Bandipora, Dec, 24: People in this north Kashmir town alleged that Power Development Department (PDD) officials are lifting the halogen streetlights from Municipal areas and installing the same in ‘preferred’ localities.
 They said a few PDD employees headed by a junior engineer are lifting the halogen from electric poles and installing the same in their own localities. “Higher ups in PDD office express ignorance when they were informed about the lifting of lights,” they claimed.
 Ghulam Hassan, a local resident said, “It is unfortunate that one government department is looting the property of another department when locals acted, officer didn’t act.”
 Pertinently the Municipal Committee Bandipora had installed halogen lights in the main town Bandipora recently. However the PDD objected saying that the installation of lights can only be done by PDD.
 Executive Officer Bandipora Municipal Committee Shakeel Ahmed said, “We informed the PDD officers about illegal lifting of street lights by a JE and few linesmen. But they paid no heed. Now we have informed Deputy Commissioner seeking action against involved officials.”
 Denying the allegations of illegal lifting the lights executive engineer PDD Bandipora, Muhammad Yousuf said “We felt need of few lights on technical grounds and picked up three lights from municipal areas. After a few days the lights were given back to the Municipal Committee authorities,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00:00 IST