VELLORE: The Vellore Corporation has planned for a zone-wise maintenance of streetlights within the city. A resolution to this effect was adopted at the council meet held here on Monday, chaired by mayor P Karthiyayini. Resolution 48, quoting a recent government order, sought the opinion of the council in handing over the maintenance of the street lights by private contractors in each of the four zones.The 11.65 sq km Vellore Corporation was created in 2008 with 48 wards. In 2011,2 third-grade municipalities, six town panchayats and nine village panchayats were annexed to the corporation, expanding its area to 87.81 sq km spread across 60 wards. Later, as per another government notification, these 60 wards were grouped into four zones for easy administration.Dearth of staffers is a major issue faced by the corporation in maintaining the 17,000 plus streetlights. Zone-I has 4,829 streetlights and requires eight wiremen and eight assistants for maintenance. However, there are just two wiremen. Except for zone-III, which requires six wiremen and six assistants, the other zones require 8 wiremen and 8 assistants to carry out regular maintenance. The corporation will hand over the maintenance of the streetlights to private contractors in all the zones to provide better service to the people of Vellore. It has estimated that the annual expenditure to maintain the streetlights will be around Rs 35 to Rs 40 lakh for each zone. Based on the performance of the private contractors, the contract will be renewed every two years.The councillors also came up with the suggestion that each zone should be entrusted to different contractors. They also enquired about the gasified crematorium which has been constructed, but awaits inauguration. Commissioner Seeni Ajmal Khan said the park at Otteri, promoted by the Tourism Department, and the crematorium, will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa through videoconferencing.The councillors also raised issues related to contamination of drinking water.
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