow turban and scarf. It was the first Krishna Shobha Yatra in their neighborhood. Until now, the locals say, the festival has revolved around the traditional UTTI or Utsavolam, in which clay pots full of butter or sweets were broken by young people forming the human pyramid. The big procession was supposed to add visual flourishing and attract youth to celebrations.
He lay and four more life on the road until midnight. The nine -meter car was pulling on a high -voltage bending wires near RTC Colony. The current man ruptured in seconds. Krishna immediately died, along with Rajendra Reddy (48) from Colona Ravindra Nagar, Sricant Reddy (35) Sharada Nagar, Rudra Vikas (39) from Habiguda and Suresh Yadav (34) Old Ramanthapur.
His sister Ramya, who stayed at home after Raksha Bandhan, remembers that she urges her not to leave for her father -in -law: “Just two months ago, he planned my wedding to the smallest detail. He assured me that he was younger, he would always care.
“In seconds it was over. My son came to take me home in the rain. He wanted to help move with a wheelchair,” recalls Raghu Yadav, Krishn’s father, his voice broke. “It was our support. But he’s gone.”
The loss waved through households. Rajendry’s wife Reddy and two school children will remain behind. Teening children Sricant Reddy must now grow up without the man they have relied on. In the morning after the incident, the Suresh Yadav family returned to her native place with her baby daughter, their home in Ramanthapur locked and quiet. Neighbors say he was the only breadwinner.
Among the survivors was a constable armed spare head V. Srinivas (55), a thick bandage wrapped around the head, and his chest was still characterized by the CPR that saved him. “I’ve been friends with Vikas, Sricant and Rajennder Reddy for more than ten years. We even took photos before the start of the procession. When Gypsy came out of fuel, we started pulling cars, but I held it from behind.”
Other injured included Ganesh (21) of Golnak, Surva Ravindar Yadav (30) and Mahesh (27) Old Ramanthapur. Mahesh has been released since then, but the rest is still undergoing treatment.
After death in electrical death, the electricity department tried hastily and arbitrarily cut the wires and left a heap on the road. | Photo Credit: G. Ramakrishna
Ramanthapur, however, was not the only tragedy. Within 24 hours, Hyderabad saw two more fatal electrocaces. In DD Colony, about 2.3 km from Ramanthapur, the worker Ram Charan Tej (18) died, while building a pandal 15 feet for Ganesh Puja and suffered a fatal head injury. The following morning in Bandlagud, about 16 kilometers from Ramanthapur, Tony (21) and Vikas (22), they died when Ganesh Idol they transported touched the line 33 kv. Their friend Akshay, 23, escaped injuries.
Eight lives lost in less than 48 hours. Since January, more than a dozen people across Hyderabad and the surrounding districts – a boy near Eidgah in Khairatabad, have died in similar accidents, two men who withdrew the notice shield in Habiguda and workers that bind banners or twitch mango near live wires.
A series of death in electricity brought the government to action. Within 24 hours, he ordered the representative of the main Minister Malla Bhatti Vikramark, who is also the Minister of Energy, quickly a trace shift to the underground cabling in Hyderabad. He also controlled the removal of unauthorized cables from the electric poles and warned against strict negotiations against operators. This step repeated the previous challenge of the underground networks of the main Minister A.revant Reddy, followed by Mr. Bhatti’s model of cabling Bengalur.
Rachakond Space Police reserved the case of accidental death and started a probe. Meanwhile, IT Minister D. Sidhar Babu announced ex-Gratia £ 5 for each of the surviving families and stated that the government would carry the entire medical expenditure of the injured.
Yet under the urgency of these announcements lies a more complicated reality. Hyderabad’s panorama of poles and wires is the result of years of neglect, weak regulation and blurred responsibility. “In the built -up town, the underground is disturbing and expensive,” says architect Shankar Narayan. “The intelligent poles are a better alternative where electricity, internet and other tools are integrated. But underground cables can work along the main roads. But there are smart poles such as those used in Japan, and can even generate income if properly regulated.”
He adds that the electricity tool could generate income by regulating it. “Internet service providers accidentally followed the wires on the poles and when they are cut, households are left without connectivity. Governments should involve planners and architects before the introduction of such projects,” he says.
The reaction of the knee market
Instead, the rush triggered fresh chaos. Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL), winding from criticism, began to hack over the heads across Hyderabad. In this process, the lakhs left digitally crippled. The Indian Association of Cell Operators (CoAi) called a sudden pulling of the cable cutting “indiscriminate and aggressive”.
Social media was soon flooded with photographs of separate wires accumulated on sidewalks. The office work was stopped, the students missed the deadlines and the houses fell into sudden silence. “Without the Internet, all our top devices are just bricks,” says Rahul Kumar, who gave up work and watched the film with colleagues.
