Gururgam: Ward 9 residents demand action on neglected infra
Ward 9 residents claim that the major grievances include a lack of public health and education facilities, missing manhole covers, clogged sewers, and broken roads
Residents of Ward 9 in Gurugram, primarily migrant families who settled two decades ago, are facing severe civic neglect despite paying taxes regularly, they alleged. The ward includes Sheetala Colony, Sector 5, Amanpura, and Ashok Vihar Phases I, II, and III, with a population of around 250,000 people, mostly from Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. Despite contributing to the city’s workforce, residents claim that they have been abandoned by civic agencies, leading to a host of infrastructural and administrative issues.
According to Ward 9 residents, the major grievances include a lack of public health and education facilities, missing or broken manhole covers, damaged and clogged sewers, and broken roads. Waterlogging during monsoons severely affects the area, inundating even the ground floors of homes. Residents complain of poor sanitation, erratic power and water supply, no door-to-door garbage collection, and frequent errors in property IDs and family income details in government databases such as Parivar Pehchan Patra, claim locals. There is also no nearby office for pension disbursal, forcing elderly residents to travel to the Mini Secretariat, they added.
Similarly, the residents claim to have paid regular electricity bills to the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited and property taxes to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram but have not had their issues with the facilities attended to by the authorities.
The ward faces another issue of tussle between MCG sanitation workers and illegal contractors active in the area which often leads to some areas not having regular garbage collections.
Litigation over restricted areas main reason for negligence
A specific issue plaguing Ashok Vihar Phases I and II is the ongoing litigation with the Union Ministry of Defence. The residents’ homes fall within 300 meters of an Indian Air Force ammunition depot, classifying them as a restricted zone. This has deterred authorities from initiating development or repair work in these areas.
“The civic agency officials don’t want to carry out any construction, repair, or developmental work in the area as the land is disputed,” said Nishit Kataria, a resident of Sector 5. He noted that despite a similar scenario in Faridabad, officials were instructed to proceed with civic works. Kataria pointed out that many residents cannot pool funds to improve infrastructure due to their low-income status.
Water supply
Residents claim that water supply pipelines are outdated and damaged, resulting in inadequate pressure, forcing residents to rely on expensive water tankers controlled by local mafias. “It’s unacceptable that we suffer from every side and none of the officials take any responsibility. How long will we bear? We are already suffering due to poor roads and sanitation,” said Subhash Malik, a resident of Ashok Vihar Phase-III extension.
“The pipeline is several years old and is dilapidated. Besides, in the last 10 years, the population has increased a lot due to which the water consumption has increased,” Malik added.
According to the locals, the construction and repair work on sewers and water supply pipelines was last carried out between 2009 and 2014. They alleged that there have been no inspections by authorities since then. Residents claim that the lack of inspections may be due to the area being in dispute for years over the status-quo ordered by the Punjab and Haryana high court in 2012.
ML Ranga, another resident of Ashok Vihar Phase-III, said they had interacted with lower ranked contractors of the civic agencies in the past who had hinted that officials hesitate to plan any projects or carry out repairs over the fear of dispute over the area’s proximity to the Indian Air Force ammunition depot. “Officials fear that they might be reprimanded to the Ministry of Defence if they carry out maintenance or issue new projects in the area . “Over last 8-10 years, not even repair works were taken up in such areas while in other ward or officials do respond over complaint. We have been left to suffer merely because of the legal discourse over the authority of the area,” Ranga added.
No health centres or schools, park logged with sewer water
According to residents, the lack of primary health centres, community health centres, or government schools compounds the woes of families from lower or middle-income groups. Locals claimed that the private clinics and small-scale hospitals financially exploit the residents who reach there for immediate relief in case of an emergency.
The residents are forced to seek expensive treatment at private clinics or the civil hospital in Sector 10A, a challenging journey given the area’s traffic congestion and poor road conditions.
Shiv Pratap Singh, a resident of Sector 5, said, “Such is the condition of traffic and roads in the area that it may take up to 30-40 minutes to reach the civil hospital with a patient in case of an emergency.”
“Government needs to understand that most of the residents in the ward are those who came here two decades back while looking for employment and presently work in various factories located nearby or at different places in the city,” Singh said, adding that most of the residents cannot afford the more expensive medical facilities.
Residents said that there is a community centre and a park located in Sector 5 but they are in a dilapidated condition, making them unworthy of visits. Locals claim that these places have not been repaired for more than a decade and are frequented by stray cows, pigs and dogs.
Narender Dalal, a Sector 5 resident said that he could not even recall when was the last time an event was held in the community centre. “The park and the centre have been lying in this unusable state for years now. The park, meanwhile, has turned into breeding ground for mosquitoes. Many people from our area have contracted Dengue in the last one month,” Dalal added.
According to residents, there is a large-scale discrepancy with the property IDs issued by the MCG, and often owner details are mismatched. Property owners in Ward 9 allege that they have had to repeatedly frequent the MCG office and in some cases have had to resort to bribing them to sort the discrepancy.
Rambir Singh, a resident of Ashok Vihar Phase-II, said that almost every property owner in his area has either had to face issues due to errors in property ID details in the database or are still trying to get the details rectified. “Instead of fixing such things, the digital property IDs have increased unnecessary trouble for us. Low-ranking or contractual employees in MCG often exploit the situation by demanding bribes in the name of helping complainants,” Singh alleged.
Civic authorities’ response
Gurugram deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav acknowledged the severity of the problems, and said, “We are aware of the significant challenges faced by residents in Ward 9, especially during the rainy season. The concerns about waterlogging, poor drainage, and inadequate sanitation are being taken seriously. We are coordinating with the relevant authorities to ensure timely interventions and improve the infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, MCG commissioner Narhari Singh Bangar added that there have been ongoing efforts to tackle the ward’s sanitation and infrastructure issues. “Ward 9 has been experiencing severe problems with waterlogging, missing manhole covers, and broken roads, particularly during monsoons. Our teams are working on solutions to improve drainage systems and repair the damaged roads,” he added.