Hundreds of spots across south Delhi have gone dark after LED streetlights that illuminated them were stolen recently. At least 300 LED lights have been stolen from poles, forcing the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to lodge four separate FIRs, Chief Engineer (Electrical) Firoz Ahmed said.
Drug addicts
A senior police officer said drug addicts in the area usually target poles when police presence is low or fewer people are around, especially late at night or in the early hours of the day.
The SDMC will file more police complaints as and when the thefts are discovered, said Mr. Ahmed, adding that the police have already made arrests in the earlier cases.
The SDMC had started replacing sodium-vapour lamps that lit up 1.98 lakh streetlight poles with LEDs in 2014. It launched the second phase of the project in January 2017 and installed 75,000 LED lights at dark spots, parks and other neglected areas.
While it has been lauded by Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal for completing the “world’s largest” LED replacement project, the civic body has been less successful in maintaining the new infrastructure.
Councillors have repeatedly complained of frequent breakdowns and poor service of LEDs by the company that installed them — Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). The problems had been resolved for the time being, when cases of theft started emerging.
Costly light
SDMC Standing Committee Chairperson Shailender Singh said the civic body had already taken action and that an FIR had been filed in his ward Safdarjung Enclave too. BJP councillor from Khanpur ward Satender Prakash told the Committee that lights had been stolen from his ward too, but an FIR had not been filed.
With each light costing ₹8,000, as per SDMC Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel, councillors are now concerned about how long it would take to replace the stolenlights, which are covered under an insurance policy.
Insurance
Leader of the Opposition Farhad Suri said filing FIRs alone would not be enough. “The insurance company may stop paying to replace the lights since the thefts are happening with increasing frequency. In the larger scheme of things, these incidents show the level of law and order in Delhi,” Mr. Suri said.
