Despite orders from their boss KPDCL officials not ready to connect street lights with insulated cable system
By: Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR: Over the past few years, the Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) is busy in cabling and metering in Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir valley. This move has been necessitated so as to ensure that there are minimum transmission and distribution losses.
The people as a whole have welcomed the move and said that the cabling and metering would drastically bring down the hooking being carried out by some of the unscrupulous elements. There are many areas in Srinagar where the cabling and metering has been completed and some of the areas are receiving round the clock power supply.
However, at the same time a glaring civic issue has come up and surprisingly the people at helm are yet to come out with a solution to this problem. The civic issue being referred to here is the malfunctioning of the street lights across the length and breadth of the Srinagar city.
“Thousands of street lights have become defunct in the Srinagar city and as on date these street lights have not been set right. The reason behind the non-functioning of street lights is that no shifting has taken place. Even though insulated cables have replaced the old transmission wires, the street lights have not been connected with the same,” said Mushtaq Ahmad, a resident of Sanat Nagar.
Street Times received calls from many people of Srinagar with the masses complaining that they are up against many odds due to non-functioning of street lights following completion of the modernization process. They demanded that the concerned department should issue necessary orders so that the street lights become functional once again.
“Whenever a step of modernization is taken it is expected that people would be entitled to modern facilities. In the case of street lights reverse has happened and people have been put to trouble. No shifting of street lights from the old system to the modern one has taken place and as such people continue to suffer,” said Mohammad Nawaz, a resident of Buchpora.
The Managing Director of KPDCL, Mahmood Ahmad Shah has already issued an order asking the officials of the corporation to connect the street lights with the insulated cables where the process has been completed. The KPDCL officials are giving a deaf ear to the directive of their boss and don’t connect the street lights with the insulated cable system.
“It is ironic that despite the issuance of the order the KPDCL officers and officials are not ready to connect street lights with cabling systems. These people say that reconnection of street lights is not their job and the same has to be done by the electric department of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC),” said Ayaz Ahmad, a resident of Bemina.
In most of the cases it has been observed that the officers and officials of KPDCL give the excuse that since the street lights have been installed by SMC it is the duty of the corporation officials to reconnect them with the insulated cable system. In such cases the people are at a loss as to whom to contact in this regard.
“It is important that action is taken and that too at the earliest. If the KPDCL officials have to do this job they must do it without any further delay. In case SMC has to do this then the corporation officials should take up the job seriously so that there is relief for the people,” said Rayees Ahmad, a resident of Nigeen.
It would be in place to mention here that this issue came up for discussion during a meeting chaired by chief minister Omar Abdullah some months back. Even though the CM had asked for the air to be cleared in this regard no follow up action has been taken so far with the common masses being at the receiving end.