DEHRADUN: Residents of Panache Heights on Sahastradhara road have claimed that their electricity connections were hampered by the residents’ welfare association (RWA) of adjoining Panache Valley, and their multiple complaints to district administration and police went unheard.
They alleged that even though both projects are of the same builder, they are registered separately in RERA and two different RWAs are monitoring the residential complexes.
“In Panache Heights, there are 152 flats. Our maintenance is specified in sale deeds and is calculated accordingly for houses. All expenses are handled through that and prepaid electricity meters remain separate. For a long time, we were charged an excessive amount of Rs 2,100 per flat as a blanket maintenance charge by the other RWA for which we were never given an expenditure account. Following objections, meters for the two projects were separated and the Panache Heights Residents Welfare Society (PHRWS) was given charge of these meters in October 2023. The builder also directed the agency to do the needful,” said Minakshi Bhatt, vice-president of PHRWS.
However, residents said that the separation of the meters was not accepted by Panache Valley Residents Welfare Association (PRWA), which monitors independent houses in the other project.
“UPCL supply to both projects is common and the line separates internally. This connection was hampered in the afternoon of January 5. For almost two days, 150 flats were without electricity. Senior citizens, children and working individuals … all had to make do without power. We alerted police, who did not take any action, and then we went to the district administration. Even though officials claimed to sympathise with our situation, they failed to take action or help restore the supply despite the area MLA also directing them to do needful. We then went to civil court and following its directive, power was restored on the night of January 6,” said Kanti Kumar, PHRWS treasurer.
Residents are worried about the situation as the court injunction, which prohibits the PRWA and its representatives from taking any further unlawful action, ends on January 18. “Tampering someone’s electricity connection and by extension their water supply, is unlawful. The members have been summoned to court for explanation in this regard,” said Rohit Dhyani, PHRWS lawyer.
Meanwhile, PRWA general secretary Ankit Rana, who has been named in the court order along with president Chandresh Yadav, said that they are “prepared to handle the situation in court.” The in-charge of resident affairs and electricity for the society, who is also named in the court order, said on account of anonymity that the connection was not hampered, but broke down because of overloading as usage by Panache Heights residents is illegal. They claimed that this is a single project and the PHRWS is not an authorised body and residents there have failed to pay their dues to PRWA.
“We sent them notices in the past as well and the matter will now be handled in court,” said PRWA advocate Amitindra Aryan. Jitendra Chauhan, Rajpur SHO said that both sides have filed complaints and the matter is being investigated by city magistrate Pratyush Singh. A hearing at the Human Rights Commission office is also due for January 22.
