Gurgaon: A creche at Zara Aavaas in Sector 104 had no room for kids on Friday.With inverters running out within hours of a power outage that began at 5.30am on Thursday, residents of the society turned the society’s creche into a makeshift office. They gathered there to charge laptops and mobile phones and keep working.As part of the common area, the creche has emergency generator backup, which has made it and other common spaces the only way for residents to stay connected. The outage was continuing at the time of writing this report.The affordable housing society is home to around 818 families. The generator supplies only common areas, and there is no provision for backup to individual flats, leaving residents struggling to manage basic household needs. Some are starting their cars to charge inverter batteries. Others are taking the batteries to shops, where residents claim a single charge now costs as much as Rs 1,000.“Those who take their batteries to shops for charging are being asked to pay as much as Rs 1,000 for a single charge. Earlier, it used to cost around Rs 100-200. We have allowed people to use the common area to charge their devices and continue working as many have work from home,” said RWA president Nitin Tiwari.The outage has also triggered a shortage of drinking water. The generator runs the pumps that lift water to overhead tanks, so some supply is available for other household needs. But electricity-dependent water purifiers are not working, and residents claim packaged drinking water has become costlier at nearby shops.“Drinking water has become a major problem. Even people who usually manage with their inverters are now struggling because those batteries have also run out,” Tiwari said.Families with newborn babies and elderly members have been hit hardest, besides the disruption to daily routines. Priyanshu Yadav, a resident of Sector 104, said his wife, who works in IT support, had to take leave because she could not work without electricity.“Everything at home depends on electricity. Children are facing difficulties, and food items such as milk and vegetables stored at home are at risk of spoiling. There is also no clarity on when the power supply will be restored,” Yadav said.In Hari Nagar, low voltage has left water pumps unable to function properly, and households have been without adequate supply for two consecutive days. Electricity was restored around 11pm after police intervened on Thursday, but the relief was short-lived due to low voltage. Residents have now threatened to block Khandsa Road if the problem is not resolved. They also said the electricity department’s local office near the mandi remained locked despite the disruption.“Water will reach our homes only when the motors can pump it up. Water is only trickling, and there is no proper supply. Fans are not running either. There is no one available at the electricity department office to address our complaints,” Sumit Gujjar, RWA president, said. “If the situation is not resolved, then we will have no choice but to hit the street,” he added.At Habitat in Sector 99A, power went off around 6pm on Thursday and had not been restored by Friday evening, leaving residents without electricity for nearly 24 hours and with no clear information on when it would return. Yadu Sharma, a KYC manager who usually works from home, said his family was considering moving to a relative’s house in Wazirabad.“The inverter backup lasted only until midnight, after which we were left without any power. It is difficult to manage without electricity and I have had to sit in the society’s maintenance office to continue working. My biggest concern is that no one is giving us any updates or telling us who to contact for help. I have a three-year-old daughter, and if the power supply is not restored, we may have to go to a relative’s house in Wazirabad,” Sharma said.
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