Greater Noida: Habitech Panchtatva residents protest against builder over power cuts

GREATER NOIDA | NOIDA: Troubled by long power cuts and DG set failure, around 300 residents of Habitech Panchtatva society in Greater Noida sat on a protest on the society premises for around five hours late Tuesday night.

The residents said that while they had been getting power supply only for a few hours since Monday, the DG set installed on the society premises was of no major help as it would stop functioning soon after getting heated. Subhash Tiwari, one of the residents, told TOI that while they had been facing prolonged power cuts for the past one and half months, the situation has become especially unbearable since Monday.

“On Monday, we got power supply only for six hours and it remained affected for almost 18 hours. On Tuesday too, a similar problem was faced and when it became too much, residents had to gather and sit on a protest in the society premises. We tried to contact the society maintenance and the builder for help but received no response,” he said.

Tiwari added that earlier too, they had protested against the builder at the maintenance company office but to no avail.

Residents alleged that while the UPPCL power supply lasted only for about two hours, they were forced to depend on the DG set which failed due to overuse. They pointed that senior citizens, children and those in quarantine have had a tough time as they suffered due to the prolonged outages. “We have never tried to indulge in any unauthorised action till now but we had gone to the local police chowki on Wednesday seeking action against the builder,” said a resident who had been sitting on protest.

Police arrived at the spot early on Wednesday afternoon and tried to mediate between the residents and the company officials. However, later in the evening, cops said that an FIR was being lodged against builders under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust).

Meanwhile, a statement from the Habitech Panchtatva read: “Yesterday (Tuesday) night, there were long power outages. Also, there was short circuit in the generators for around 20 minutes. Despite best efforts, residents faced inconvenience for a short while. Later, the problem has been resolved. On Wednesday, a new, more powerful generator of 1250kv was installed and made operational after replacing the old 750kv generator.”

Similar situation was faced in Noida as well with several sectors reporting outages for hours as well as intermittent power cuts, besides voltage fluctuations.

While technical snag in the 400kv substation was cited as the reason for Sector 71 area, overheating of transformer were reported from others. When contacted VN Singh, chief zonal engineer, Noida power department PVVNL, told TOI that there was a technical snag in a 400kv substation which led to the problem in Sector 71. While at other places the issues were local.