A strike by Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam employees left Gurugram, Faridabad, and Nuh without power since 10 pm on Wednesday, October 21. Many industrial units halted operations, while residents faced water shortages. Deepak Maini said, “Power cuts at industrial units have brought machinery and production to a halt, impacting business operations.”

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A strike by employees of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has left Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh and several other districts without power since 10 pm on Wednesday (October 21), affecting thousands of consumers and industrial units.

The disruption has also hit Sonipat, Rewari, Jhajjar, Karnal and Ambala, affecting households, water supplies and industrial operations.

The power department received over 3,000 outage complaints within 12 hours of the strike, an official said on Thursday on condition of anonymity, acocrding to PTI.

Why the employees are on strike

The employees struck work to protest against the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant a private company a parallel electricity distribution licence for Gurugram and Nuh districts.

Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Uttam Singh held talks with the employees late into the night, urging them to reconsider. However, the meeting ended without an agreement to call off the strike.

Industries grind to a halt

Many industrial units in Gurugram came to a standstill because of the prolonged outage, with owners warning of losses running into crores of rupees.

Deepak Maini, an industrialist and chairman of the Progressive Federation of Trade and Industry, was quoted by PTI as saying that Sector 37 in Gurugram had been without power since 10 pm on Wednesday. He warned that any further delay in restoring supply could hit production and business, and disrupt the availability and timely delivery of finished goods.

“Power cuts at industrial units have brought machinery and production to a halt, impacting business operations. With operations suspended across hundreds of units, the risk of losses has increased,” Maini said.

Industrial units in Kadipur and Basai were also affected.

Water shortage in residential areas

Several residential colonies in Gurugram had to switch to generators after their inverter backups ran out, residents said.

The outage has also caused a shortage of drinking water in many areas. Residents said they were managing with water stored in tanks, but it would last only a few hours.

“Electricity and water are both essential services. Where is the government? Residents are held hostage by DHBVN staff. There has been no power since 10 pm yesterday. Either the government should settle employees’ demands or depute the Disaster Management team to restore the supply. Officers are also showing helplessness. In such a situation, how will we come up with a solution?” said Shiv Kumar Sharma, a resident.

Protests in Faridabad, outages in Nuh

In Faridabad, residents of the New Industrial Township-2 area took to the streets demanding that power be restored, saying the outage had also hit water supply. Police reached the spot after receiving information about the road blockade, calmed the protesters and dispersed them.

In Nuh district, the outage severely disrupted life in several areas, including Punhana, Nagina and Firozpur Jhirka.

The Superintending Engineer of DHBVN’s Operation Circle Gurugram-I could not be reached for comment despite several attempts.