The Patna Municipal Corporation's (PMC's) standing committee members on Friday raised the issue of funds meant for installing LED bulbs not reaching the account of the sanitation inspector concerned.

Senior officials who attended the meeting assured them funds would be transferred to the accounts at the earliest.

According to a member of the standing committee, many councillors from New Capital circle claimed funds were yet to be transferred to their area's sanitation inspector's account. Many areas in ward number 5 and 23 were among those engulfed in darkness as a result.

According to the PMC's last board meeting on August 31, LED lights worth around Rs 4 lakh had to installed in all four circles of PMC before Dussehra. The meeting had given the go-ahead for dysfunctional streetlights and hanging cables to be replaced before the festival.

The PMC also approved and recommended trade licence regulation. PMC commissioner Abhishek Singh said this would allow it to charge for any trade activity in its zone. 'Many commercial businesses run in residential areas. We can take action against them and earn revenue from various trades,' Singh said. 'Today, the standing committee approved it. We will send the proposal to the board and once it is approved, the proposal would be sent to the urban development and housing department and only if it approves it, we can implement it.'

The standing committee also decided to hand over maintenance of public toilets to a third party through a tender process. 'The third party would charge money for the service. However, we have fixed how much they will charge,' Singh said. 'Right now, one has to pay Rs 3 for use of deluxe toilet. Under the new system, people will have to pay Rs 5 for a deluxe toilet. For use of a normal toilet, one would have to shell out Rs 3. Earlier, people had to cough up Rs 2 for the same.'

He said the contract for public toilets would be reviewed and renewed every year and penalty introduced if they failed in maintenance.

In another decision, people wanting to complain against any irregularity would have to mention their property identification number (PID) in their complaint letter, Singh said.

The standing committee also approved provision of three additional staff in all 75 PMC wards.

Earlier, it was decided that five additional sanitation staff would be provided to each ward but Friday's standing committee meeting decided only three additional sanitation workers would be provided to wards and one of the three workers should have a driving licence so that they can ply auto-tippers used for collecting garbage.