The developer has cut off supply, claiming non-payment of maintenance and electricity dues by residents. But residents, too, have their reasons.
Power supply to about 30 families in Amrapali Zodiac, in Sector 120, Noida, has been disrupted by the developer. The reason: Residents have not cleared their maintenance and electricity dues.
This dispute has been raging for the past three days in the society.
Gaurav Pathak, a resident of Tower D, complained that the power supply to his flat had been cut off for the entire night of June 19. It was restored in the morning, but again interrupted for long hours.
Residents then contacted the maintenance office in the society.
He said, “Initially, we thought the supply was being disrupted frequently due to ongoing maintenance work in the society. But then the disruptions turned longer. On June 20, the power was out for hours. Residents approached the maintenance manager deployed by the builder. He suddenly raised a demand of Rs 50, 000, surprising us all.”
The residents and the manager then sat down to negotiate. It was mutually agreed — though orally — that supply would be restored after each family in Tower D paid Rs 25,000 to the builder to cancel out dues for power consumption in the past.
However, the next morning, the maintenance staff put up a notice in the lift of Tower D saying that each resident would need to pay Rs 50,000. Rs 25,000, it said, was not enough.
The notice also said that residents would need to pay their dues before June 25, failing which it would become difficult for the builder to continue power supply.
This whimsical demand by the builder has angered residents.
They wrote to the builder, and also submitted a written complaint to the police post of Phase III in Noida. The letter, signed by 20 residents of the tower, said that complainants had urged the builder to not interrupt power supply. It further read that residents, being "service-class people" didn’t have sufficient balance in their accounts to pay the dues immediately.
Ajay Kumar, one of the complainants, said the current month had just about a week left and their salaries had mostly been spent by now. Thus, Kumar added, residents sought a later deadline — July 10.
Amraplai Zodiac has 22 residential towers. But the builder has given possession in towers where reading meters are yet to be installed. There are seven such towers. According to the maintenance staff, residents of these towers had not been paying electricity and maintenance bills thus far.
On condition of anonymity, a maintenance employee said, “The company doesn’t have funds to instal reading meters in the remaining towers. But residents have been stressing that they will pay the bills only if the figures are based on the meter readings.”
