The defunct street lights in several areas, and lack of dedicated power supply to street lights in other areas, clearly reflect the non-serious approach of some concerned authorities towards the development of Srinagar city.
Having functional street lights in the evening and during night is very important. But this very important issue is being ignored by the officials and common people continue to face inconvenience because of their non-serious approach.
Rather than passing the buck or indulging into blame game, the authorities must resolve this issue at the earliest.
Whatever planning has to be done and whosoever is to be involved in the planning and execution of the work, needs to be done on priority basis, to put an end to the sufferings of the residents of the city.
How long will the common people continue to suffer because of the non-seriousness of the officials? Most often officials remain busy highlighting the development measures, being made for Srinagar city. Surely some radical measures have been taken.
But why the important step to provide functional street lights is being deliberately ignored. Once the evening strats, lack of street lighting presents a grim picture. Areas like Nowhatta, Gojwara, Hawal, Makhdoom Sahib, Hazratbal, Batapora, Gasso, Chataraham, and nearby vicinities plunge into darkness.
There are also large number of other areas, having similar problem. The street lights are either defunct or the street lights have not been installed at all.
But there are also vast areas where the street lights are functioning but become non-functional once the power supply goes off during the curtailment schedule. These areas also are plunged into darkness.
The movement of local people becomes difficult due to it being pitch dark. Then the presence of stray dogs further complicates the problem. The dogs attack the pedestrians during evening and night hours. The movement of residents becomes unsafe.
The authorities must provide dedicated power supply to all street lights so that there is no darkness in streets whenever the power supply goes off due to curtailment schedule.
If there is some coordination related issue among various government departments or maintenance related problem, those should be tackled.
Efforts should be made that the installed street lights do not remain defunct. Wherever there is need to install street lights, it should be done at the earliest.
The Srinagar City must have functional street lighting and in absence of such an arrangement the other development measures do not look that impressive.