Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 30

Residents in the Valley have raised questions over the demolition of more than 300 heritage cemented lamp posts along the Dal Lake.

A local shared a picture of broken lamp posts which have been dumped in a park near the lake, triggering a debate on the social media about why the lights were dismantled and replaced with cast iron pole lights.

The 350 cemented lamp posts with the state emblem engraved on them were installed in the late 1950s by then Prime Minister Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad.

The authorities, however, last year started dismantling them and replaced them with 9-foot-high cast iron pole lights.

To illuminate the lake area, the former PDP-BJP government had approved the Rs 8.6-crore project in March 2017 to install 5-metre-high 490 ornamental poles with 920 lamps from Dalgate to the Nishat crossing.

While the authorities say the lights had stopped working as they were old, the residents are angry, saying the authorities had taken a decision which was not environmental friendly.

“The old lights were better and suited well with the aesthetics of the place. Instead of dismantling them, they could have repaired them,” said Abdul Lateef, a resident of Buchwara.

He said the authorities seemed to be uninterested in maintaining the place as every year the footpaths circling the lake were dismantled and constructed afresh.

“This year again, some work has been done on the footpaths and much of it still remains. Why can’t it just be done once properly, why do we need to break and construct every year? We doubt all this is being done just to mint money,” he said.

An official in the administration said the cemented lamp posts were worn out and had been damaged at most places. He said the removal of the old lamp posts was ordered by the former state government.

“The lights in them had stopped working and they were removed last year,” he said.

Another official said the new lights were too high to serve the purpose of illumination.

“The height of the lamp posts does not allow the light to cover the area around it properly. It had also created a hue and cry last year. We don’t know why this decision was taken but it was taken by the government,” said an official from the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority.