Almost all street lamps in Imphal city inoperative
Thangal bazar totally blacked out
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Puyam Rameshwar

Imphal, September 01 2011: Almost all street lamps of Imphal city has been inoperative for more than a year now leaving the entire city to a blackened out scenario as soon as dusk falls.

Thangal bazar, the business hub of the state, is totally blacked out once night falls.

The street lamps which were installed by the concerned department have been inoperative for the last one year and more.

Almost all the street lamps have become rusted, bulbs are missing, frames about to break or posts about to fall, all due to the negligence on the part of the concerned department.

A non local shopkeeper in Thangal bazar told Hueiyen Lanpao that the street lamps in the city began to show signs of being defunct a year back.

Today almost all street lamps are totally out of order.

Shops and residential apartments in this part of the city are closed as soon as night falls owing to insufficient power supply, the inoperative street lamps as well as the prevailing law and order situation in the state.

As soon as the shops are closed the whole area is blacked out and people stay indoors.

There is no problem when the government inflicts load shedding schedule to domestic lines, but this should not be in the case of street lamps.

The street lamps should be given uninterrupted power supply throughout the night.

This will not only make the city more beautiful but also avoid unwanted robberies from happening.

Accusing the Electricity Department for the inoperative street lamps in the city, an official of the MAHUD, on condition of anonymity, told Hueiyen Lanpao that MAHUD pays electric bills for the street lamps in Imphal city, including those in Thangal bazar to the Electricity Department.

Since there is no meter installed for these street lamps the bills are paid monthly or yearly on a lump sum basis.

Taxes amounting to crores of rupees were paid recently in the month of March to the Electricity Department.

As the taxes are paid without fail it is the duty of the Electricity Department to maintain the street lamps.

"If they, who are the implementing agency, don't do maintenance work then it would not be an exaggeration to say that they are not doing their duty", he said.

An engineer who is in charge of Electrical Division I & II of the Electricity Department clarifying all accusations, told this reporter that there are more than 1000 street lamps installed in Thangal bazar, Paona bazar and other important areas of Imphal city.

These street lamps are occasionally checked and repaired, mostly during VIPs' visits.

There may be some street lamps which have been inoperative in Khwairamband area.

But almost all street lamps are repaired wherever necessary.

There are also plans for replacing the existing street lamps in Thangal bazar and Paona bazar by LED bulbs.

The system is not only beautiful but also emits more light.

There is also a specific provision to light the LED bulbs even in the absence of electricity by using solar power.

Because of the processing of this plan of the government, the department has not been repairing some inoperative street lamps in these areas, he added.

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