On March 18 1993 Madhubala Kuswah from Godhra Gujrath, was watching television with her two sons and their grandmother, The Elder son Madhvendra Singh who was about eleven at the time touched a telephone lying on a table. The touch proved to be fatal, as the boy suffered a massive electric shock when he touched the telephone. Sources Said that that telephone had been dead for a quite sometime and had been carrying high voltage electric currents. When the child touched the phone the current passed onto him from the telephone and such was the impact that he got stuck to it. Unfortunately the chil was seated on a sofa, along with his grandmother and his younger brother. The electric current passed on to them as well. The Mother Madhubala too wasn’t spared as she was sitting on the floor. The impact of the shock was such that the sofa caught fire. Their neighbors who rushed on the spot and immediately took them to a nearby hospital. Out of the four the mother and the younger child managed survived, While the doctors could not save Shyama Devi (Grandmother) and Madhvendra Singh.

Shiv Pratap Singh Kuswah, Madhubala’s husband, along with Shiv Singh, the father–in–law filed a complaint with the court mentioning that this fatal incident wouldn’t have happened had if BSNL fixed the telephone lines. After a Gap of Thirteen Years. The Gujarat State CDRC (Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission) has finally brought justice to a family in Godhra Town by instructing the indian Telecom Backbone (BSNL) to give a compensation amounting of Rs. 4 lakh to the customers for a mistake the company made in the past.

Shiv Pratap said, “Around four days before the tragic incident took place, a vehicle had hit the telephone post. Because of the impact the wires snapped and hung over the high tension wires that used to pass over it. I made several complaints to BSNL to look into the issue and fix the line but they never responded.” According to the Sources, the lawyer Himanshu Thakker who represented the victims said that, “The court has told BSNL to pay a sum of around Rs 4 lakh saying that the incident could have been avoided if BSNL had acted in time. The judgment passed on March 30 directed BSNL to pay Rs1,19,000 with 9% interest from the date of the incident. Though the judgment is in our favour, I feel that the compensation should rather be paid by the employee of BSNL who was responsible for the delay.”

The young child and the aged grandmother lost their lives just because of a few irresponsible government servants. The family had an extremely long wait of about thirteen Years and a huge loss