Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Friday directed power entities — Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (MSEDCL) and SNDL along with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) — to deposit Rs10 lakh each with its registry towards expenses of specially-constituted panel for probing deaths of two minors due to electrocution by high tension (HT) lines.A division bench comprising Justice Ravi Deshpande and Justice Vinay Joshi asked the respondents to complete formalities within two weeks. The directives came while hearing a suo motu PIL based on TOI reports on deaths of 11-year-old twins Priyansh and Piyush Dhar and five-year-old Umesh Pande due to electrocution in June 2017, wherein Shreerang Bhandarkar was appointed as amicus curiae.Earlier, the panel inspected 32 HT feeders covering North Nagpur and found 1,288 violations, including 1,068 structures. Of them, 727 individual violators are under the NMC’s jurisdiction while 561 under the NIT. It pointed out that most of the structure owners near HT lines don’t have sanctioned building plans and even DCR norms are brazenly breached by them, due to apathy of the civic bodies. It estimated that Rs758.70 lakh would be required for executing the works of rectifications of HT lines regarding the 32 HT feeders.The panel also recommended demolition of extended civil constructions in a few cases of individual violators, like those found in Armors Township, with a view to make their homes safe from overhead HT lines. Of late, the members ran out of money, which was earlier deposited by all four entities. Bhandarkar appealed to the HC for directives to respondents to deposit their share of dues for smooth functioning of the panel.

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