Shut malls early, give us power: RWAs

TUHIN DUTTA Posted online: Thu Jul 05 2012, 01:46 hrs
Gurgaon : A day after Gurgaon residents took to the streets in protest and blocked roads demanding better power supply in the city, RWAs decided to meet government officials on Wednesday.

People said they were forced to shell out extra money to buy diesel for power generators, while many complained of their inverters being of no help because power cuts did not give time for recharging them.

“One of the alternatives could be that commercial establishments, like malls, could be closed by 7 pm. The power could then be diverted to residential areas,” said T N Kaul, president of Ardee City RWA.

He claimed that residents of his housing complex were facing outages of up to 16 hours.

“Our builders have installed a 5 KV load structure, whereas the requirement is higher. The builders have not enhanced it. The Electricity department is asking for more than Rs 5 crore to enhance it and the builders are not ready to pay up. The residents, meanwhile, are suffering,” Kaul said.

President of Ardee City highrises RWA A K Dar said cost of power has gone up by as much as 60 per cent. “The exact amount is hard to ascertain... (it) depends on how many connections a person has taken,” he said.

All five phases of DLF are also facing power and water shortage problems.

“The entire DLF area sees outages of 8 to 10 hours a day. This became worse over the past few days. After the protests, the situation improved on Tuesday night. When a delegation met DHBVN officials, they said supply improved as it was curtailed for industries. Is this the solution? Why should industries suffer?” asked Sudhir Kapoor, General Secretary of DLF RWA.

Kapoor said DLF has spent crores on every phase to ensure good power supply, but “what can one do if there is an absolute lack of supply”.

In Old Gurgaon, the crisis seems to worsen.

“We recently brought an inverter, but due to power cuts it does not get charged. We end up being in dark all night. The water supply is similar. We are mostly dependent on tankers that charge a lot and the water is bad,” said a Sector-10 resident.

The residents had also tried to meet the deputy commissioner, who was not available, they said.

 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/shut-malls-early-give-us-power-rwas/970463/