From Jan,Mulund,Bhandup streets may go dark

Streets of Mulund and Bhandup may soon have to be in darkness after the BMC’s negligence in renewing the street light maintenance agreement with the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. The MSEDCL has decided to discontinue maintenance from January 1. Corporators pulled up the BMC administration for its lax attitude in the general body meeting on Tuesday.

The agreement,according to officials,has been pending since 1998. The MSEDCL has been subsidising tariff for street lights,but after the increase in prices of materials related to street lights in the last few years,the MSEDCL had proposed a revision of agreement. It had also set a deadline of September after a meeting was held with civic officials in March.

BJP corporator and improvements committee chairman Manoj Kotak said,“If the BMC doesn’t extend the agreement,the MSEDCL will stop maintaining the lights. If the lights stop working,there will be no one to repair it,” said Kotak

An official letter from the MSEDCL reads,“Our department is doing rigorous follow-ups for the revision with different departments of the BMC for seven months. The concerned officials from the BMC are non-responsive towards the seriousness of the issue. No officials from the BMC,either from ‘S’ or ‘T’ wards or other departments have initiated efforts for the completion of the process.”