Anantapur: With no switch boxes, LED streetlights burn day & night
A picture of streetlights on during daytime in rural Anantapur
Anantapur: The 'Jagananna Palle Velugu' aimed at bringing down power consumption by 50 per cent by transition to LED lights by the village panchayats has boomeranged as a section of the panchayat officials and sarpanches failing to install switch boxes. Because of their negligence, energy is being wasted as lights continue to burn in day time as well as at night. It costs around Rs 150 to install a switch box to turn off lights. Way back in 2018, the then TDP government replaced the traditional incandescent bulbs which consume more energy with LED lights. The YSRCP objective is to bring down power charges by 50 per cent in all panchayats in the state. This measure was taken as already the panchayats owed more than Rs 500 crore to APTransco. The panchayats were in financial doldrums as they have not been able to get 15th Finance Commission funds and were told to clear power dues from general funds collected through property tax.
Normally in villages a master control box (MCB) for every 30-40 LED lights were installed to overcome the problem of tripping. In the undivided Anantapur district in the 1,000 odd panchayats, out of the 6,500 required boxes, around 5,000 boxes were installed. Actually, a third electrical line for the panchayats is under process but without waiting for a third line, switches can be installed by the panchayats to solve the problem of power wastage.
APTransco superintending engineer M Surendra told 'The Hans India' that it is the job of the panchayats to install switches which cost a pittance. The streetlights were connected to the domestic power lines and due to the uninterrupted supply of power, the LED lights are burning day and night. A simple switch installation would have solved the problem. The AP Transco should not be blamed for this, he added.
Meanwhile, district panchayat officer Prabhakar Rao clarified that the issue will be sorted out and switches will be installed soon. There are about two lakh LED lights in the district.