200 defective solar lights being replaced in Palampur

Our Correspondent

Palampur, august 28

The Palampur Municipal Corporation today launched a special campaign to replace the defective solar lights installed recently.

The MC had attracted widespread criticism as in many parts of the town, these lights turned into showpieces bringing bad names to the MC.

Briefing mediapersons, Vikram Mahajan, Commissioner, Palampur Municipal Corporation, said the MC had installed over 1,500 solar lights in the town and of these, one lot of 200 lights were found defective.

He said a team of engineers of the company had already reached Palampur to replace the lights. Since these lights were under five-year warranty, the manufacturing company was replacing the entire lot free of cost.

He said the company had admitted that there was manufacturing defects in all lights. Therefore, these failed to function. The MC had purchased these lights on GEM portal.

Official sources said a defective lot of lights was supplied to the MC by a Delhi company. Its lithium batteries were dead at the time of installation, therefore, the lights were never switched on or failed to recharge even in bright sunshine. The average price of one light is over Rs 17,000. As per specification, before the installation, the batteries of a light should have pre-charged, a minimum of 30 per cent which was lacking.

The non-functioning of the streetlights has led to a spurt in crime as several houses were ransacked by miscreants in the past few days and anti-social elements gathered in the evenings.

Anish Nag, Deputy Mayor, Palampur MC, said he had also received complaints from residents of different wards and matter was brought to the notice of the Commissioner. He said since the company had given a five-year warranty to the MC, it was bound to replace the lights free of cost.

He asserted that the MC should also penalise the company as per law.

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