Mumbai building residents bear the brunt of alleged power theft by cops

Even as the Mumbai police cracks down on the electricity theft mafia by arresting them under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act MCOCA it turns out that one of their own police stations at Mankhurd has allegedly been stealing power unabashedly Shockingly even after the crime came to light the police refused to clear the bills resulting in their connection being cutA resident shows the empty spot from where the power company ripped out the police stationrsquos illegal threephase connection to the buildings common meterIt may seem like just deserts for the Mankhurd polices illegal power connection to be cut but unfortunately they are not the only ones being punishedThe Mankhurd police station is situated on the first three floors of the Hiranandani Akruti building which houses projectaffected people from across the cityThe police station is situated on the first three floors of Hiranandani Akruti building which was built by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA to house projectaffected people PAPs The cops had hijacked the buildings common electricity meter which supplied power to the public passages lifts and water pump When this theft was discovered in September 2016 the power company Reliance Energy cut the connection altogether Since then the buildings 200plus residents have had to put up with dark passageways Worse yet they are forced to climb up the stairs of the sevenstorey building since the lifts are not working This gets even more frustrating because they have to keep running downstairs to fetch water as the pump doesnt work eitherAnita Mali fifthfloor residentWhy should we payAnita Shetty who has to climb up to her home on the fifth floor several times a day said We are living in a sorry state as our lifts are not working and we do not get water supply at home The society asked the cops to pay the outstanding amount as they had used electricity from the main connection But they did nothingThe cops kept saying that they had a separate connection they refused to accept that they were using power from the common meter added another residentThe Mankhurd police were allotted space in the building in September 2009 they occupy 24 rooms in total The other residents arrived much later in April 2016 Less than six months later in September 2016 they were shocked when the society was slapped with an electricity bill of Rs 25 lakh July 2015 to Aug 2016Residents requested the authorities to inspect the power connection to get to the bottom of the matter An MMRDA official recalled The inspection revealed that the police had joined a 3phase connection to the common meter which led to a higher usage putting the entire monetary burden on the residents shouldersMMRDA officials tried to persuade the cops to pay their dues to no avail That month the power connection was cut We have been following up this matter since we moved in but the police refuse to accept their responsibility Because of their adamance all residents are suffering Why should we pay for the electricity used by the police We hope this ends soon said Kiran Patil who lives on the third floorWhile the police still have an independent connection that supplies power to most of their premises its the residents who are forced to pay one way or anotherWill beg outside police stationThe residents have now approached Advocate Vijay Raorane for legal assistance in the matter He said We have given an ultimatum to the Mankhurd police and MMRDA to resolve the matter or the residents will organise a dharna outside the police station Raorane also wrote a letter stating the residents would sit outside the police station and beg to organise funds for payment