Recent news articles relating to Ardee City

Private water suppliers make hay as city reels under crisis

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times

Gurgaon, June 18, 2012

The prolonged water crisis has left residents with no other option but to depend on private water suppliers.

Residents of Millennium City have been dealing with inadequate water supply since early May. The shortage in supply, however, has led to a boom in business for suppliers who sell groundwater illegally.

Against the usual rate of up to Rs. 1,000 for a tanker of water, prices have shot up by nearly Rs. 500. A tanker is now available for Rs. 1200-Rs 1,500, especially in parched localities such as DLF City, Sushant Lok, Palam Vihar, Ardee City and several Huda sectors.

According to residents, mafia controls the supply of water in the city and has no fear of law.

"Suppliers have been charging Rs. 300 extra. Earlier, we would pay Rs. 1,200 for 5,000 litres. Now, we pay Rs. 1,500. We have no other option but pay the demanded price," said Naresh Kantur, a resident of DLF Phase 2.

"For an overhead tank, on an average, we charge more than Rs. 1,200 normally. If the tank is underground, charges vary depending on the location — front or the backyard," said Pawan Kumar, a supplier who has set up a borewell close to Wazirabad.

These private suppliers are based in and around villages where they draw groundwater directly and unauthorisedly through submersible pumps. This is despite strict instructions by the deputy commissioner to shut down all illegal submersible pumps.

"Contact numbers of such suppliers are available everywhere. Officials can easily call, locate their supply station and take action. What are they waiting for? The negligence has been a boon for such illegal activity," said SD Bharadwaj, a resident of Sector 56.

The administration, however, claims they have been doing the needful.

Amid the ongoing water crisis, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) recently directed all private swimming pool operators to shut their facility Several gated communities, known for round-the-clock water and power supply, were forced to ration water distribution to 4 hours daily from the earlier 24 hour service. The affected swimming pools are the ones being run in the condominiums as well as in individual houses. There are nearly 150 such pools in the city. The public swimming pools being run in hotels and clubs, however, have been spared of the embargo.

With the water crisis worsening, residents are urging the authorities to take measures to check wastage of water.

To address the issue, Huda recently announced to improve supply in the Gurgaon water canal, which supplies water from the western Yamuna canal to Gurgaon.

Against the total demand of 90 mgd (million gallons per day), the HUDA has been able to supply only 43 mgd from its basai-based treatment plant. A portion of the deficit is met by groundwater extraction by developers and water sold in tankers illegally.

Residents on the edge as taps run dry in the city

Dhananjay Jha, Hindustan Times

Gurgaon, June 01, 2012

The Millennium City is reeling under an unprecedented water crisis. On Thursday, many irate residents converged at the Sector 16 water boosting centre to register their complaints. Their anger was quite palpable. According to the residents, the present crisis has been fuelled by the lackadaisical attitude of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda). They allege the civic body has not taken adequate steps to augment water supply ahead of the summer. The main problem, residents say, are the outdated pipelines used for water distribution.

Huda claims to have been supplying 43 MGD (million gallons per day) water from its Basai water treatment plant daily but the water doesn't seems to reach households on a regular basis.

Areas such as Ardee City, DLF, Essel Tower, Sushant Lok-1 and Palam Vihar have been experiencing acute water shortage over the past two to three weeks, despite the tall claims made by Huda officials.

"There is no fault in the water distribution system. There is a shortage in supply of raw water from the irrigation department," said Naresh Pawar, executive engineer, Huda, adding that water supply is regular from both boosting stations at Sector 16 and Sector 51.

But, a reality check on Thursday didn't seem to corroborate his claims.

The underground reservoir with a capacity of 25 lakh kiloliter at Sector 16 boosting station was found nearly empty and all the five pumps were closed till 5pm.

"This reservoir does not get enough water and that is why water distribution is erratic," said an official, adding that the water lever at the reservoir should be two-meter-high to run the pumps at any given time.

As a result, as residents have claimed, DLF has not received even a single drop of canal water on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, the supply was very low.

Similarly, Sushant Lok and Essel Tower did not get water on Wednesday and pressure was very low on Thursday and Friday.

In Ardee City and Palam Vihar, the situation was more or less similar compelling residents to exchange heated words with the developers and Huda officials.

