LED bulbs illuminate Hyderabad homes

​Hyderabad: City Mayor Bonthu Rammohan on Wednesday said the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was the only civic body in the country, which has taken up innovative schemes to make LED bulbs available to each and every household through women Self-Help Groups (SHG). The target is to provide one crore bulbs to 25 lakh households in GHMC limits and thereby save energy and power charges to the tune of Rs 500 crore by saving 130 crore units of power, he added.

Rammohan further said 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be reduced per year and the SHG women will earn Rs 10 crore by selling one crore bulbs. The Mayor said the women in the GHMC limits are playing a very vital role in various activities of the civic body like Swachh Bharath Mission (SBM) where they achieved first rank in the SBM ranking.

The Mayor added that keeping in view the importance of the women in GHMC, the civic body has taken up an innovative scheme of providing LED bulbs, tube lights, fans etc., at the doorstep of the households. He said GHMC is the only Municipal Corporation in the Country which has taken up this innovative scheme as a pilot project in the East Zone, basing on the results this scheme will be implemented in all the zones.

The Mayor inaugurated the scheme of using LED bulbs and sales by Self Help Groups women, duly in coordination with ESSL, a Government of India Organization, at the GHMC Head Office on Wednesday. The GHMC is having nearly 25 lakh households and the target is to provide one crore bulbs to the households.

The main aim of the project is to at least provide 4 LED bulbs, tube lights, and five star rated fans with subsidy rates. The LED lights will reduce the power bills by nearly 50 per cent. The GHMC and ESSL had already started opening counters in all the Circle Offices and Head Office two months ago and derived good response from the citizens.

If the present sale in Circles and Head Office is estimated only 4.20 lakh LEDs are being utilised. For strengthening the project, the GHMC is planning to involve listed 4.5 lakh SHG women. The Mayor appealed all the SHG women to take up the responsibility and to see that the target fixed for providing LEDs to the households is completed on time.

Deputy Mayor Baba Fasiuddin said the SHG women are participating and also coordinating with the GHMC in various development activities so they should come forward to make this programme also a grand success and make Hyderabad a brighter city with LEDs in the coming days.

GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy, while addressing the gathering, said the women in the GHMC are taking part in most of the programmes. No other State is involving women for the overall development of the city.

The Commissioner said SHG women secured loans to the tune of Rs 248 crore during 2015-16 year and Rs 281 crore during 2016-17 year and created a great belief with the bankers of repaying loans on time. Due to this effective working, the GHMC has thought of involving SHGs, which are about 43,453 groups with 4.5 lakh women, in the programme.

Bhaskara Chary, Additional Commissioner (UCD) has explained the role of the SHG women and also informed that there are 21 town level federations and around 878 slum level federations. The help of these federations will help the SHGs in achieving the said target.

Srinivasa Chary, EE (Electrical) has proposed vote of thanks to Gangadhar Reddy, Zonal Commissioner (East Zone), senior officials of UCD wing, representatives and heads of the departments ESSL organisation have also participated in the programme.