The issues relating to streetlights rocked the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Council meeting held recently, with many corporators questioning the delay in addressing the long-pending problems on a priority basis.
“If funds are a problem, deduct money from our salaries but resolve the issues relating to the streetlights immediately. We are unable to face the people who voted for us. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there is no corporator in this House in whose ward there are no issues with streetlights,” 1Oth Ward Telugu Desam Party (TDP) corporator M. Ramalakshmi said during the question hour of recently held GVMC Council meeting to the loud thumping of tables by many corporators.
Defunct streetlights have been a long-pending issue for the city. The corporators have been complaining about defunct lights, lack of staff for repairs, poor illumination and the problems being faced by the people due to lack of lighting for the last three years.
The corporators also complained that nuisance by miscreants, eve-teasing, road accidents and crimes had gone up in several areas due to poor streetlighting.
24th Ward corporator S. Padma Reddy alleged that miscreants were consuming ganja in the open taking advantage of dark streets in her ward.
Ninth Ward corporator K.V.R. Swathi cited several instances of snakes slithering into dark streets in the hillock areas in her ward, adding that a python was sighted recently.
BJP North MLA P. Vishnu Kumar said spare parts of vehicles and auto-rickshaws were getting stolen in the hillock areas due to lack of illumination. He also pointed out that several stretches on Beach Road, a major tourist spot in the city, did not have proper lighting.
There was a moment when Mayor G. Hari Venkata Kumari appealed to the corporators to speak about civic issues in their wards other than streetlights.
The maintenance of the 1.18 lakh streetlights connected to nearly 6,000 CCMS boxes in the GVMC limits has been entrusted to a private agency. As per the agreement, the company has to create a dashboard to monitor the functioning of streetlights and the defunct ones should be repaired immediately.
Streetlight vandalism
As per the GVMC officials, around 1,100 to 1,200 streetlights were damaged by miscreants daily a few months ago, adding that this could be the handiwork of anti-social elements as it is easy to carry out criminal activities in the dark and escape.
The GVMC has identified 89 locations where such incidents are rampant. With the intervention of the police, the damage of streetlights have reduced to below 700.
Contract firm served notice
GVMC Commissioner P. Sampath Kumar said, “Many CCMS boxes need to be changed. The contract company has not deployed adequate staff for the maintenance works. We have served a notice on the company. We will issue another if the services do not improve.”
During the recent GVMC Council meeting, the Municipal Commissioner sought a month to resolve the issues relating to streetlights, adding that the lighting on Beach Road would be improved.
However, the corporators seemed unconvinced, describing it as a ‘routine reply’ in council meetings. The Mayor then intervened and assured the issue would be resolved within a few weeks.
Published - September 27, 2024 11:23 pm IST
