Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda has pulled up Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) officials over alleged lapses in street-light maintenance, after an inspection found 140 of 222 streetlights on the Hudson Circle–Chalukya Circle stretch in central Bengaluru were not functioning.
The minister questioned whether civic spending was actually improving the city, with a remark circulating on social media saying, “You have no intentions to improve Bengaluru, u only want to spend money.” Gowda had previously directed officials and contractors to address street-lighting problems, including at a review meeting on August 4, but the deficiencies persisted.
He subsequently sought disciplinary action against officials responsible for the lapse. The latest development is the suspension of H.V. Ramesh, Executive Engineer (Electrical), Bengaluru Central City Corporation, for alleged dereliction of duty, while the contractor responsible for LED replacement and maintenance was reportedly fined ₹1 lakh. The minister has maintained that the issue is not a shortage of funds or projects but one of accountability.
A Basic Service Left Failing
The scale of the problem emerged during Gowda’s August 28 inspection of the Hudson Circle–Chalukya Circle corridor, an important central Bengaluru route connecting areas including Kempegowda Bus Station, the court complex and Vidhana Soudha.
Of the 222 poles surveyed, only 82 were functioning, while 140 were classified as non-functional or missing. On the Halasuru Gate Police Station Circle–SBI Circle stretch, 33 of 67 poles were non-functional, while the situation was considerably worse between SBI Circle and Chalukya Circle, where 107 of 155 poles were found not working.
Gowda said the road carries hundreds of vehicles every minute and that street lighting is a basic municipal service directly linked to public safety. In a statement posted on social media, he described the failure as a matter of “responsibility and accountability”, saying it was “not a lack of funds or projects” and that those responsible would face strict action.
The minister’s reported “you only want to spend money” remark, shared by journalist Deepak Bopanna on X, came in the context of criticism over how street-lighting works were being implemented.
Warnings, Delays And Action
The latest confrontation follows an earlier review in which Gowda had already raised concerns about the pace and quality of Bengaluru’s LED street-lighting programme. At the August 4 meeting with GBA electrical engineers, he said 3,02,919 LED streetlights were planned across the city, but only 2,67,270 had been installed.
Similarly, just 7,567 of 24,677 Centralised Control and Monitoring System (CCMS) panels had been completed. The project, according to the minister’s office, is intended to provide a long-term solution to recurring street-light failures and could deliver 61.01% electricity savings once fully implemented.
Gowda gave officials an additional two months to complete the pending work and ordered non-functional street-light complaints received through the Sahaya portal to be resolved within 48 hours. He also warned that contractors failing to rectify faults within the stipulated period should face penalties.
At that meeting, he criticised officials for arriving without basic data, asking, “Why have you come here?”, and saying that the attitude of simply turning up for a government job without accountability brings a bad name to the government.
The latest disciplinary action shows that the minister’s concerns have moved beyond warnings. Following the August 28 inspection, GBA initiated action against officials, culminating in the reported suspension of Executive Engineer H.V. Ramesh for dereliction of duty.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
For Bengaluru residents, a streetlight that does not work is not merely an administrative statistic—it can mean a darker road for a pedestrian returning home, poorer visibility for a driver, and greater anxiety for people using public spaces after sunset. That is why the minister’s focus on accountability is welcome, but it must also go beyond individual suspensions. Bengaluru needs civic systems that prevent such failures rather than discovering them only after inspections.
If thousands of crores are being spent on roads, drains, lighting and other infrastructure, citizens deserve to know whether that money is translating into safer, cleaner and more liveable neighbourhoods. The LED project’s promise of energy savings and automated monitoring can be meaningful only if the technology actually works on the ground and contractors and officials are held responsible when it does not.
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