Noida: Arun Vihar residents allege power supply was cut without prior notice

Residents, who said their supply was snapped from around 3pm onwards, alleged that it happened despite many of them having surplus balance in their prepaid electricity accounts

Noida: Residents of Sectors 28, 29 and 37, collectively known as Arun Vihar, in Noida alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) stopped power supply to their nearly 300–400 households from Saturday morning till late night without any prior notice, causing inconvenience to families.

Denying the allegations, the UPPCL officials told HT said on Sunday that supply was stopped only of those consumers, who had negative balances in their electricity recharging accounts, and they were sent reminders about it. (HT Archive)

Denying the allegations, the UPPCL officials told HT said on Sunday that supply was stopped only of those consumers, who had negative balances in their electricity recharging accounts, and they were sent reminders about it.

Residents, who said their supply was snapped from around 3pm onwards, alleged that it happened despite many of them having surplus balance in their prepaid electricity accounts.

Alleging that around 400 residents were affected, Prashant Gupta, chairman of the Arun Vihar Resident Welfare Association (RWA), told HT on Sunday that the power supply finally resumed late at night, adding, “But it is a safety concern as well there are elderly people living alone. Many residents here don’t have children, some have lost their spouses. Several women stay by themselves in the area.”

“The power first ran on inverter backup for four to five hours. Later, we realised that it wasn’t a regular outage,” Gupta said.

Residents said they collectively visited the power house located in Sector 29 over the issue on Saturday to clarification and ascertain when would the supply be restored.

Surender Verma, one of those residents visiting the power house, said the locals were asked to keep their recharge amount and account IDs ready and share them with the junior engineer present at the power house. “That official said that the department would coordinate internally to restore supply.”

“I always ensure I have enough balance in my prepaid meter account and keep checking if the amount is low. I had ₹1,500 in my account. People around me still asked me to recharge further,” he added.

Residents said that officials later told them that the issue appeared to be a technical fault related to the prepaid system. “From what we understand, it happened due to some technical issue on the prepaid side. There was no mistake from our side,” said RWA chairman Gupta.

Ritesh Anand, superintending engineer, electricity urban distribution circle, Noida, UPPCL, told HT, “Multiple requests were sent to residents to recharge. When there was no response, the power supply was cut. Once the balance is recharged, electricity is restored automatically.”