Over 5,000 Gurgaon residents fear powerless Holi

GURGAON - Over 5,000 residents of Gurgaon’s upscale DLF phase-4, which houses three multi-storey apartment blocks and a well-known public school, fear a powerless Holi as the distribution company has threatened to cut off electricity to the area.

The residents Saturday said they received a notice from the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) two days ago, in which it had threatened to cut the area’s power in 48 hours.

“We have three 25-storey residential apartment buildings (Regency Park, Hamilton Tower and Wellington Tower) and a school (Sri Ram School) in the area and got the power connection some 10 years ago. The connections for domestic and commercial use were not separate and the school authorities had applied for a separate connection six years ago but officials asked them to use the power from the residential connection,” Saurabh Prakash a resident of Regency park said.

“Six months ago, the DHBVN slapped a fine of Rs.31 lakh on us, after which we moved the consumer forum in Chandigarh. As the next hearing of the case is Tuesday, we received another notice this Thursday. We can’t afford to be powerless on Holi.”

More than 5,000 residents are likely to get affected as the apartments are totally dependent on lifts and the power backup cannot work continuously.

“Last (Friday) evening, we cut the connection of Sri Ram School, hoping that the DHBVN will not cut the power of the apartments. They should wait till the next date (of hearing) as Holi is coming and everyone has some plan for the holiday,” Prakash added.

The residents are planning to launch a protest against the DHBVN.

“They (DHBVN) are saying the power given to us is for domestic purpose but there are commercial activities in the area. We have applied for a separate connection but they didn’t give it. Now they are issuing notice and threatening the residents,” said Raga Khan, another resident of Regency park.

A DHBVN official confirmed the notice and said the commercial use cannot be permitted. “We will cut the power after the end of notice period. I am not aware what happened 10 years ago and we haven’t got any stay from the court. The unauthorised connection will not be tolerated,” said A.K. Aggarwal, an executive engineer of DHBVN.