Residents protest ‘long’ power cuts
GURUGRAM: Residents of Sector 46 and adjoining areas came out to protest power outages and register their grievances against the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN).
Incessant and eight to 10-hour long power cuts over the last 15 days led residents to file repeated pleas with the utility, failing which they took to the streets. Around 300 residents gathered at the Sector 46 community centre in the evening and marched to Bakhtawar Chowk where they held a protest from 7pm to 9.30pm, due to which the police had to divert traffic movement from Bakhtawar Chowk.
The residents said that misery caused by the power cuts has been exacerbated by the severe heat wave. RK Yadav, president of residents welfare association (RWA), Sector 46, said, “The only solution to the power problem in this sector requires upgrading of infrastructure, as distribution lines and transformers were laid almost 20 years ago. We met the power minister a year ago and were assured of a solution. Nothing has happened yet,” he said.
The protesters said that they will launch a ‘no power, no bill’ campaign and demanded the privatisation of power distribution in the state as DHBVN has failed to provide them quality supply. Residents also took to Twitter and posted about their grievances, tagging authorities.
Abhinav Sharma, a resident, tweeted, “I had to take my sixmonth-old baby to the car for him to sleep better because of the electricity issue in the area.”
Apart from Sector 46, residents of pockets in sectors 38, 39E, 56, 57, 58, and Palam Vihar also reported outages, particularly on Saturday and Sunday as the maximum temperature hit an all-time high. On being questioned about the outages, PC Meena, managing director, DHBVN said that Sector 46 is part of the SmartGrid project, under which existing infrastructure will be upgraded.
The residents left the protest site after senior DHBVN officials assured them of resolving the
supply issues at the earliest. “It is taking some time, but this upgrade will ensure a permanent solution to these outages. We have significantly improved power supply to the rest of the city. If there are any outages, local faults, which are being attended on priority, are to blame,” he said. Meena also said that directives have also been issued to local DHBVN officials to resolve issues in Sector 46.
Kuldeep Nehra, executive engineer, DHBVN, said that electricity is being supplied to this area from Sector 52 substation through a 400-ampere line. But due to the very high load there is frequent tripping. “Another line from Sector 38 substation has been started and it will distribute half the load and reduce the tripping and outages,” he said.