Kollam, Kochi corporation show the way in street light maintenance

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The corporation ruling council members will only have themselves to blame if the city slips into darkness this Onam. While rallying against the state electricity board for withdrawing its contractors from the maintenance of street lights on sudden notice, the civic body has not bothered to find as to how two other corporations -- Kollam and Kochi -- have been carrying out the process smoothly for the past few years.
The Kollam corporation, which has 55 wards, has been running the system of annual maintenance contract successfully for the past four years. Agencies are chosen every year to maintain the street lights in return for displaying advertisements.
In fact, the corporation got an additional benefit this year as the company chosen for the maintenance made an offer to pay 30% of its electricity bill. ''We followed the Kochi corporation. The maintenance of street lights is completely the responsibility of the agency now; we also get attractive offers from companies,'' said G Lalu, deputy mayor, Kollam corporation.
The Kochi corporation has divided the wards into different zones and entrusted separate contractors with the maintenance in each zone. ''By this system, we ensure prompt maintenance of street lights. The division of wards into zones makes the management easy,'' said B Bhadra, deputy mayor, Kochi corporation.
In the capital, the dispute between the electricity board and the city corporation over the maintenance of street lights is in fact an after-effect of a serious lapse on the part of the corporation. A government circular issued in September 2011 had directed all civic bodies to call tenders from private agencies and entrust them with the maintenance of street lights on an annual contract. It gives clear guidelines on the process of tendering, mode of implementation, rights and responsibilities of contractors and the civic body.
The civic body had remained totally clueless about this circular until a month ago, when the electricity board clarified that it wouldn't be lending contractors for maintaining the street lights. Works standing committee chairman Padmakumar says it's practically difficult for the civic body to find private agencies while the circular itself makes it mandatory for agencies to have a qualified panel of employees and electrical supervisors to carry out the system without any hitch.
A senior member of the ruling council, however, said the civic body ought to have acted earlier. ''We made an error in understanding the seriousness of the circular. A period of two years was more than enough to find an alternative,'' he said.