Noida: Residents living on the Hindon floodplains protested outside the chief engineer’s office in Sector 16 on Thursday, demanding a power connection. The group had planned a foot march to the district magistrate’s office but was stopped by police, after which they continued their protest at the spot.Nearly one lakh people live on the Hindon floodplains in Gautam Budh Nagar across several villages including Garhi Chaukhandi, Chotpur, Sorkha, Haldoni, Kulesra, Devla and Patwari. Residents in these areas have been demanding power connections for years. On Feb 18, Noida MLA Pankaj Singh had raised the issue in the state assembly, seeking at least conditional or temporary power connections for affected families.Preeti Devi (30), one of the protesters who lives in Sorkha village with her husband Vijay Pandit (32), a mason, said they migrated from Begusarai in Bihar about 15 years ago. “We initially stayed in rented accommodation and later bought a 50 sqm plot for Rs 5 lakh eight years ago. The land was registered, and we built a small house. But we were not given an electricity connection,” she said.Adding that the absence of a legal power supply forced some residents to resort to illegal connections, she said, “People draw long wires from nearby poles, but due to load shedding, the supply often snaps, leading to quarrels among locals. The power department also conducts drives and cuts these unauthorised connections frequently.”Kalawati (28) originally from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, said she purchased a 60 sqm plot for Rs 7 lakh eight years ago without knowing it fell within a floodplain zone. “The registry was done and no one objected at the time. Now we are being told the area is unauthorised, and power connections cannot be issued,” she said, adding that children in the area study by candlelight and even charging mobile phones is a challenge.Thursday’s protests also received support from farmers’ group Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU). According to BKU president Sukhveer Khalifa, residents have been pretesting at the engineer’s office since Feb 9. “When our demands were not addressed, we decided to conduct a protest march. We submitted a memorandum to the city magistrate. The agitation will continue until a solution is found,” he said.Noida city magistrate Arvind Kumar Mishra said that he received the memorandum from the protesting members. “The power department already prepared a report on this issue and sent it to govt. We will inform you once govt’s decision comes,” he added.The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has time and again directed authorities in Noida and Greater Noida to remove encroachments on the Hindon floodplains, reiterating that no illegal construction can be permitted in the eco-sensitive zone. Progress on the ground, however, has been slow-going.
