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Discom unmoved as city spends sleepless nights
The unprecedented power crisis in Millennium City this year has pushed residents to the edge. It is the worst the city has seen in the past decade, according to residents.
The unprecedented power crisis in Millennium City this year has pushed residents to the edge. It is the worst the city has seen in the past decade, according to residents.
Additionally, residents allege that inaction on part of authorities has forced them to resign to the appaling situation.
“We have an appointment on Wednesday with Subhash Deswal, superintending engineer (SE) at Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), to find out how long this terrible situation will continue,” said RS Rathee, chairman, Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC).
Besides power cuts, voltage fluctuations have also sky-rocketed to 30-40 times a day. Not only is it irksome for residents, but it has also been wreaking havoc on electrical appliances.
“We cannot even recharge our invertors. We are compelled to sleep in the open or on the terrace at night and use hand-fans,” said AP Jain, a senior resident of Sushant Lok.
“The DHBVN officials divert our electricity to industries and developers. There is a serious issue with distribution also,” alleged TN Kaul, general secretary of the RWA of Ardee City, sector 52.
“I spent the whole night in my AC car to be able to catch some sleep. I have been told by several friends that they also spend sleepless nights,” said VK Srivastav, a resident of South City-II.
While the city has been facing a shortage a of 70 lakh units (30%) for the past two days, DHBVN officials deny the allegations.
“We are supplying more than 150 lakh units daily. While it is true that power supply is not adequate, we are trying to manage the situation by procuring power from the market at higher rates,” said Deswal, adding that the non-functional Jhajjar Plant is compounding the power menace. This grim situation continues despite assurances by the Haryana power minister, Captain Ajay Singh, who told HT on June 2 that the Jhajjar and Khedar plants would start operating after June 7, clamping down on power cuts.
It may be noted that the World Bank had donated R150 crore in January for power infrastructure improvement in this year.
