news details |
|
|
| SMC has no skilled employee to repair street lights | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, June 14: In an example of administrative inertia, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation has not a single skilled employee to look after the maintenance of over 60,000 street lights.
The SMC has installed over 60,000 street lights for the last 10 years in Srinagar. However, 50 percent of them according to the officials are lying defunct due to lack of man power. It has also installed high mast LED lamps.
Due to the failure of the authorities in repairing these street lights, most parts of Srinagar are reeling under darkness in the evening hours. It has also been seen that people feel scared to venture out of their homes during the evening hours that too in the month of Ramdhan. "The street lights are remaining defunct in our area most of the times. We even prefer to offer the late evening prayers inside our home as dogs chase pedestrians in darkness," Mohammad Abdullah, a resident of Batamallo said.
Ali Mohammad, a resident of Gojwara said several street lights are defunct in their area and the concerned authorities have failed to repair them.
"During these days we tend to spend most of the time in prayers but we prefer to stay inside homes and not go to mosques due to non-functioning of streetlights," said Ghulam Hassan, a resident of Pattan. "I had a narrow escape last week when I nearly slipped into a drain in absence of street lights," Hassan said.
A senior official of SMC said, "The SMC has installed 60,000 sodium-vapour street lights across the Srinagar city since 2007 but 40 percent are lying defunct due to lack of man power. We don't have a single skilled and trained person who could repair them. We have only few need basis employees who are repairing these lights," he said.
"We need to have a full-fledged division of skilled men for maintenance of streets lights. These need basis employees of 10 to 12 in number are not able to climb up the poles then how can they repair these street lights properly." He said the SMC has been replacing solar-vapour street lights with LED lights.
Echoing the same, another official said most of the street lights were defunct due to lack of manpower. "We have already raised this issue with the government," he said.
He said the SMC was lacking the skilled staff to make restoration of defunct street lights in Srinagar. "But we are making efforts to overcome the shortage of trained staff for repairing of street lights," he said. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
