Protest in Backa Palanka over boy killed by electric shock

autor:

03. avg. 2023. 12:46

| News

The residents of the town of Backa Palanka once again assembled on Thursday outside the municipal administration building protesting over the death of a 13-year-old boy who was electrocuted despite the fact that a problem with live power lines at the site of the accident had been reported to the authorities as many as 27 times without yielding a response.

The protest was attended by many young people and the killed boy’s entire class, said N1’s reporter.

“Justice for Aca,” “What is the price of a child’s life,” are some of the messages on the banners that the protesters carried.

The people complained of the sluggishness of the institutions in resolving problems caused by the thunderstorm that hit the country in late July.

Backa Palanka public utility company employee Zeljko Pejcic was fired a day after he attended the protest over the boy’s death.

Pejcic told N1 that he went to the protest on Wednesday evening because the boy’s father was his colleague and he knew his whole family.

When he arrived at work on Thursday morning he was called to the director’s office, told that he had been fired for attending the protest, and asked whether he was “ashamed of himself.”

The locals also gathered on Wednesday evening and held a minute of silence for the killed boy and his grandfather (66) who was also electrocuted after the storm when trying to remove the live power lines that had landed in his backyard. His grandson was electrocuted nine days later.

The Serbian state TV (RTS) reported earlier that the residents of Backa Palanka had contacted the authorities 27 times since the thunderstorm, asking that the electric cables be removed, yet that there was no reaction.

The people of this town are revolted and are demanding the dismissal of Backa Palanka municipal council head Branislav Susnica who is a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

Susnica verbally abused a BAP portal journalist when she asked him how many more unsecured live power lines there are in the municipality. Visibly angered by the question, he shouted at the journalist.