Street lighting continues to get affected in Srinagar city during the scheduled and unscheduled power cuts. In absence of dedicated power supply to the street lights the areas plunge into darkness whenever there is a power cut.
Despite strong public demand to have dedicated power supply for the street lights, no step has been taken in this direction. It is not only the non-supply of dedicated power supply, large number of street lights are defunct also.
The local residents say that the defunct lights are not being repaired. Even as the matter was brought into the notice of concerned authorities several times, nothing was done.
The authorities must seriously look into this problem and get the street lights repaired at the earliest. Reports quoting officials indicate that there is lack of coordination among various departments in providing the dedicated power supply to the street lights, getting the non-functional lights repaired, and installing new lights in the areas which do not have the facility.
There are reports that a number of areas are still without street lights. Whether the lights are without dedicated power supply, or lights are defective or there are not lights, people suffer in these conditions. The pedestrian movement gets affected in the areas due to darkness.
Secondly, the increasing population of stray dogs creates more problem. The dogs attack the people in darkness. Because of the problem, the residents avoid moving out of their homes. Reports from some localities indicate that some lights have become non-functional after the recent snowfall.
This problem too has to be taken care of. Srinagar city being so important in every respect needs better street lighting. This aspect is being continuously ignored. The whole city must have a proper street lighting system. It must be part of the Srinagar smart city project.
If it is not part of the project, then a fresh project must be launched to install lights in the areas that do not have such a facility, repair the defective lights and have a dedicated power supply for these lights. There should be also a system that the lights are put off during day.
There are reports that in some areas the lights remain on during daytime. This is wastage of energy. Usually the residents on their own switch on the lights in the evening and put those off in the morning.
Proper maintenance of the lights is also the responsibility of the residents. Every effort should be made to properly maintain the lights. Damage to the lights cause inconvenience to the people.