Citizens take to Twitter to raise problem of streetlights

Mysuru: The campaign to fix streetlights along several arterial roads in the city has gathered steam on social media, with many citizens criticising elected representatives and bureaucrats for what they dubbed ‘lax’ attitude to a very grave issue. Although most of the thoroughfares had been illuminated with ornamental lights for Mysuru Dasara celebrations between October 10 and 19, and was further extended till October 21, many roads in the Central Business District (CBD) have now slipped back to darkness.
For the 2018 celebrations, the district administration cumulatively illuminated a stretch of 50km of road, 20km more than previous year. The illumination was arranged at a whopping cost of Rs 3 crore. However, with the curtains coming down on the ‘Naada Habba’ celebrations, these roads have once again plunged into darkness – the Mirza Road, Nelson Mandela Road, Bengaluru-Nilgiri Road and Outer Ring Road (ORR) among them. In fact, citizens have repeatedly raised the problem of several stretches along the ORR being without adequate lighting, but to no avail.

The campaign on the microblogging site Twitter was initiated by Puneet G Kudlur, calling on the civic authorities to act post-haste in order to prevent untoward accidents along such key roads. Making a tongue-in-cheek remark to alert the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (Muda), which maintains ORR, to the gravity of the problem, Kudlur wrote, “The authorities have switched off lights on ORR because Dasara illumination is over.” He had tagged the Mysuru deputy commissioner, the commissioner of police and MP Pratap Simha in his Tweet.

Meanwhile, other citizens have also criticised elected representatives and bureaucrats for their apathetic attitude to such a key problem. The Twitter handle, @Mysuru_Economy tweeted about the perils of travelling along ORR, which did not have an adequate number of streetlights. The handle pointed out the need to persist with the campaign in order to keep up the pressure on the authorities till they are compelled to solve the problem.

Another Twitter handle, @Mysuru_district too sought to highlight the problem, couching it in ridicule. “No streetlights or dim sodium vapour lamps on the roads,” said the handle, questioning why the city glittered only during Dasara.

Kuldlur also took a swipe at those managing the Twitter account of the district administration, @DC_Mysuru, for their failure to respond to grievances raised on the social media platform. “Elected representatives had expressed their appreciation for the former DC D Randeep for being prompt in responding to queries on the web,” Kudlur said.

Another Twitter user, Alok Kalagi opined that, even if the district administration did not bother to respond to these queries, they must look into the issues raised and solve the problems.

Mysuru deputy commissioner Abhiram G Sankar told TOI that he would raise the issue with both Muda and the Mysuru City Corporation, and ensure that the problem of inadequate streetlights would be solved soon.