Noida: Power to four of Amrapali high-rises snapped
Officials from the electricity department are waiting from the builder’s side or the residents to take responsibility for the dues of over Rs 5 crore
noida Updated: Mar 21, 2018 23:01 IST
The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) on Wednesday cut electricity supply to four Amrapali high-rises over pending power bills amounting to over Rs 5 crore. Officials from the electricity department are waiting from the builder’s side or the residents to take responsibility for the huge dues.
The four high-rises are Silicon City, Platinum, Zodiac and Princely Estate.
“According to the documentation, Amrapali group is supposed to pay the electricity bill but they haven’t come forward to do so. There are thousands of residents in these high-rises who are put to trouble due to the disconnection but we had no option. We want somebody to take the responsibility,” RK Rana, Superintending Engineer, UPPCL, said.
The electricity department has been disconnecting supply to Amrapali projects since July 2017 but the group is yet to clear the pending bills. “This amount of Rs 5 crore is for the month of April, May and June 2017. We first discontinued supply in July 2017 after which they started paying the current bills but dues of nearly Rs 5 crore has not been received yet,” Rana said.
After the action in July 2017, residents made a different account to start paying their bills because the builder wasn’t ready to do so, the official said.
Residents said the disconnection has been happening time and again. “Each time UPPCL discontinues services because of pending dues, residents approach the maintenance department of Amrapali group which pays some of the amount and then the services are restored again. This has become a continuous harassment of residents,” Atul Mishra, resident of Amrapali Zodiac, said.
“The National Company Law Tribunal has appointed an insolvency resolution officer to analyse the financial situation of Amrapali Zodiac. UPPCL should get in touch with the IRP for their pending dues. In the past, we had approached the local police also against the maintenance department of the group, but the problem continues,” he said.
The electricity department has also written to the district magistrate to recover money from the group by attaching its property.
“We have tried everything but we are unable to recover our money. We have been getting calls from residents but we can’t do anything as we have to recover our dues. We had written to the DM in October 2017 to recover the money by attaching the property or account of the builder,” Rana said.
BN Singh, district magistrate, said, “We will look into the matter. Appropriate action, as per the rules and regulations, will be taken. No revenue loss to the state will be tolerated.”
The electricity was however restored between 8 pm and 9 pm after the Chief Executive officer of Noida Authority interfered. “The CEO of Noida Authority got in touch with our MD Ashutosh Niranjan in Meerut who then directed us to start the power supply at all the four projects. We have been told that the matter in the apex court and IRPs have been appointed for all these projects. The pending amount has not been cleared but now the matter will be sorted in the court,” updated Rana.
“We went to meet the officials of UPPCL and Noida Authority to sort out the electricity issue. The matter is in the court and there are IRPs handling these projects. I am no more the owner of these projects. I am the suspended director of Amrapali group. We requested the authorities to restore the electricity services,” said Shiv Priya, suspended director, Amrapali group.