After taking oath of office, the Dehradun mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ had stated that his main priorities were to ensure desired level of sanitation and installation of LED street lights even in the outer parts of the city.
However, nine months after his assuming office as mayor of the city, the street lights, especially in the suburban areas remain faulty or old.
Councillor from Chandrabani (ward 91) Ajay Sanger said, “In my area there are nearly 350 to 400 street lights of which only 210 are working properly while the rest are faulty. We have even complained in the MCD but have received no response so far.”
Councillor from DL Road (Ward 13) Devika Rani said, “The lights repeatedly develop faults. No matter how many promises the mayor makes, little has been done at the ground level.”
Councillor from Bharuwala Grant (ward 79) Rajesh Parmar said, “As my ward lies in the suburban area we face a major difficulty.
The old bulbs which are taken out from the 60 wards were given to us. Even after asking for LED bulbs nothing was done. It is very sad that MCD considers it to be a small matter but we councillors face the consequences. All the residents come to us complaining about the faulty street lights and blame us for it.
Even if we fix the lights in two or three days the condition of the street lights becomes the same. It is important that something regarding this problem is done.”
Meanwhile, the mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ said, “The work of installing LED street lights is underway. We have replaced the old bulbs with LED in about 42,000 street lights.
The work is complete in the old 60 wards. For the suburban areas also we are about to float tenders in the coming days. These wards have nearly 35,000 street light poles. LED lights will be placed in all these poles too.”