The residents of Habba Kadal in old city area are up in arms against Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) for failing to restore street lights, which lies defunct since years. The defunct street lights in the area have come under severe criticism with the commuters, business community and its residents alleging it to be a reason of immense hardships.Locals from the area said that the installation of street lights was just an eye to the residents here as it got defunct soon after its installation.
Talking to 5 Dariya, Abdul Rehman Bhat, an elderly in the locality said, “The streetlights were installed by the Power Development Department (PDD) and SMC in 2012 and as soon as the installation of street lights, it became defunct and since then the authorities are yet to repair the defunct street lights.”President of the Mohalla Behbood Committee, Irfan ahmad Zargar said that they fear to walk in the evening hours, adding, “We even cannot go to Mosque for fear of stray dogs in darkness.”“We have approached to the SMC higher ups in this regard but our pleas were totally disregarded,” Zargar added.
Pertinently, the Chairperson, State Women’s Commission and MLA Habba Kadal, Shamim Firdous distributed 29 streetlights worth Rs. 9 lakhs to install these lights from Kaka road to Barbar Shah Bridge on 12 April 2012 and the funds were provided by the Power Development Department (PDD). Since then none of the officals had visited for a single time to check weather the lights installed are properly functional or not,” He further added.