New Delhi: Twenty-six-year-old Neha Phookan is finally getting possession of her dream flat. With over six months of planning and hunting, she finally decided on this posh apartment in Noida, over the many that she saw in the Capital.
Her reason for choosing the Noida flat? Simple. She didn't want to spend her whole life being power-less.
"This place has power backup, which is very important as invertors don’t last after a certain period of time. And gensets can’t be kept inside the house," Neha said.
Neha is just one of the many who have been lured to settle down in Delhi's satellite towns, thanks to promises like 100 per cent power backup.
But ask the Tripathi family in Greater Noida, they know better what it means. Having booked a flat in a society there in 2002, they say all talk of power backup is just hogwash. The promise simply remains a promise.
"100 per cent power backup was based on the premise that the general power connection will be available for a longer period of time, which is not so. Not only is there no electricity, it is also erratic," Dr Tripathi said.
Being senior citizens doesn't help either. Not only are there security concerns, even health emergencies leave them stuck at home simply because lifts don't work.
"Poora din kkuch nahi karte. Ek bhi serial nahin dekh sakte. Ek kamre se doosre kamre tak ghoomte rehte hain (I can't do anything the whole day. Not even watch TV. I just keep moving from one room to the other,)" says Aunty Tripathi.
The electricity department says they are not to be blamed. Top state officials met last year to discuss the power crisis. But nothing has been done yet and the situation has only gone from bad to worse.
"It's GDA's responsibility to make arrangement for electricity. We have told them to give us 12 acres of land and money to build a sub-station, but they haven't done anything about it," says S N Yadav, DGM, Pashcimanchal Vidyut Vitran Board, Ghaziabad.
For years now, builders in the national capital region have not been selling houses. They've been selling dreams. But if residents like the Tripathis are to be believed, the dreams don't last long.
"The government has retired us from work. However, load-shedding has retired us from our active lives. That's the worst part of it all," laments Dr Tripathi.
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