Unhappy home buyers in Gurugram decide to field their own candidates in assembly polls

The association has decided to field their own candidate after having failed to get any relief from the authorities and political parties for years

Home buyers in Gurugram and Badshahpur, dissatisfied by the apparent neglect of their demands and concerns by the government and political parties, have announced that they will field their own candidates in the Haryana assembly elections in order to represent the rights of urban residents of the city under the aegis of Federation of Apartment Owners Association (FAOA).

The body will be holding a meeting on Tuesday to take the final decision on the candidates, and decide the future course of action and ways to fund the campaign. (HT Archive)

FAOA, which which will be fielding independent candidatesis holding a meeting on Tuesday to finalise its candidates, has said it will field their candidates on two seats – Badshahpur and Gurugram – in order to send a “strong message” that they are a core stakeholder in the elections, and that their demands cannot be ignored.

Sanjay Lal, FAOA president said that people from India have purchased houses in Gurugram from private developers at exorbitant costs, but have forced to live like second-class citizens with no rights in condominiums and with policies favouring realtors over them.

“Barring the ownership of four walls of a flat, the buyer has no right in common areas. The four floors policy is a disaster and the Haryana Societies Act has failed to provide any relief to the buyers. Despite years of struggle, we have failed to get any relief from the authorities and political parties so we have decided to field our own candidates in Badshahpur and Gurugram assembly constituencies,” he said.

The body will be holding a meeting on Tuesday to take the final decision on the candidates, and decide the future course of action and ways to fund the campaign.

Ritu Barihok, another FAOA member, said that lack of public transport, failure to extend the metro, rampant opening of liquor shops and failure of waste management system in the city were other issues which are core to home owners. “The infrastructure is failing and authorities have done little to improve the situation. The failure on the front of affordable housing is glaring where developers have simply vanished with funds leaving more than 3,000 buyers in lurch. We want to represent the aspirations of millions of house owners in Gurugram,” she said.

Structural audit being carried out in Gurugram has not been very effective as developers have failed to take remedial measures and implement the audit recommendations, FAOA said.

“We want to send a clear message to government and political parties that interest of home owners and buyers cannot be sacrificed forever,” said Lal.

Professor Ram Kanwar, political analyst, said that civil society must come forward and provide an alternative to people and voters as the existing political parties are just concerned about perpetuating their rule. “Haryana does not have a strong civil society and if the people of Gurugram come forward and fight the election then it would send a strong message to political leaders that an alternative is beginning to emerge. This is a brave and strong step in the right direction,” he said.