Why are we charged for infrastructure: Gurugram residents to DHBVN

GURUGRAM: Residents seeking new electricity connection or load enhancement in 16
prominent colonies of the city will soon have to shell out anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs
45,000 per KW. However, this decision of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) to
recover the ‘development charges’ from new consumers or existing ones seeking load
enhancement has drawn flak from the residents.
In fact, the discom has stopped providing new connections in these colonies since July last year.
This is because 13 private developers have failed to provide the much-needed power
infrastructure in the 16 plotted colonies and 32 housing societies developed by them, and
collectively owe over Rs 317 crore to DHBVN. The state government has said that it will return
the amount once it’s recovered from the builders.
However, residents say that they have already deposited the external development charges
(EDC) and internal development charges (IDC) with developers while purchasing their property
and so it is unfair on the government’s part to put additional burden on the consumers instead of
recovering the dues from the defaulting builders.

“This is not only unfair and unjustified, but is unconstitutional and illegal. Instead of recovering
the EDC and IDC dues from the builders and holding them accountable for any deficiency in
their electrical infrastructure, they are putting the burden on the common residents,” said
Sukhbir Singh, vice-president of the Palam Vihar Residents’ Association.
Apart from Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok-1,2 and 3, South City-1 and 2, Suncity, Malibu Towne and
Mayfield Garden are on the discom’s list of 16 colonies. “This is a clear case of DHBVN bailing
out the developers. It would set wrong precedence if at all the HERC grants DHBVN this
unethical request. Even in Ardee City, the power discom collected Rs 26,000 from each
household in the name of infra deficiency but did little to solve the problem,” said Chaitali
Mandhotra, RWA member of Ardee City.
The discom, which has filed a petition with the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission in
January against these developers, has, however, defended its decision, saying it has been
taken in public interest.
PC Meena, managing director of DHBVN, said, “These developers have not installed adequate
electricity infrastructure in their respective realty projects. It was their responsibility to complete
the power infrastructure and hand over the same to the electricity department. Due to lack of
requisite infrastructure, we had to stop giving new connections or any other services in these
colonies.”
“As we have been receiving several requests from residents saying that they are ready to bear
their share of cost, we have devised this interim measure to provide some relief to them. The
government has approved the proposal and this amount will be refunded to consumers once we
recover the amount from the developers,” he added.
But residents refuse to buy the discom’s arguments. “The DHBVN is only making excuses of not
taking over the colonies as most of these developers are either in legal mess or not at all
interested in doing anything about these colonies,” said Dhramvir Yadav, a resident of Mayfield
Garden.