VIJAYAWADA: With complaints of LED streetlights malfunctioning pouring in, the State government has asked Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a joint venture public sector enterprise under the Union Ministry of Power, to turn the streetlight programme in gram panchayats into a pro-public initiative by resolving the issues by conducting special drives.
Kadapa and Chittoor would be turned into model districts to make them 100 per cent LED streetlight functional districts under the pilot project within a month.
According to a statement issued by the State Energy Conservation Mission, the government received around 8.66 lakh complaints with regard to LED streetlights from January to October 15, 2019, indicating that 37.7 per cent of total lights installed were malfunctioned in the last 10 months. The EESL installed 22.51 lakh LED lights so far in various districts.
Panchayat Raj and Rural Development minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy reviewed the maintenance of streetlights in villages and stressed the need to resolve the complaints within 72 hours. On the occasion, EESL officials explained that as on October 15, there were only 15,704 complaints pending.
The minister noted that even though the streetlights initiative in gram panchayats would help in providing better quality of life to people, abnormal delay in attending to repairs and replacement of lights was causing inconvenience to the rural people. The minister further suggested the EESL to strictly monitor the performance of maintenance agencies.