PATNA: The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has on several occasions proved that ‘promises are meant to be broken’. The PMC authorities
have not only failed to keep the city clean, but also to light the
streets. The corporation last year promised the Patnaites that each PMC
ward would get 50 bulbs for the street lights. The high mast lights were
also supposed to be working properly, but nothing has changed this year
even though Rs 4.5 crore was sanctioned for this purpose during
2011-12. However, it was never utilized. And as of now, many high mast
lights stand non-functional. Initially, residents used to complain but
now they too have given up.

A civic body official said, “The PMC had asked for payment of the holding tax worth Rs 200 crore from Bihar State Electricity Board
(BSEB) which, in return, slapped the PMC with a huge electricity bill
of Rs 250 crore. Both the PMC and the BSEB have held several meetings
regarding the bill clearance, but to no avail so far.” Patna Mayor Afzal
Imam said, “The PMC used the electricity for public service. So, we
expected a reduction in the bill amount.”

Sources in PMC add the
civic body is in a fix over who should be given the onus of maintaining
the lights. It floated a tender for a tie-up in
public-private-partnership (PPP) mode last month, but it was cancelled
owing to alleged irregularities in the acceptance of the tender.

The major roads and areas of the city, including Frazer Road, Kargil
Chowk, Ashok Rajpath, Exhibition Road, Income-Tax roundabout, Patliputra
Colony, Gardanibagh, Kankarbagh, Digha, Ashiana Road, Jagdeo Path,
Indrapuri, AG Colony, Lodipur, Rajivnagar, Police Lines, Rajendra Nagar
and Patna City, are the worst affected due to lack of proper lighting.

There are only 23 high mast lights for 925 roads and streets falling
under the jurisdiction of the PMC. According to PMC sources, the
corporation had paid Rs 58 lakh to Patna Electric Supply Undertaking
(Pesu) in 2000 for maintenance of streetlights from 2000 to 2004. After
the fund was exhausted, a complete utilization report was submitted in
2004 and after that the PMC was requested to maintain the streetlights.
However, the PMC again paid Rs15 lakh to Pesu in October 2004 for the
maintenance of streetlights. Finally, when the fund was exhausted, the
Pesu presented another utilization report to the PMC and handed over the
charge of streetlights’ maintenance to it.