Councillors allege that the streetlights are procured from companies in flea market of northern and western India.
Thiruvananthapuram: Low-quality fluorescent street lights provided by the city corporation are not even lasting a week, allege councillors who say they face the wrath of citizens over it. The spares for streetlights have no ISI marks and are evidently procured from companies in flea market areas of northern and western India, they allege. “Of around a hundred new streetlight sets provided to Cheruvakkal ward, half stopped working in a week’s time. The tube gets fused quickly. On closer examination, it was learnt that the holders of tube lights were brittle,” said local councillor Alathara Anil Kumar.
The councillors have to get acknowledgement and cheques for purchase from corporation office and follow up with the KSEB office many times to get streetlights fixed. However, the effort goes in vain too quickly. “I had gone to local KSEB office to find that that half the new tube lights they got from corporation have black colour on edges. They get fused in a day’s time, and we are answerable to citizens,” said Powdikonam councillor Narayanamangalam Rajendran.
Around 300 tube lights were procured for his ward. Men from three different KSEB offices installed them, and a good number of them got damaged in a week or two. “During the upcoming temple-church festival season (January to March) the religious institutions will install lights on their own. After at least March, we will need all lights to work,” said Akkulam councillor V.R. Sini. The council has decided to probe whether there was any foul play in awarding tenders.
