Street lights, it appears, continue to be a ‘burning’ problem for residents of wards in South Zone. For their elected representatives complained to officials at the South Zone meeting that in a number of localities in their wards, the lights do not glow.
Ward 86 Councillor A. Sadiq Ali lamented that his efforts to have the street lights repaired on the Ukkadam-Saramedu stretch of Ukkadam-Pollachi Road had proved futile. “It has been close to two months now since the lights stopped glowing on the main road which sees heavy vehicle movement. After dusk, it is difficult to drive or ride on the road, especially if there is a heavy vehicle power headlamp on the opposite side.”
The stretch has around 60 lamps attached to poles that are in the median, he says and adds that the absence of lights have led to accidents.
Mr. Ali was not alone with his grievances related to street lights. Ward 85 Councillor Amman K. Arjunan said the locality behind his residence was without street lights for long - 20 years. He urged the authorities to look into the problem to provide street lights at the earliest.
Ward 89 Councillor N. Selvamani too spoke about faulty street lights in her ward. For the past couple of months her complaints related to street lights that were not glowing had not been attended to. Every time the response was that the lorries used to repair street lights could not be taken into lanes where the faulty lights were.
Other councillors also urged the South Zone officials to attend to the complaints related to street lights at the earliest as many roads remained damaged due to the execution of underground drainage work.
The councillors also sought cleaning of public convenience facility, drain and roads to improve hygiene in the Zone. Mr. Ali said that the two toilet complexes in his ward were in a poor state of maintenance.
The complex in Lorrypet was very poor in hygiene. It did not have adequate water supply. It also remained inaccessible because of the garbage pile in the front. “Two to three lorry loads of garbage has been there for months together now.”
Ward 79 Councillor T.K. Kannaiyan said that water supply to four streets in Ponnaiahrajapuram remained cut after the UGD contactors damaged the pipelines. He also sought restoration of water supply for Gopal Layout.
Ward 100 Councillor B. Venugopal wanted the officials to put to use two overhead tanks that had been in disuse for more than a year now.
Mr. Arjunan also sought explanation for the delay in the Corporation passing a resolution for taking up a 40-foot scheme road in his ward. The Local Planning Authority was ready to take up the scheme road but was unable to do so for want of a clearance from the Corporation in the form of a resolution.
He said if the road were to materialise it would facilitate easy movement of vehicles between Kuniamuthur and Gandhipark and bring down congestion in Ukkadam.
“The scheme road is pending for over 15 years. Take it up at the earliest,” he asked the officials.
Assistant Commissioner, South Zone, P. Ganeshwaran and Assistant Executive Engineer T. Gnanavel told the Councillors that the street lights would be repaired at the earliest.
The problem with the lights on the Ukkadam-Saramedu stretch was due to a faulty switch, which was being attended to. As for street lights, the Corporation was replacing over 1,000 of them with LED bulbs. This would happen in the coming weeks, they promised.
The councillors led by South Zone Chairman and Ward 94 Councillor M. Perumalsamy passed resolutions ordering cleaning of drains, construction of drains, relaying of damaged roads, laying of interlocking tiles along roads to provide pedestrian pathway and a few more. In all, they passed around 32 resolutions.
