The hike in price of diesel by Rs. 5 is set to further fuel the problems faced by people living in apartments and gated communities.
Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) have already brought all common area lighting in gated communities under commercial tariff. This had come as blow to residents resulting in the maintenance charges per month spiralling beyond manageable levels.
The power cuts resulted in the communities using generators for common area lighting and streetlights and also to operate the Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants.
A resident of Parsn Sesh Nestle on Nanjundapuram Road said that the maintenance charge fixed for them was Rs. 900 which included minimum allocation from every household for the diesel used to operate the generators. But, during the peak summer season when the power cuts were high, residents had to shell out Rs. 500 in addition to the maintenance charges, due to the extensive use of generators.
Subsidy
To avoid taxing the community members further and to make sure that energy needs were met, G. Premanand, secretary of Parsn Apex Welfare Society said the Government should extend subsidy to such communities to tap non-conventional energies such as windmills and solar energy, so that dependence on conventional energy such as electricity and diesel would come down.
C.G. Kumar, secretary of Mayflower Sakthi Gardens pointed out that the present diesel price hike of Rs. 5 would result in the expenses on diesel for generators going up by Rs. 8,000 plus per month and closer to Rs. 1 lakh per annum. At the rate of Rs. 42 per litre, the expenditure in August 2012 was Rs. 56,000 for 1,333 litres. With the price rise, the expenditure would go up to Rs. 65,000 plus. Gated communities would have to choose between suffering without facilities or brace themselves to shell out more for diesel, especially when no solution seemed to be in sight for the almost eight-hour power cuts every day.
The situation seem to be the same with the number of gated communities in Peelamedu, Singanallur, Kovaipudur, Saravanampatty, Vadavalli and at a number of places across the city.
