Noida: Builder stealing power? Supply cut, Hilston Urbtech Society in darkness

NOIDA: Over 100 families of a society in Sector 79 have been without electricity since 2am on Thursday after supply was snapped following allegations of power theft against the builder.

The builder of Hilston Urbtech Society had allegedly taken a temporary connection of 50kW during construction. Even after the families started living there, he did not take a permanent connection and continued to supply 750kW of power from the same line.

A team from the power distribution utility in Meerut visited the society a couple of weeks ago and decided to snap the supply.

Residents said power supply was cut on Tuesday, but they managed with backup till 2am on Thursday, when the entire society plunged into darkness.

“When we were being handed our flats, we were told that the developer would get permanent connection in six months. But the builder continued with the temporary connection and we had no inkling about it. After the supply was snapped, we went to the power department’s office, but they told us they could not help in this case. The generators in our society offered backup for some time, but they too ran out of diesel. We don’t know what to do now. The maintenance team is also not in the society,” said Gaurav Singh, a resident.

The residents have been running pillar to post to get the power supply restored, but to no avail. A group went to the district magistrate’s office too, but could not meet him as it was late.

“Two weeks ago, a team from the power department decided to cut the supply. They gave some time to the builder, but he did not do anything,” Singh said.

A representative of the builder said an appeal to grant a six-month extension of the temporary connection was turned down.

“A new transformer of 450KVA was also installed to maintain the load,” he said.

JV Singh, the chief engineer at the power department, pleaded inability to help the residents.

“It is the builder’s responsibility to help them. The department can’t do anything now. The developer had no right to sell power to residents through a temporary connection. It was only for construction.”