THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Corporation Council that met here on Friday urged the Government and the Electricity Minister to take action against the chairman and senior officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) for the failure to complete the installation and operation of streetlights in the city over the last one year.

A resolution adopted by the Council said the KSEB had failed to utilise the Rs.76.15 lakh remitted at various section offices by the Corporation for streetlights. Moving the resolution, chairman of the standing committee on taxes and appeal K.Maheswaran Nair said KSEB officials had not submitted the utility certificate for installation of conductors, posts and tube lights for over a year. "In the previous years also, the board has failed to utilise crores of rupees remitted by the local body," he said.

Cutting across party lines, councillors accused KSEB officials of playing truant despite repeated pleas to install or replace streetlights. Rounding off the debate, Mayor C. Jayan Babu assured the council that the issue would be taken up with the Government. He stressed the need to revive the functioning of section-level committees set up to monitor street lighting. The resolution called for stern action against the officials responsible for the lapse if the streetlighting works were not completed in a period of six months.

The meeting urged the Government and the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) to levy domestic tariff for water consumption by hospitals, schools, nurseries, anganwadis and the rehabilitation centres for beggars and mentally-challenged persons. Moving a calling attention motion on the issue, chairman of the welfare standing committee P. Rajendra Das said the KWA was not metering the consumption at these institutions or replacing damaged meters. This, he said, had resulted in huge arrears for these centres. Mr. Das decried the practice of levying non domestic tariff for institutions working for the welfare of the underprivileged sections.

The Council meeting witnessed an exchange of words between the Opposition and Treasury benches over the Government order directing local self government institutions to register as casual agents for the sale of the sports super bumper lottery tickets. UDF members alleged that the Government was trying to use councillors to push the sale of lottery tickets. The ruling front hit back with the accusation that the Opposition was blindly resisting the novel scheme aimed at improving the sports infrastructure in the State.

Several councillors pointed out that it would be difficult to sell the Rs.100 ticket in the coastal areas dominated by economically weaker sections.

The Mayor clarified that there would be no compulsion on the councillors to sell tickets.

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