"We spend nearly four hours daily at the Sector 16 boosting station for water just to evade residents' ire who are recklessly calling us," said Anil Sharma, general secretary of residents' welfare association (RWA) Sushant Lok-1.

"We hold DLF responsible for the water crisis, not the Huda, as distribution is in DLF's hand directly and we will stage a protest against the developer on Friday morning," said Kavita Munjal, a resident of DLF Phase III.

In Essel Tower too, residents compelled the developer to ensure power back-up in the colony to ensure uninterrupted water supply from the local boosting station.

"The developer ensured this by installing 1000 kv gen set immediately to keep canal or bore well water supply continue and uninterrupted. Why should we suffer at cost of developer and HUDA? We are entitled to get water and power supply round the clock," said Rajiv Lamba, president of the RWA, Essel Tower.

Discom unmoved as city spends sleepless nights

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times

Gurgaon, June 13, 2012

The unprecedented power crisis in Millennium City this year has pushed residents to the edge. It is the worst the city has seen in the past decade, according to residents. Additionally, residents allege that inaction on part of authorities has forced them to resign to the appaling situation.

“We have an appointment on Wednesday with Subhash Deswal, superintending engineer (SE) at Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), to find out how long this terrible situation will continue,” said RS Rathee, chairman, Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC).

Besides power cuts, voltage fluctuations have also sky-rocketed to 30-40 times a day. Not only is it irksome for residents, but it has also been wreaking havoc on electrical appliances.

“We cannot even recharge our invertors. We are compelled to sleep in the open or on the terrace at night and use hand-fans,” said AP Jain, a senior resident of Sushant Lok.

“The DHBVN officials divert our electricity to industries and developers. There is a serious issue with distribution also,” alleged TN Kaul, general secretary of the RWA of Ardee City, sector 52.

“I spent the whole night in my AC car to be able to catch some sleep. I have been told by several friends that they also spend sleepless nights,” said VK Srivastav, a resident of South City-II.

While the city has been facing a shortage a of 70 lakh units (30%) for the past two days, DHBVN officials deny the allegations.

“We are supplying more than 150 lakh units daily. While it is true that power supply is not adequate, we are trying to manage the situation by procuring power from the market at higher rates,” said Deswal, adding that the non-functional Jhajjar Plant is compounding the power menace. This grim situation continues despite assurances by the Haryana power minister, Captain Ajay Singh, who told HT on June 2 that the Jhajjar and Khedar plants would start operating after June 7, clamping down on power cuts.

It may be noted that the World Bank had donated R150 crore in January for power infrastructure improvement in this year

‘Powerless’ city sweats it out

Dhananjay Jha, Hindustan Times

Gurgaon, June 01, 2012

Power cuts lasting 10-12 hours in a day have left Gurgaon residents sweating it out in this sultry weather. Like several others, Harjinder Singh, an elderly resident of New Colony, has been making rounds of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam (DHBVN) office for the last one week and even had an heated exchange of words with the power officials over long and unscheduled outages on Friday.

“I just asked the officers why there was no power in New Colony for the past two days but they got angry. They said they were not answerable to me,” said Singh, adding that they were getting only 3-4 hours electricity daily.

With temperatures touching 45 degree Celsius, power shortage is also at its peak.

The entire Millennium City is reeling under a severe power crisis as against the daily requirement of approximately 170-180 lakh units daily, only 110-120 lakh units are being supplied.

“It is the same story every summer. DHBVN authorities claim to increase supply but nothing happens,” said RN Malik, a retired senior Haryana government official who lives in DLF City.

A demand-supply gap of 50 to 60 lakh units (35%) has left residents sleepless but the Haryana government claims to pump in 220-230 lakh units electricity to Gurgaon daily.

“The DHBVN officials are making false claims. They divert power to industries and developers or a major portion is stolen. There is a big fault in distribution also,” said TN Kaul, general secretary of the Ardee City, Sector 52, residents' welfare association.

“Around 160 lakh units were supplied on Friday. I hope the situation will improve in a day or two,” said Subhash Deswal, superintending engineer, DHBVN.

The power distribution agency received 900 complaint calls in a single day last week. This shows the pent-up anger among people.

