Ghaziabad admin bats for digitising records of all residents’ associations, setting up deputy-registrar office in district

Ghaziabad: In order to bring transparency in aspects related to resident welfare associations (RWA) and apartment owners’ associations (AOAs) as well as to ensure timely elections of these associations, the Ghaziabad district magistrate has written to the deputy registrar of societies in Meerut to come up with a portal containing details of all associations

Ghaziabad: In order to bring transparency in aspects related to resident welfare associations (RWA) and apartment owners’ associations (AOAs) as well as to ensure timely elections of these associations, the Ghaziabad district magistrate has written to the deputy registrar of societies in Meerut to come up with a portal containing details of all associations. The DM also suggested that a branch of the registrar’s Meerut office be opened in Ghaziabad.

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DM Ajay Shankar Pandey said Saturday that he has asked the deputy registrar, DK Gupta, to ensure that all details of RWAs/AOAs be updated online, along with details of office bearers, date of last election, registration, next date of election, due date of audit and any complaints, if any.

The AOAs and RWAs have to be registered with the deputy registrar’s office at Meerut.

“The residents become the worst sufferers due to inconsistent information available and also due to delayed elections. If the information is made available online, it will bring more transparency. We can also display such information over the district portal. It has also been observed that elections have not been held by several RWAs/AOAs. So, once the details are made online, there will be transparency,” Pandey said.

“Further, we have sent a proposal in which we have requested the state government to allow a branch of the deputy registrar’s office in Ghaziabad as there are many RWAs/AOAs here and it will be easy for these associations to approach officials if they are within the city. Also, to see if any designated officer can be delegated powers for functioning at the branch office,” he added.

Members of AOAs said that making details available online and setting up a branch office in Ghaziabad would be a welcome step.

“We have been writing to make these details available online for long. Besides, there are many AOAs/RWAs whose elections have not been held for as long as three-four years. This is to be held within a span of one year otherwise they are deemed as debarred and the district administration has to designate an executive officer to get the elections done,” said Alok Kumar, founder member of the federation of AOAs.

“We have approached the district administration time and again, but elections could not be conducted on some pretext or the other,” he added.

DK Gupta, deputy registrar (Meerut), said that his office has identified about 28 cases in Ghaziabad where elections of residents’ associations were pending.

“It is the responsibility of the respective RWA/AOA to take up elections. My office had earlier issued orders for not holding elections till June 30, 2020 in wake of the pandemic. When such instances (delayed elections) come to light, we declare societies as debarred and then write to the district admin to designate an officer for holding polls. We have taken up correspondence with the Ghaziabad DM in this regard and they have to get the elections done,” Gupta said.

“As regards the branch office at Ghaziabad, the issue has been taken up with the state government and the process has been initiated. Digitising the records will take another two-three months in which we will digitize all manual files, which include files related to societies,” he added.

Pandey responded by saying that the election was held up due to the pandemic and that the process has been re-initiated.

“We now have initiated the process for holding pending elections and also appointed officers to get this done. The elections were not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The process is on now,” Pandey added.