Streetlights glow during daytime near Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Streetlights on Friday glowed again through the day in the state capital, illustrating the sluggish attitude of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) towards the wastage of precious power a day after the civic elections.

Two high-mast lights at Gandhi Maidan and four street lamps on Bank Colony Road were on throughout the day for the past week. All the lights are under the jurisdiction of the New Capital circle of PMC.

The burning lights not only cause undue stress on the state exchequer but also strain the power-hungry state’s electricity reserves.

Worse, this is not the first time such callousness has occurred. In the last week of April, The Telegraph had been steadfast in its campaign against the wastage of electricity through streetlamps near Gandhi Maidan that had remained switched on 24x7 for 25 days before they were finally switched off.

Then, around Rs 1 lakh (Rs 92,170 to be precise) of you and I was drained.

After the issue was brought to the notice of senior PMC authorities, orders were issued by the executive officers of all four civic body administrative circles to form monitoring teams to supervise the street lamps in their respective areas.

The team in the New Capital circle, comprising electricians, did its duty for a fortnight. But things seem to have slipped back to a sorry state yet again. One of the high-mast lights at Gandhi Maidan, which have been burning throughout the day, consists of 10 lamps. The other has 12.

There are five other high-mast lights in the field but they get switched on only around 6pm — the fixed time for turning on streetlamps.

Asked about the burning issue, the New Capital circle executive officer Sheshank Shekhar Sinha said the high-mast lights at Gandhi Maidan have automated timers.

“They are switched on and off at a specific time. I will immediately ask the employees concerned to look into the matter. If the lights are on, they will be turned off immediately,” he said.

Sinha added: “The electricians assigned the job of looking after the lights in the area will also be asked to explain why they have not been doing their duty properly.”

The corporation had earlier claimed that it does not have dedicated employees to supervise the streetlamps in the city.

Sources said the timers of some of the streetlamps in the corporation area have gone out of order. As a result, the lights sometimes remain switched on throughout the day.

The civic body has initiated the process of appointing a private firm for the maintenance of the street lamps under its jurisdiction. Tenders were recently floated through the department for international development of the UK government inviting private agencies to bid for the upkeep and maintenance of the streetlights.