Sarthak Kanjilall & Vikramaditya
Port Blair, June 21: Despite best efforts, panchayats in the South Andaman region are unable to handle the responsibilities of the Street Lights specified to them around a decade ago, claims Mr. Mohan Halder, Pradhan, Chouldary Gram Panchayat.
According to Mr. Mohan Halder, the major reason that most of the panchayats are unable to manage the street light jobs is that still, the entire control of the street light work rests with the Electricity Department.
Mr. Mohan says that since the last 10-12 years panchayats have been taking care of street lights in their area without sufficient funds and functionaries.
“We manage street light related works by diverting the funds from the footpath, roads etc allotted to the panchayat but still we aren’t successful because to place street lights we need permission from Electricity Department, to buy street lights from panchayat’s funds also, we need Electricity Department ‘s permission,” said Mr. Halder.
Adding to the woes, the Pradhan Chouldary alleged that it is only one Junior Engineer who is taking care of the street lights task of 19 Gram Panchayats in South Andaman region following which the maintenance of the street lights never happens on time, the requisitions given by Panchayats never process on time and the contractor never gets his payment on time, “the street light maintaining vendor of my region has not received the payment for the work he did in the year 2018,” said Mr. Halder.
According to Mr. Halder, it is the pradhans of the all other Panchayats of South Andaman region who are raising this matter in the high-level meetings since the last many years, but no attention was paid on the genuine issue.
“Why don’t the Electricity Department give the entire onus to the panchayats, be it from tendering or deciding how much street light to fix in an area of how many watts? Questioned Mr. Halder said.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, Mr. Halder finally said that if the entire onus of street lights is given to panchayats, there won’t be any delay in repairing street lights, fixing Street lights in proper places etc, he requested the Lt Governor, Chief Secretary, Andaman and Nicobar Islands to pay heed to his request and do the needful.
Andaman Sheekha contacted the Superintendent Engineer, Mr. Ajit Bernard over the phone, for a comment in this regard, but he was busy. He has however assured that he will get back to us with a comment in this regard, which will be carried by Andaman Sheekha when it is communicated.