“The situation will improve after June 7 as the Jhajjar and Khedar power plants will start operating, which are presently closed due to a technical snag,” said Arun Gupta, managing director, DHBVN.

Schools not open to opening playgrounds

Rosemary Antony, TNN Jun 10, 2012, 04.59AM IST

Gurgaon: The recent proposal by sports minister Ajay Maken that schools should open up their playgrounds for neighbourhood children after school hours, aims to promote the physical well-being and perhaps, inculcate a love of sports among children.

Representatives of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Gurgaon have hailed this as a great move. "Nowadays, there is a dearth of open spaces in urban areas and children spend hours glued to the television sets or are engaged in video games. There is very little outdoor activity that children indulge in these days," says Sanjeev Saxena, general secretary, Gurgaon Central Government Health Scheme ( CGHS) Beneficiaries Welfare Association. His sentiments are echoed by R N Kaul, president, Ardee City Welfare Association who believes that schools are obligated to open up their playgrounds for community use, considering they received land at throwaway prices.

Maken's proposal has now been sanctioned by the Union Urban Development Minister, Kamal Nath, and while schools in Gurgaon say they are willing to comply with the plan, they have expressed reservations about its feasibility. Damage to school infrastructure and rising maintenance costs are some of the issues that are worrying the school authorities.

Pia Sharma, principal, Ryan International School says, "I firmly believe that school playgrounds should be used by children across society. However, we need financial assistance to maintain our playground's facilities. Parental supervision is also essential as cases of sexual abuse of children are unfortunately fairly common these days. We are also bothered about how we will regulate the entry of "unwelcome crowd" into our school."

Shubha Goyal, principal, Scottish High International School, Gurgaon, believes that this move may disrupt the coaching schedule followed in her school. Scottish High operates till 4 pm after which students attend sports coaching.

While schools are in two minds, district-level cricket player Vaibhav Yadav believes that Maken's proposal can go a long way in helping aspiring sportsmen. "If I had access to a ground nearer home, I needn't travel all the way to Tau Devi Lal for my daily running practice," he says.

Residents have also welcomed the move. Take Bimla Devi, who lives close to Bluebells International School with her family. Her children hardly ever go out to play and stay cooped up inside their home all day. "There is no proper ground nearby and it would be really nice if they got to play at Bluebells School," she says.

Residents also believe that Maken's proposal holds great promise, especially for the economically weaker sections of the society, who may now gain access to state-of the art playgrounds. However, experts say that those who may benefit from this proposal remain largely unaware of it and that there is a pressing need to create awareness about this whole issue before people can urge schools to implement the order.

No electricity for 12 hours, residents rue hiked bills

Dhananjay Jha, Hindustan Times

Gurgaon, June 05, 2012

Residents, who are reeling under 10-12 hour power cuts, were in for a shock when they received new electricity bills with hiked charges.

Two months ago, the Haryana government had hiked tariffs by 10-16%. The domestic security deposit too had been increased from Rs. 1,000 to Rs 1,500.

A group of Gurgaon residents on Monday met DHBVN officials and lodged their protest over the ‘unjustified’ power tariff hike and poor service.

“We are now paying Rs. 5.15 per unit instead of Rs. 4.50. This hike, however, is not justified in view of the electricity shortage,” said AP Jain, a resident of Sushant Lok-1, adding that voltage fluctuation had damaged five of his electrical appliances.

The new rates have hit consumers living in private townships, especially where the developer has single point connections. “In Ardee City, the developer has taken a single point connection and collects 12% charges for electricity distribution services. This means that we have to pay around R6 per unit,” said TN Kaul, a resident. Domestic consumers comprise 55-60% of the total consumer strength of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam (DHBVN).

“We do not mind paying the new charges but the government should ensure proper power supply. Domestic consumers generate maximum revenue and we are dependent on DHBVN for electricity,” said Rambir Singh, a resident of Narsinghpur.

The power distribution agency, meanwhile, has assured that the situation will improve once three power plants at Khedar, Yamunanagar and Jhajjar become operational by June 7.

“Three plants are not functioning at present but they will start working soon. We are procuring power from the market to fill the gap between demand and supply,” said Captain Ajay Singh, Haryana power minister.

Gurgaon is presently getting 120-130 lakh units daily against the peak season demand of 170-180 lakh units.