University students who fight on irregular mobile data have been reduced. “I had a deadline for submitting my project and I missed it because there was no Wi-Fi. And they tell us that Hyderabad is becoming an intelligent city,” student Rises Engineering Sridhar.
Even everyday routines were supported due to balckot. “Our smart TV was empty. My daughter asked if the Internet went to strike,” says Arvind, a software engineer from Kukatpally.
The head official at the Department of the Electric Inspectorate admits that Hyderabad’s poles have never been designed for the burden that they now carry. “They were designed for power management and service lines. Today they bear a chaotic bundle of electric and broadband cables, often indistinguishable. Reckless pulling of network cables can disrupt electric and in some cases even turn the data line into conductor,” official Avers.
Risks, explains, it is slowly but deadly. Continuous pulling and overload weakens the poles, while friction disrupts the insulation on the power line. “Even without direct failure, the way these cables are attached and dragged to the life of our network. It is a slow, invisible safety erosion. The only turning point in cladding or extended contact with the signal cable can release the lethal charge,” he says.
Eyewitnesses in Ramanthapur’s case remembers when they saw the hanging signal lines clean with a high voltage wire-in the moment when the car became electrified, which caused five young men to collapse in seconds.
Such incidents emphasize, emphasize not only technical shortcomings, but also the absence of clear supervision. Broadband operators, mostly privacy players, chain lines across energy infrastructure with low supervision. The purpose of the permit is to come from both the municipal authorities and the power usefulness, but in practice it is rarely sought.
The man goes around a condolence poster of five men with electricity when their car touched a sagging wire with a high voltage during the Krishna parade Janmashtami in Hyderabad’s Ramanthapur on August 17th. | Photo Credit: G. Ramakrishna
According to him, both the central regulations for electricity and the Indian standard: 1255, which sets standards for safe installation and maintenance of power cords, emphasizes the need to maintain the signal and separate the power cables to ensure safety and prevent intervention.
Last year, TGSPDCL issued Cable operators and Internet service providers to remove unauthorized lines from electricity poles. But the recovery is weak.
“WRIING PROVIDERS must be subjected to regulatory framework, with liability equal to the energy network responsibility. If their networks are not supervised, monitored and moved to safer routes, whether physically away from the energy network or underground channels.
Meanwhile, Internet service providers (ISP) claim to be unfairly focused. A terrain worker says from the leading provider of the providers of Internet services providers that the operators already pay rent for the use of electricity poles – about 50 ₹ per month per wire at the pole – costs that are handed over to customers in the subscription. “From a subscription of 3,500 GBP for six months, almost 500 GBP goes to the government as a tax. When we already pay rent, as we can be called unauthorized,” he asks.
As part of the current arrangement, it clarifies the separation of electricity for pole and cable maintenance. They also claim that optical fiber cables are insulated and safe. “We can handle them every day with bare hands. There is no risk of passing the current passage.”
He notes that only the demand for broadband has driven the wire proliferation. “Sometimes 3-4 lines hang at one pole, sometimes 10, depending on the area. We try to have as many wires as we can at one pole to meet demand and reduce costs,” he says.
However, a sudden drive of cable cutting was crippling. “Three freight wires were cut out of the 5,000 poles in Ramanthapur one night. More than 10 Lakh Internet users have lost around the city. Restoring these networks will take weeks and massive investment.
Technicians on Earth describe the impossible workload. “People think we just connect the wire back and it works,” says the Junior ISP. “We have to trace every line after TGSPDCL cuts and repeat the connection. Our customers are calling us nonstop, but the pity wasn’t our start. We don’t even know when we can restore the service.”
Searching for safer streets
Although operators complain about disruption, officials emphasize the need for deeper reforms. With Ganesh Festival Days, experts identified weak joints, low -degree festival cables and risk pandal connection as potential risks. The proposed warranties include isolated connectors, insulating equipment, regular safety audits, monitoring of the CCTV power line and the height and structure of the idol.
In 2016, the High Court in Telangana included the height of the idols of 15 feet, but the command remained mainly on paper, while the rich organizers competed to organize the installation of always the grander. The official warning was no better.
However, the wider challenge is structural. Hyderabad’s wires are not just a tangled matter over their heads; They are entangled in bureaucracy, divided among civil authorities, discomings, private operators and state agencies without any single power to take full responsibility. For the mourning families in Ramanthapur and beyond it, however, debates on underground channels, smart poles and regulatory gaps are of little importance. Their requests are sharp: no other lives should be lost into the system so dangerously unjustified.
