AP government to accord priority to maintenance of LED street lights

Vijayawada: The State government is strongly committed to transform the entire gram panchayat LED street lighting system in the State into a special pro-public programme to give people a better quality of life and enhance the feeling of safety and security among the residents in the villages, said Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy.

The Minister conducted a teleconference with officials on Sunday on the maintenance of LED street lights in gram panchayats and asked Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture public sector enterprise under the Union Ministry of Power, to give highest importance to the maintenance of street lights to bring down complaints on non-glowing lights to zero level across the State and ensure 100 per cent functioning of lights by taking constructive measures immediately.

The Minister said that the Chief Minister was very keen on providing infrastructure in rural areas, developing them on par with towns and improving the living standards of rural people.

The government was spending huge amount of funds for the betterment of living standards of the people and develop villages. Though the LED street lighting has transformed the villages, abnormal delay in attending to repair works and replacement of lights was causing inconvenience to the rural people, the Minister said.

The government received around 8.66 lakh complaints with regard to LED street lights from January to October 15 this year which indicates that 37.7 per cent of total lights installed needed repair works during the last 10 months.

The EESL had installed 22.51 lakh LED lights so far in different districts. The Minister has asked the EESL to attend to the complaints on LED lights within 72 hours as per agreement and fully focus on improving the maintenance of street lights across the State. Several officials of the Panchayat Raj department took part in the review meeting.