In Palam Vihar, 200 homes without power for 3 days in a row

When contacted, the administrator, Dr S K Nigam, said, “I took charge barely three days ago. I visited Palam Vihar on Monday and was apprised of the situation. I have directed my engineers to install a transformer in J block, and to take another one on rent in the interim. We have started work on the issue.”

Meanwhile, the former RWA president, Sunil Yadav, claimed the issue was multi-faceted. “The RWA began overseeing maintenance in 2013 and there was no issue of electricity supply. However, towards the end of our term, around 70 per cent of residents stopped paying maintenance charges. As a result, we owe around Rs 6 crore to the agency that we had appointed for this work… they are no longer willing to fix the transformers. We cannot replace them as we do not have the money needed to do it,” said Yadav.

He added: “The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) should look into the matter. But they haven’t done anything despite repeated complaints.” Nigam claimed: “Officials from DHBVN told me that the builder of the block owes them money, due to which they cannot pay for the transformers. I am new to this… and trying to understand the issues. We have started work on the matter.”

Even as agencies passed the buck, residents are decrying the delay in restoration of electricity supply to their homes. One of them asked: “There may be problems of coordination or accountability, but why are residents being made to pay the price?”