Many sectors of Gurgaon have had sleepless nights this past week. Reason? Unscheduled power cuts up to five hours every day. The main areas affected are sectors 14, 22, 27, 56 and 57, Palam Vihar and Prem Nagar.
Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), however, has attributed the power cuts to maintenance activities and said residents were informed in advance.
“Every year there is an increase in power cuts,” said Harish Ahuja, secretary of the Sector 27 RWA. “But now it is getting too much. Residents of Gurgaon pay the highest electricity rates in the NCR — there has to be some quality to the service!”
The electricity rate in residential areas is Rs 7.5 per unit.
“DHBVN has enough electricity to supply uninterrupted power to residents but we have to schedule power cuts to carry out maintenance of distribution lines. We do inform residents in advance, so they can cope with the situation. Maintenance work will last for a couple of weeks,” said KC Agarwal, executive engineer, DHBVN.
Sector 14 residents allege that with summer approaching, the electricity department has been increasing power cuts on the pretext of maintenance. There have been electricity fluctuations across the sector and people have even suffered damage to their electric equipment, such as fridges, washing machines and even inverters.
“Cuts happen any time of the day and there is no government compensation for the losses we incur,” said Dinesh Aggarwal, former president of the Sector 14 RWA.
Prem Nagar residents have alleged that despite complaints to the sub-divisional office, no one has helped them address the problem. “We are facing long power cuts day in and day out. Students can’t study for their exams, and there is no power back-up, as we can’t even charge our inverters properly,” said Amit Yadav, general secretary of the RWA.
