It is not any exaggeration to say that most of the streets of Jammu city plug into darkness with the nightfall. Almost half the number of street lights in Jammu city are non-functional while hundreds of complaints are lying unattended for the last several weeks. The city presents deserted look at night and movement becomes unsafe especially for womenfolk. The reason is that street lights are dysfunctional.
We do not find much weight in the excuses offered by the authorities and the Jammu Municipal Corporation. Why does not this type of complaint come from other cities in the countries? The reason is that their Municipalities take advance view and arrange regular supply of accessories in time so that there is no crisis at the eleventh hour as we find with the JMC. The authorities have to anticipate the possibilities of action accordingly. We would like to raise the question of lighting the streets of Jammu with solar energy as is the case with Leh. This experiment is worth making because it will save the hassles of spare parts and accessories, the absence of which becomes the reason or shutting down the street lights.
This notwithstanding, unprecedented delay in implementation of Government of India’s much talked about multi-crore scheme of replacing all Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) and other lights with Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) as well as poor response to the bids invited for the supply of spare parts are the main reasons for the prevailing crisis. Conceding that streets of Jammu remain plunged into darkness, the JMC Commissioner said that tender in this regard is being floated soon while process is also on for inviting fresh bids to purchase spare parts so that public may not suffer and general complaints are addressed. Whatever the situation, it is important that city lights are restored and Jammu citizenry is saved the hassle of moving in dark nights like primitive life.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel