About 3,000 families in Chembur’s Siddharth Colony could see their power connections snapped any time, with officials from Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited claiming that the residents haven’t paid electricity dues running into Rs 100 crore. While the mutually decided deadline for payment of the dues is March 12, the residents say a few builders created the mess and they will agitate if their colony plunges into darkness. Adani officials say they have received not even 1 per cent of the outstanding amount pending since June 2019.

Home to 3,058 families, Siddharth Colony sits alongside the Eastern Express Highway. In 2004-05, many developers had approached the residents to redevelop the area under Slum Rehabilitation schemes. The residents were apparently assured that they would not need to pay their power bills as the builders would take care of those. Since then, almost 90 per cent of the residents have stopped paying bills, which continues till today.