Various cultural programmes will be organised at the ghats before the Dev Deepawali Mahotsav to provide a platform to the winners of Kashi Sansad Sanskritik Mahotsav (KSSM) to showcase their talent. Chairing a meeting at his office on Friday held to discuss the preparations for the Dev Deepawali Mahotsav to be celebrated at the end of next month, Divisional Commissioner (DC) Kaushal Raj Sharma directed the officers concerned to work as a team in this direction. The DC directed to hold various cultural programmes at the ghats a week before the Dev Deepawali Mahotsav to provide an opportunity to the winners of KSSM to showcase their talents at a bigger platform.
Sharma directed the officers of Municipal Corporation to clean the ghats, remove silt from there and decorate them with attractive lighting. He asked the officers of Tourism department to organise fireworks and laser show on the occasion of Dev Deepawali. He directed the officers to start tender process for arranging diyas, oil and other things to illmuinate the ghats with earthen lamps on this auspicious occasion. He directed to instal façade lighting. The DC directed officials to ensure the delivery of earthen lamps and wicks at least 20 days before the Mahotsav and added that ‘kunds’, ponds and other important places of the city should also be cleaned and decorated on Dev Deepawali Mahotsav. The DC directed the officers of VDA to start preparations for developing the tent city across Ganga river.
He directed the police officers to ensure proper arrangement at ghats for the smooth bathing on the auspicious occasion of Kartik Purnima and also start preparations for installing bathing jetties and cruise.
Meanwhile the Divisional Commissioner has cautioned the officers to discharge their duties regarding the Kashi Sansad Sanskritik Mahotsav sincerely because Prime Minister and local Member of Parliament Narendra Modi himself is keeping a close watch on it. The district level programme under the Mahotsav is scheduled to be organised from September 17 and hence, all preparations regarding it should be completed before it as its rehearsal will be conducted on Saturday, the DC directed the officers concerned. Reviewing the preparations for the KSSM at his office here on Thursday, the DC expressed deep displeasure over the laxity shown in this direction and directed the incharges of all five zones and three blocks to release the list of the winning participants. The DC directed to decorate the selfie points well. The PM Modi is visiting on September 23 in view of these programmes and will reward the winners, the DC said.
NEW ARRANGEMENT: To ensure permanent solution to streetlight related problems, the the Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided to change the present system and develop the arrangement of one zone, one agency for the inter-departmental and simplified coordination.
There are about 55,000 streetlights in the urban area which were installed under various schemes by different agencies such as VMC, Smart City, PWD, Tourism, VDA, National Highway Authority, District Urban Development Authority (DUDA) etc, Municipal Commissioner (MC) Sipu Giri said and added that maximum about 40,000 streetlights were installed by the PSU EESL of Government of India. At present the computerised CMS Automatic Control System controls 11,000 lights but local people and public representatives could not know which agency maintains the non-functional streetlights and so there is a need for coordination among the respective departments., he said . To make inter-departmental and simplified coordination, the present arrangement has been abolished and a new arrangement of one zone, one agency has been developed under which one agency will be given the responsibility of installing and ensuring the functioning of streetlights in one zone, he added. Power tripping and high voltage are also the major reasons behind the streetlight becoming out of order. Hence dedicated phase wiring of streetlights is proposed to be laid and thereafter there will be separate electric wiring for these streetlights to solve this problem permanently.
The power theft could also be checked after the dedicated phase wiring by the CMS Automatic Control System, he said. A talk has been held with senior officers of EESL to provide immediate relief to the dwellers till the implementation of new arrangement, he said, adding that a Whatsapp group of corporators and officers has also been formed and the streetlights are being functional by launching a ward-wise drive.