After his knock on the doors of the Coimbatore Corporation officials to have the street lights in Ward 33 repaired or installed failed, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Councillor Mohan Ranganathan sat on a protest at the ward office there.
He blindfolded himself and sat on a fast to highlight that his area residents after dusk saw nothing but darkness on the roads in Shastri Street, Pudu Colony, Ashok Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Kattoor Street, Valiyanpalayam, Vasanth Nagar, Pillaiyar Koil Street and a few other areas.
He was soon joined by councillors from his party – A. Nandhakumar, Meena Loganathan, P.V. Subramaniam, Jyoti Basu and a few others, who were there to express solidarity.
Mr. Ranganathan said that for the past six months he had repeatedly taken up with officials in his ward, East Zone and also the main office that street lights were dysfunctional, residents there were unable to venture out after dusk, working women were scared to return home or go out and that incidences of chain snatching were on the rise.
G. Selvakumar of Pudu Colony said that residents were agitated because the main roads had light but not the localities. Things were better off when the area was part of the Kalapatti Municipality. Things had turned for the worse with the Coimbatore Corporation taking over.
Every time he raised the issue, Mr. Ranganathan said that the officials offered him one excuse or the other – it was floating of tender on one occasion, the implementation of the model code of conduct on the next and delay on the part of the contractor. “The explanations arrived but not the light.”
He was left with little choice but to go on a fast to draw the officials’ attention, he said and added that soon after he went on a fast, the officials began fitting lights.
Of the 150-plus lights that he required for the ward, the officials had on Friday alone fitted more than 40 lights, he said and wanted to know what message the officials were trying to convey to the councillors and public – were the officials trying to suggest that only protests would make the official machinery move?
Sources in the Corporation said that they wondered why the Councillor had to resort to the fast because the repair and maintenance of street lights was going on in a phased manner.
