As of now, street lamps in the state capital are no one’s baby. They will remain so at least for another month-and-a-half, till a new standing committee of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is formed after the civic polls.

The PMC commissioner, Pankaj Kumar Pal, on Thursday admitted that the corporation was responsible for switching on and off the streetlights but it could not assign the job to anyone in want of enough employees. A few of them would continue to glow in daytime leaking taxpayers’ money till the civic body hired a private agency to look after them. And that would be possible only in June first week, after a new standing committee of the PMC is constituted following the civic polls slated for May 17.

Mayor Afzal Imam was clueless about the wastage of energy till The Telegraph brought it to his notice. “I will ask senior officers in the engineering section to look into the matter. We will try to ensure that the lights are operated in a proper way,” he said after being appraised of it.

The Telegraph has been highlighting the wastage of energy in the capital of a power-starved state because of streetlights glowing in the daytime from April 24. After the picture of a glowing high-mast lamp was published on Tuesday, its bulbs were switched off in the afternoon. But things were back to square one the day after on Wednesday.

On Thursday, 11 lamps, including five high mast-lamps opposite Jai Prakash roundabout, were burning bright in the daytime. These lights have to be switched on and off manually unlike in several other pockets of the city, where they turn on and off automatically based on pre-set time.

The PMC does not need to monitor the automatic streetlights. But their cause of concern is the lights switched on and off manually.

Pal admitted that the government had put the onus of operating the streetlamps in the city on the PMC, but it was not in a position to take up the work right now. “We are struggling to manage the basic services. We have to prioritise things. There are more important works for us than looking after the streetlamps,” he said, adding that the civic body was making efforts to outsource the work to a private firm.

“We are in the process of hiring a private agency to look after the street lamps in the city on public-private partnership mode. A few weeks ago, a private firm made a presentation through department for international development (DFID of the British government) cell for taking up the work. But the standing committee of the corporation did not approve of it,” Pal said.

Sources said the committee did not approve the rate offered by the company.

The commissioner said the DFID had been asked to prepare a fresh proposal and the tender process was on to rope in a firm for maintaining the streetlights. But that would take time.

“We can take up the responsibility only after a new corporation board is constituted and it finalises an agency. We have limited funds, resources and manpower. At this moment, our priorities are keeping the city clean and providing key civic amenities,” Pal said.

The responsibility of maintaining and operating street lamps was earlier with Patna Electricity Supply Undertaking. But the urban development department transferred the job to the civic body a few months ago.

Several residents expressed shock over civic body’s apathy towards the wastage of power. “The state is grossly power-starved. Against this backdrop, how can the government tolerate such things?” asked Samita Saxena, a resident of Bank Colony.