Gurgaon : On the day of elections, a seven-hour-long outage was reported in Palam Vihar, which left residents fuming. Despite several complaints to Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) regarding the issue, nothing was done to ensure the power was restored, forcing some to change their mind on casting the ballot, they said. Residents said the electricity supply was disconnected at 10.30am on Monday and restored at 5.15pm.
“A seven-hour-long power cut on polling day shows how efficient the state government is in Gurgaon. How can candidates expect us to vote for them when we are suffering without electricity? There are senior citizens in the area who are very ill and require power supply as they can’t move from their bed. This government is very insensitive,” said Vinod Kumar, a resident. Another resident, Deepak Sharma, added: “Power cuts are a normal phenomenon for us. I shifted to this part of the city last year from Delhi. All my electrical appliances have been damaged because of frequent fluctuation of electricity. We weren’t expecting a power cut on Election Day, of all days. We complained to a discom official about unscheduled outage in the area, but no immediate action was initiated.”
Residents also claimed that after they registered their complaints at the discom’s toll-free number, they received a message stating that that the supply has been restored even though it hadn’t been. “We received a text from DHBVN saying our complaint had been resolved as supply had been restored, which was shocking as there was no electricity at Palam Vihar. The Haryana government is not concerned about its people,” said Chandan Singh, a resident of Palam Vihar.
Meanwhile, a DHBVN official said there was a fault in the main supply line, which took them a few hours to fix. “Power has been restored. As there was some defect in the main power line to Palam Vihar, some areas experienced power outages. We are also working to update the existing electrical structure in the area, after which residents will get continuous power supply,” the official said.
Palam Vihar has been witnessing major power outages for a while now. In July, the discom had set up 10 underground feeders (power lines that transfer electricity from a substation to transformation) in Palam Vihar and parts of old Gurgaon. It might take a while before this translates into more reliable power supply. Meanwhile, the ban on diesel gensets has left residents with no options when there is a disruption in power supply.
Source : timesofindia
