LED streetlights stolen: South Corp

Though the residents’ welfare associations were complaining about the thefts for two months, we had no proof. In the last one month, the thefts started increasing gradually.

NEW DELHI : The South Corporation’s mega project of last yearreplacement of two lakh streetlights with LEDs- is in limelight for the wrong reasons.

The bulbs installed to save electricity have allegedly been stolen at many places across south Delhi in last one month, said South Delhi Municipal Corporation officials.

“Though the residents’ welfare associations were complaining about thefts for two months, we had no proof. But in last one month, the thefts started increasing gradually and in four cases we had to accompany the RWAs to the police station for registering the complaints. Out of this, two LEDs were stolen from Munirka and another two from Najafgarh,” said an official from electrical department, SDMC.

The matter was also raised by councillors during the standing committee meeting on Thursday.

However, on February 18, the RWA of Paryavaran Complex filed an FIR at Mehrauli Police Station and reported the issue of stealing of 21 LED lights in one go.

“About 4-5 people pretending to be the employees of a power discom entered the area to check the LED lights. They came with all equipment including staircase. Afterwards they took 21 LEDs and said that these need immediate repair.

But they never came back,” said Ambuj Bhardwaj, general secretary of Paryavaran Complex RWA and complainant.

Worried RWA members approached area councillor Ram Pal, SDMC and finally filed an FIR with Police on February 18. “After that the SDMC electric department also visited the area. In the process we found that the photos of these thefts were captured by our CCTV cameras,” they said.

We showed the photos to SDMC staff who identified them as the ex employees of previous contractor assigned the job to repair the streetlights in colonies,” the members added.