For a couple of hours on Wednesday evening, large swathes of the city were plunged into darkness as electrical contractors went on a strike and refused to turn on street lights at 6 p.m. They demanded payment of pending bills by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Only around 25% of the 4.80 lakh street lights in the city were functioning.
Contractors agreed to power up the street lights only by 9.30 p.m. after a round of negotiations with civic officials, but with a caveat: until the payments are made, they will only switch on and turn off the lights, but will not undertake any repair work.
The BBMP Electrical Contractors' Association decided to go on a strike after receiving no response to several requests to clear pending bills.
K.M. Raju, association general secretary, told The Hindu that the BBMP owed ₹35 crore, pending for the past 18 months, to the 100-odd electrical contractors. The contractors are yet to submit bills for around ₹10 crore. “In total, the BBMP owes the electrical contractors ₹45 crore,” he said.
K.S. Mohan, association member, said that they had first written to the BBMP commissioner about the pending bills in December 2017, and once again in June. “We have been following up with BBMP officials, but got no response. Bill payments are always delayed. We decided to go on a strike as a last resort,” he said.
On Wednesday evening, association members met BBMP's Special Commissioner Vijayshankar and the Chief Accounts Officer. “We had multiple rounds of talk with BBMP officials who tried to convince us to call off the strike and claimed that they would clear half the pending bills. Given the importance of street lights, we agreed to only operate them, but not do any repairs until all the bills are cleared. Another meeting is scheduled with the BBMP on Thursday,” said Mr. Raju.
BBMP Commissioner M. Maheshwara Rao said that after detailed discussions with the electrical contractors, it was decided that the contractors will operate the street lights to ensure that citizens are not affected. Civic officials will meet with the contractors again on Thursday to discuss the issue further, he said.
Mayor R. Sampath Raj said that the civic body will address the issue. “The BBMP has been urging them to withdraw the strike. We will pay 50% upfront and the remaining after the council meeting on June 22. We will sort out the issue at the earliest.”
