For the past one year, residents of the posh Sobha Ruby and Sobha Platinum housing complexes at Nagasandra on Tumkur road have been depending on generator sets for their power supply. Reason: since the builder, Sobha Developers, has been accused of encroaching one acre of the adjacent primary stormwater drain (raja kaluve) for construction of the luxurious residential apartments, the BBMP has refused to allow Bescom to dig the road for laying power cables.
Narayan Naik, Bescom superintendent engineer, north, told DNA that power connectivity to the housing complexes had been sanctioned, but the “builder has not approached us for the future course of action”.
The trouble started when BBMP officials found that Sobha Ruby had encroached upon the ‘raja kaluve’ and filed a complaint with the jurisdictional Peenya Police. Subsequently, they denied permission for road cutting to lay underground power cables.
“Forget about the power supply — we have been managing somehow — we are not even getting other basic amenities like gas supply and ration card due to this situation,” Subhash Shetty, a resident said. “Because all officials ask us to submit our electricity consumer number, we are deprived of all the services.
We even paid Rs70,000 each for getting Cauvery water and have been managing with only borewell water. At least, the builder returned the money after the corporation told us that the apartments will not get Cauvery water connections till 2015.”
There are about 150 flats in Sobha Ruby. The builder had initially promised power connection within two months of occupancy. Rs1.57 lakh was collected as power sub-station installation charges from each flat owner. But there was no Bescom power supply.
Disgruntled residents then started a campaign against the builder. To alert prospective buyers, they pasted pamphlets in and around the building complex, mentioning that the building is under litigation.
Shetty had moved into his 1,200 sq ft flat (purchased for Rs40 lakh) last June. He said it was the builder’s responsibility to provide power supply before the flats were occupied. “Bescom power connections have been held up due to the ‘raja kaluve’ problem between the builder and the BBMP,” he said. “It has been a year since the owners started moving into their flats.”
“The power supplied to us by the generators is not stable,” said another resident who did not want to be named. “Despite having paid the entire amount towards the flat as per the final settlement, our wait for the power supply continues.”
R Raman, a spokesperson for Sobha developers, said unless the matter was settled by the court, Bescom power connections could not be ‘serviced’ since the BBMP would not approve the road cutting. “Last week, the court ordered a re-survey into the encroachment,” the spokesperson said. “In any case, we have been supplying power through generators.”
BBMP engineers admitted that residents were facing inconvenience, but said it was the builder’s responsibility to fix the problem. “Until the case is settled, we cannot approve road-digging,” said a zonal BBMP engineer.
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