When the night stalks residents across Bengaluru
The city may be facing an electricity crisis now, but for lakhs of Bengalureans, walking on the streets after dark has always been a challenge
By : shwetha satyanarayan
Update: 2015-08-31 06:18 GMT
Bengaluru: “Every night, we go to sleep hoping that a gang of boys who gather at the dark junction on Campbell Extension Road will not attack any of the passersby. They hang around till the early morning and their disturbing loud noises don’t let us sleep peacefully. Since we are an old couple at home, we are afraid to shoo the boys away,” rues 63-year-old Naseer Khan, a resident of Cox Town.
In the far end of the city, in P&T Layout near Sinthan Nagar in Yelahanka, more than 150 families in the locality struggle to walk on the road without injuring themselves on rainy days, thanks to BBMP officials’ apathy. The city may be facing an electricity crisis now, but for lakhs of Bengalureans, walking on the streets after dark has always been a challenge.
Despite setting a deadline to repair all the streetlights in the city, the civic body has turned a blind eye to the pathetic conditions of streetlights. In a bid to revamp the conditions of the defunct streetlights, the BBMP even conducted a survey recently.
As per the survey result, about 15,000 streetlights were not working and the BBMP admitted that though the survey was conducted in all the eight zones it could not complete in some areas due to rains. There are more than 4.5 lakh streetlights across the city. However, even in some of the core areas too they have not been functioning for the past few months.
Meanwhile, the BBMP had even proposed to install Light Emitting Diode (LED) streetlights and solar lights to ensure that the city did not plunge into darkness. But, later it dropped the plan as the project seemed expensive for the cash-strapped Palike. Khan remarked, “Before elections, the government announced some mega projects for the development of the city.
Why did it not realise that basic infrastructure like streetlights need attention first? I have been visiting BBMP office from the past 15 days. They promise to take action but don’t bother to do anything.”
‘Sufficient funds to maintain streetlights’
DC in conversation with Yelahanka Joint Commissioner Sarfaraz Khan, Excerpts:
There are many complaints regarding defunct streetlights in Yelahanka zone. Why?
Not all parts of the zone, but there are complaints in Jakkur, near GKVK campus and a few other places. Everyday we receive complaints on about 10 per cent of streetlights in the zone due to wear and tear over the years. However, most of the complaints are addressed by the Yelahanka Monitoring Committee and the lines are open all through the day. We try to resolve the complaints as early as possible.
Are there any pending bills to be paid to Bescom, which is leading to lack of power supply to streetlights?
As on date, we have cleared all the bills and even the contractor bills have been cleared. There may be complaints only when there is no power supply in the locality, but we have sufficient funds for maintenance of lights and have no pending dues towards Bescom.
There was a proposal to install LED and solar streetlights. Any development in this regard?
Since the project was expensive we had to take a re-look. We have not taken a decision yet.