Women Lead Week-Long Hunger Strike in Noida's Hindon Pushta Over Power Connections

A protest in Noida's Hindon floodplain, locally known as the Pushta, has entered its fifteenth day, with women at the forefront of a hunger strike that has now lasted a week. The demonstrators are demanding formal electricity connections for the colonies spread across the area.

Speaking at the protest site near Parthala Bridge in Sector 123, Bharatiya Kisan Parishad national president Sukhbir Khalifa said four to five lakh families have been living in the Pushta Park area for the past 10 to 12 years without electricity, water or basic facilities. He estimated that around 45 colonies — and in some pockets as many as 60 to 70 — have no proper electricity arrangement.

Khalifa challenged the authorities' position that the area falls within a flood zone. He pointed out that high-rise buildings stand barely 100 metres from the Hindon riverbank, while the colonies are about 1.5 km away. He also noted that other flood-zone areas in Allahabad, Agra and Delhi have electricity connections. Residents, he alleged, are being supplied power through informal means, and no written order has been issued even where some connections exist.

Pinky, a resident of Vishnunagar in the Pustapar Colony, said she had been on hunger strike for six to seven days. She said solar power serves the area only when sunlight is adequate and fails during rain or at night. Questioning the classification of the area as a swamp or flood-prone zone, she asked who had declared it so after residents had built homes there over the years.

Pinky claimed that four people had died from electrocution over the past four years while attempting to restore power supply, leaving their families without support. She said residents were willing to install meters themselves if the authorities provided connections.

Another protester, Kanti Devi, questioned why plots had been sold in an area now described as a swamp zone. She said that if it were a swamp, the plots should never have been sold, adding that residents had spent their savings on their homes and still live without fans or electricity. "We just want electricity. We will support whoever provides it," she said.

The protesters said talks with electricity department officials had not produced any breakthrough, and that the sit-in would continue until they received a written assurance on their demand.