On Thursday, employees of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam walked out across Gurugram, Faridabad, and Nuh, forcing the state’s power grid to shut down at 10 p.m. Wednesday night—an action that followed the government’s announcement to privatise the distribution network in the three districts.
Within 12 hours, the power department logged as many as 3,000 complaints, according to a DHBVN official who spoke only on condition of anonymity, while residents repeatedly tried to reach customer‑service lines that remained unanswered.
In Bhimgarh Kheri, residents took to the streets, piling themselves on Daulatabad Flyover to block the road, creating a 1 km traffic jam that left commuters stranded for hours. Mira Patel, a mother of three, said she had to wait over three hours for her kids to cross the road safely, a stark reminder of how the outage turned a quiet suburb into a living protest.
Police moved in to disperse the crowd after the traffic snarled, but the workers refused to move until electricity was restored. The block remains in place as the government prepares to hold a meeting with the union next week.
The state’s chief minister, who had earlier pledged a quick resolution, is expected to meet the protest leaders this Friday to negotiate a compromise on the privatisation plan.