Pernambut street gets tubelights after residents threaten to light traditional torches

This action comes despite civic officials earlier telling residents that they were helpless as tubelights were out of stock.

According to Munusamy (50), a resident of the area, “whenever we complain, officials cajole us telling that they will take action, but on Monday action was taken after months and that too only after we threatened to light thee panthams.”

Another resident Govindan (52) said, “as the street is in the heart of the town, women were the most affected as they had to cross this street without lights after 10 pm. We highlighted the issue to officials through various petitions, but received a response only today.”

This has resulted in agitated residents, led by town Congress president G Suresh Kumar, informing civic officials that “flaming torches would be attached to electric posts with non-functioning tubelights. Though I informed the Perumabut commissioner, municipal engineer, municipal electrician and the Vellore-based regional director of municipal administration (RDMA) about this, there was no response from any official till the belated remedial action on Monday afternoon.”

However, following the threat to put up torches, officials swung into action at the bus stand and fixed new bulbs replacing the defective ones on the high mast lamp in the terminus. “Though the terminus has a high mast lamp, only a few bulbs burn and as their light is directed away from the bus terminus, the latter continued to remain in darkness,” says former councillor Meeran G Saleem.

Elaborating, Suresh said, “though high mast lamp bulbs are changed when they fail, the annual maintenance contract (AMC) with the provider results in his doing the needful only after months pass. But, the question is why should such bulbs if they are of good quality need to be changing every few months. We plan to attach flaming torches at various locations in the bus stand to highlight this issue.”

When contacted, Commissioner Nityanandam said he was unable to talk as she was in an important meeting. Officials assured that two more high mast lamps would be erected in the bus stand to ensure enough lighting.