Mangaluru: Mayor Kavitha Sanil on Tuesday set a 10-day deadline to the electrical engineering section of Mangaluru City Corporation to set right non-functional streetlights across the city in general and the LED lights installed along the road medians in particular. This follows the mayor taking note of complaints from the people and also in response to a query raised by former deputy mayor Purushottam Chitrapura at the monthly meeting of the council.

Purushottam said it is ironical that the LED lights installed and maintained by New Mangalore Port Trust along NH 66 from Baikampady up to KIOCL Ltd stretch are functioning well, while those installed by the civic body beyond Baikampady up to Mukka are in disrepair. This is also true in most cases of other streetlights maintained by the electrical engineering section, he said adding that officials have been lukewarm to complaints on this issue.

Revathi Puthran, independent corporator, said lack of functional streetlights in her ward number 1, which has a large student population and two educational institutions, is a major cause for concern. "Students move around late in the night and absence of streetlights is a serious safety issue, both for motorists and pedestrians alike," she said urging the mayor to direct officials to act on it.

Responding to the barrage, Yashwanth Kamath in charge of the section said he would personally check the streetlights and sought 10 days time. When asked about the time sought for the purpose, the officer said that there are more than 3,000 LED lights that need to be checked and he is making every effort to personally see that they are functional.