Motorists are forced to switch on their headlights to manouvre along the dark Golghar Road in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Sept. 13: Pitch-dark roads are a cause of concern for the women of all age in the city. Male members of most of the families play sentinel if they return home after dusk.

But make no mistake. Streetlamps dot most of the city streets. But majority of them are defunct.

A few lampposts do not have bulbs. The power line of others has been snapped because the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), responsible for providing civic amenities, did not clear the outstanding bills.

Taking advantage of the situation, criminals, especially chain-snatchers, are targeting women on dark and deserted alleys. With police hardly managing to instill confidence among women, male members of their family guard them home at night.

Saumya Sharma, a resident of Kankerbagh Colony, calls her brother every evening to pick her up from the auto stand after she returns from coaching classes in the evening. She finds the ill-lit streets in her colony unsafe. Her family heaves a sigh of relief only after she reaches home.

Saumya is not alone. Minisha Sharan, employed with a telecom firm, said: “I feel unsafe while returning to my Patliputra Colony residence in the evening because the streets in the colony are dark and deserted. Little surprise then, criminals have a free run in our locality and incidents of chain-snatching are so common.”

There are street lamps on the roads in her locality. But they are defunct.

“Barring a few prime streets, rest of the roads are without proper streetlights for the past several years. This is the true face of a developing state and achievement (read failure) of a government which cannot stop claiming about the great things it has done for the capital and rest of the state,” said Pankaj Singh, a resident of Bank Colony.

The PMC has its own set of excuses to explain why lights are missing on most of the roads.

“On many stretches, Patna Electric Supply Undertaking has cut the power connection as the corporation has failed to pay the outstanding power bills. The empowered standing committee had recently moved a proposal to install 100 high-mast lamps in each of the 72 wards of the city but commissioner Divesh Sehara rejected it,” said mayor Afzal Imam.

According to sources in the civic agency, the commissioner believed spending Rs 1.15 crore in installing streetlights would have been an extravagance at a time when PMC was not in a good financial health and hence refused to give permission to float tenders for the work.

“Spur — a department of foreign international development, UK government, project — working on several urban development schemes in the state, has been asked to carry out a survey on the present status of streetlights in the city and their recommendation is awaited before a final decision is taken in the matter,” said a senior PMC administrative officer.

Till a decision is taken, courage is the only ammunition to counter criminals.