KOCHI: Adding to the worries of residents of four apartment complexes facing demolition threat in Maradu, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) officials have served power supply disconnection notice on them as per the directions from the Maradu municipality on Wednesday. The notice mentions that the supply to all flats will be disconnected on Thursday. Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has also decided to execute the order on Thursday.
“We have pasted the notices as per the direction given by the Maradu municipality secretary. We have mentioned September 26 as the day of disconnection,” said KSEB assistant engineer, Maradu section.
The KWA has also said it will disconnect water supply to all four apartment complexes on Thursday.
“We will disconnect the water connections and inform the residents later. Currently, we are providing water to the apartments for only kitchen use. The residents are depending on water tankers for the rest of the needs,” said assistant executive engineer, KWA, Tripunithura section.
Hunger strike
On the other hand, the flat owners have come down heavily on these steps.“The government is indirectly imposing eviction on us. As our gas connections are on the basis of a lease agreement, the firms have informed us that they will take back their cylinders by Thursday. We have no other option but to go on a hunger strike in this situation,” said Beoyj Chennat, resident of Holy Faith H2O. A few residents however made it clear that they will indeed manage the situation using the existing resources.
“Our apartments have two generators which will ensure the functioning of emergency services for a few days. As we are relying on the water tankers for daily requirements, we won’t find any difficulty on that count,” said Koshy Thomas, another resident of Holy Faith H2O.
“Though we are yet to receive any notice from the agencies concerned, our apartment is reasonably well-equipped with rainwater harvesting and has a water tank of one lakh litres. So, we will not be facing scarcity,” said CM Varghese, Golden Kayaloram Residents’ Association president.