A 48-year-old man died of suspected electrocution while walking to work in Safeda Colony, Nayagaon, on Friday morning, exposing again the risk posed by exposed wires and waterlogging in the area despite the Punjab and Haryana high court not long ago warning authorities to prevent such deaths.
The victim, identified as Mewalal, was on his way to duty around 5.30 am when he allegedly came in contact with a live wire. The incident also came a day after around 100 wires and cables were cut in the area, residents said. The latest death comes a month after an eight-year-old girl died of electrocution in Vikasnagar, Nayagaon, on August 8, after allegedly coming in contact with a low-hanging electricity cable while she stepped out to buy something.
A visit to Safeda Colony revealed cables hanging from poles and lying across roads and muddy, waterlogged patches. Because wires remained scattered along roads and water accumulated during rain, mewalal’s relative Geeta said residents had been living with the danger for months. The stretch was waterlogged, with several wires and cables lying close to or touching the ground. His body was sent to Kharar civil hospital for postmortem. He is survived by three sons. Photographs from the locality showed bundles of cables lying across muddy roads and near residential buildings, while poles carried dense networks of overhead wires. The issue is also linked to Nayagaon’s unplanned urban growth. Located along the northern edge of Chandigarh, the municipal council has narrow roads, multi-storey buildings and limited civic infrastructure, leaving utility wires running through congested residential stretches. The girl, whose parents were migrant workers, was reportedly electrocuted near a waterlogged stretch where wires were lying close to the ground. A contractor working with her parents allegedly witnessed the incident and informed the family.
Nayagaon SHO Shivdeep Brar said the exact cause of death would be established after the autopsy. She said people had to move through the same stretches where cables and wires lay on or near the ground, making it difficult to know which wire was live. Residents said repeated complaints about loose and exposed wires had failed to bring a permanent solution, raising questions over enforcement and routine safety inspections.
