Gurgaon: Ardee City residents protest against inadequate power supply

Around 200 residents of Ardee City, including senior citizens and children, protested for three hours. They also alleged that the maintenance staff do not take residents’ calls and keep the phone aside to ignore complaints.

Residents of the Ardee residency group housing complex in Ardee City, Sector 52, held a protest against their developer on Saturday over inadequate power supply. They claimed that they have been receiving electricity for barely seven hours a day. A group of protestors also entered the developer’s site office shouting slogans, which forced the staff to come out and give an explanation to the residents about the poor state of power supply.

The protesting residents argue with the Ardee City management on Saturday. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

Around 200 residents, including senior citizens and children, protested for three hours. They also alleged that the maintenance staff do not take residents’ calls and keep the phone aside to ignore complaints.

According to the residents, the builder, Ardee Infrastructure Private Limited, had taken a power connection of 5 mega volt amp (MVA) when the demand was for 15 MVA. The power available was also divided among 2,500 houses when it was officially meant for 1,500 houses. As the society began spending more power, residents said they have been paying more per unit charge.

Read I Gurgaon: Discom identifies 540 feeders prone to power theft

Senior citizens and children are the worst hit as they are at home during the long power cuts in peak summer.

“It is been 16 years since we moved to the complex and we are still waiting for power backup. During summer, it is very difficult to survive as the inverter batteries also last for just two hours and we have to sleep without fans,” said Lisa Mody, a 66-year-old resident.

Residents said that they have brought the issue to the notice of several authorities, but failed to get relief. Besides overcharging, residents allege that the developer uses rotational power cuts to manage the available power supply.

“Maintenance charges have been increased over the years, but residents haven’t been provided facilities. We don’t have the community centre, playgrounds or temple promised before possession. The developer has taken no interest in developing the township and has left us with broken roads and no electricity,” said Chaitali Mandhotra, a resident.

“We need the community centre promised before possession. Every residential complex has one for their functions or weddings, but we have no such facility. The club house too is occupied by the developer and is being used as their office,” said Hanumat Kumar, another resident.

“We applied for an extension of 5KVA around eight months ago and it is under process. We are trying our best and from our end, have completed all formalities, including the bank guarantee,” said Anil Hasija, general manager, Ardee Infrastructure Limited.