Pics: Umesh Marpalli

Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Jun 30: The issue of poor maintenance of street lights dominated the general body meeting of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) held at Sathyamurthy auditorium here on Friday, June 29.

The BJP members welcomed the new Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat to the general body meeting.

CMC member Yashpal Suvarna raised the issue of poor maintenance of street LED lights by contractors. There was demand from CMC members that the tenders should be awarded to the localites. “Tax has been increased and collected from citizens. But CMC is not providing basic infrastructures to them. The street lights, transformers have been damaged due to lightning strike and rains,” Survana said.

Mahesh Takoor also raised the same issue and was supported by other members.

Mahesh Takoor also raised the same issue and was supported by other members.

Shyamprasad Kudva said, “The lights are kept on day and night without any timer. No one is there to monitor the street lights. He further said, the actual price of a bulb is Rs 1,500 but the contractor has quoted the price as Rs 5,458. There are 28 lights, which are not working. According to the contract, the bulbs have the capacity to work for 50,000 hours, but they are not even functioning for 1000 hours. The bulbs are of low quality and the streetlights in my area are not functioning since the last eight months”.

Another member Naveen Bhandary demanded that the payment bills should be made public.

“The president gives only clarification, there is no action taken by CMC,” alleged another member Narasimha Naik.

After long conversation between members and President Meenakshi Madhav Bannanje, Commissioner Janardhan said, “Earlier Ramesh Electricals from Shivamogga was maintaining the street lights. But later their contract was cancelled by the DC due to their poor performance. According to the contract, the guarantee period was five years, but now it’s cancelled. The earlier mistake must be rectified.”

As many as 500 LED lights costing Rs 595 per bulb and 1,000 tube lights have been ordered. Out of 840 timers, around 500 are damaged. There are some high mast lights which are 8 to 9 years old. Hence, new lights are to be installed instead of replacing them, he said.

The commissioner ensured the streetlight repairs will take place within 15 days. “There are 17,000 lights in city. If CMC receives 5% complaints through online, the existing tender holder will be blacklisted. We have received 350 complaints, but to blacklist the tender holder 850 complaints from the public is needed,” he said.

“We have decided to call comprehensive tender after the present problems get solved. There are 80-100 lights that need to be changed, it cannot be replaced. Within one week all lights will be replaced. For rectifying all problems, one month time is needed,” he said.

After hearing the discussion of members, Udupi MLA said, “Everything should be given to one tender holder. If the CMC councilors agreed unanimously to hand over contract to the locals, it can be manageable. CMC Commissioner has power to put conditions to the tender company.”

As many as 500 houses for the poor have been sanctioned for four slum areas in Udupi city, including Balekatte, Balram Nagar, Vishnumurthy Nagar and New Colony Kodankoor. A contractor has been appointed for this project. It is approved under Pradhan Manthri Awas Yojana. Rs 50,000 should be paid by Other Backward class and Rs
70,000 should be paid by General category, the MLA informed.

Rs 99.86 crore was released to widen NH Malpe-Parkala. The construction work from Adi-Udupi to Malpe road was handed over to Bhandarkar’s construction, Ujire. The road will be concretised and 15*15 meters of land will be acquired from two sides. From Udupi up to Kadiyali, the road will be concreted by clearing the interlocks in two
sides.

The process of land acquisition from Kadiyali to Parkala will start soon. Rs 7.84 lac has released for land acquisition. The design includes sign boards. The fund is approved at different phases. The Indrali Railway Bridge will be extended. The old road of Parkala will come under CMC. The NH comes in middle of paddy field at Parkala, MLA Bhat added.

Vice president Sandhya Thilak Raj was present for the meeting.