Mayor K. Chandrika has hit back at the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB)’s allegations that the problem of non-functioning street lights was caused by delay on the local body’s side in supplying materials for maintenance work.
In a press conference here on Saturday, she said the board was trying to mislead the public with such allegations while hiding its inability to complete the work in time.
“From January to November, the Corporation has handed over 50,222 tube lights, 22,220 chalks, and 40,720 starters to the KSEB. But the board has not handed over the financial utility certificate which indicates that they have made use of these. From this, it is clear that it has not been able to complete the works, even though the Corporation has supplied the required spare parts in time,” she said.
She said the State government had tried to burden local self-government institutions by shifting the responsibility of maintaining street lights from the KSEB to them.
This decision was taken without ensuring that these bodies had enough infrastructure and personnel to do it on their own. After this order, when the city Corporation tried to get the work done in wards coming under 20 section offices, the board did not cooperate properly with it, the Mayor said.
KSEB stanceOn Friday, the KSEB had issued a press release stating that it was not responsible for the non-functioning of street lights in the city. It blamed the Corporation for ‘delay’ in supplying materials for maintenance work. The board said it had already completed maintenance work for Rs.65 lakh out of the total of Rs.79.22 lakh deposited by the Corporation.
To complete works for the remaining labour charge of Rs.14.2 lakh, the Corporation had to supply materials. But this was yet to happen and hence the delay. The board also criticised the Corporation for ‘misleading’ the public by claiming that a meeting the councillors had with the Board Director on Tuesday was a gherao.