Electricity is the most precious form of energy, as it is most versatile in usage.
When the J&K UT is facing acute power crisis, but the concerned authorities continue to show negligence by keeping the street lights on at several places in town during day time.
On the one hand J&K’s Power Development Department (PDD) is battling hard to meet the increased demand for electricity and on the other it has been observed that many street lights in most of streets/roads continued to dazzle round the clock. This mindless wastage, in streets leads to wastage of precious energy. One can find many street lights on Green Belt Park area, Gandhi Nagar Hospital road, Apsra road and parts of Shastri Nagar, Janipur, High court road, Canal road and at many other places illuminated during the day.
This certainly cannot be acceptable when the UT is reeling under a major power crisis and residents are facing frequent power cuts.
As per latest data all the 75 wards within the jurisdiction of Jammu Municipal Corporation are being provided with street lights in two phases. As per the JMC, till date installation of about 61300 street lights has been completed under phase-I and the work of installation of street lights under phase-II is in progress. Out of 35130 street lights in phase-II, about 31500 lights have been installed.
As per Commissioner of Jammu Municipal Corporation, the job of installation and commissioning of street lights is going on as per the tripartite agreement among Power Development Department, EESL and Housing & Urban Development Department, in which all the 75 wards within the jurisdiction of Jammu Municipal Corporation are being provided with street lights under two phases.
As per the agreement, the Commissioner explained, PDD has to provide the whole infrastructure viz. providing of poles, phase wire and allied accessories meant for the installation of these street lights and EESL has to provide street lights of different wattages as per the requirement of the area and JMC has to supervise and make the payment for the maintenance of these street lights.
The Electric Wing of JMC installs & maintains street lights & High Mast lights including repairs & allied electric works within the jurisdiction of Jammu Municipal Corporation. Besides this Traffic Signal System is also monitored by Electric wing.
The high mast lights have been installed by the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) for the benefit of residents in different areas of Jammu and are handled by the municipal staff and lakhs have been spent on the installation of these lights.
Though the electricity consumption of a street light varies depending on its type, however on an average the consumption is around 80-150 watts per hour and if these lights continue to dazzle during daytime also, one can imagine how much wastage of the precious energy is taking place which if checked can reduce the shortage being faced.
But it appears that shifting of burden on one another by officials of Municipal Corporation and PDD. Municipal Corporation authorities say that only the infrastructure is given by the municipal corporation and the power distributor should ensure that these lights remain off during day time. It is the duty of PDD and moral responsibility of the citizens to switch on and off the lights. It should ensure that lights are switched off during the daytime.
As Street lights are not operated robotically and are required to be switched off manually and after the new cables have been installed, switches have been attached to the transformers but residents are unable to operate them.
To conclude this attitude of shifting of burden and non-fixation of responsibility is leading to unwanted wastage of power. It is need of the hour that PDD and Municipal authorities should coordinate and form committees of officials on rotational basis to ensure that street lights are switched off during the day time.
Besides as an alternative the government /authorities may think for introduction of an ‘auto-cut system’ on the streetlights to save power, or May introduce streetlights which have photocell controller, which will turn the light on and off at the right light level, normally near dusk and dawn.
