Chandigarh, December 20: The MC House today approved Rs 26 crore for illuminating 9,310 dark spots in the city. For about a year, the civic body had been relying on the EESL for the work. For the purpose, the firm had floated tenders on behalf of the MC three times, but failed to get a contractor to do the work.
Chandigarh is the only city where the EESL was given the job of creating infrastructure like laying cables and erecting poles of streetlights in areas that were never illuminated. However, the firm had been replacing conventional lights with LEDs in other parts of the city.
“As a special case, they tried to do it in Chandigarh but did not get the desirable response on three occasions,” said MC Commissioner KK Yadav in the House today.
Following this, the agenda about the work, now to be conducted by the MC, was brought to the House.
During the House meeting today, Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla said, “About 40 per cent streetlights in the city replaced by the firm are not working. When people call their customer care number it connects them to their Bangalore office.”
Some councillors said complaints pertaining to streetlights were not being redressed in a time-bound manner.
On this, Yadav said the firm was only responsible in case LEDs stop working. On several occasions, the problem lied with cable or wiring, which falls under the MC domain, he added.
He also shared the firm’s local customer care number 0172-4181005.
UT police flagged safety concerns
Of the total dark spots, 6,310 are on internal roads and 3,000 in neighbourhood parks. These have never been illuminated. They neither have streetlight poles nor cables. The UT police have also written to the corporation on several occasions to light up these dark spots so that occurrence of crime and road accidents at these places could be prevented.
Walkout by MC officials
- Senior officials of the MC staged a walkout after a heated exchange with BJP councillors during the House meeting.
- During a discussion on fixing the number of allottees for the car bazaar site, a councillor said, “Gaon basa ni.”
- At this, Additional Commissioner Saurabh Mishra retorted, “Aur lootere aa gaye.” Mishra asked the councillor if he thought MC officials were dacoits. He then walked out of the meeting. Additional Commissioner Anil Kumar Garg and other officials followed him.
Dog-bite treatment for city residents only
- Often failing to provide vaccine and anti-rabies serum to dog-bite victims at two dedicated dispensaries here, the MC House decided to provide free treatment only to city residents.
- MC councillors and officials were of the view that a large number of patients come from adjoining towns to get free treatment available here. This causes shortage of serum and vaccine at dispensaries run by the MC in Sectors 19 and 38.
- The House resolved that UT employees living in Mohali, Panchkula and other neighbouring towns can get free treatment here.
