South City 2 RWA asks residents to give ₹5K each for water dues as developer backtracks
An agreement was also signed between RWA and Unitech for creating a joint bank account to collect water bills from the residents as way forward and clear the GMDA dues.
After the developer refused to contribute to pay pending water bills of over ₹1 crore to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) by opening a joint bank account with residents’ welfare association (RWA) of South City 2, the association has appealed to residents to contribute ₹5,000 each to clear the dues by July 31 deadline fixed by the authority.
The GMDA had disconnected water supply to South City 2 on July 9 due to non-payment of pending water bills. But the supply was restored on July 16 after a meeting of GMDA officials with the executives of Unitech Limited, developer of the colony, and RWA members on condition of payment of bills by July 31.
Rajesh Bansal, superintending engineer, GMDA, said, “If they fail to clear dues, water supply will be disconnected after expiry of deadline.”
An agreement was also signed between RWA and Unitech for creating a joint bank account to collect water bills from the residents as way forward and clear the GMDA dues.
“Two days after signing this agreement, Unitech responded to our mail saying that they cannot enter into opening joint account for some legal reasons. Now, we have appealed to residents to contribute Rs5,000 each to RWA account and the money will be paid to the GMDA for unhindered water supply. We are holding a meeting on Sunday in this regard with residents,” said SN Bhardwaj, RWA president. The RWA circulated a notice regarding this among residents on Friday.
The RWA has accused Unitech of causing disruption of water supply by not paying water bills to the GMDA. “Unitech collects monthly maintenance, including water charges, from the residents. But it did not pay water bills to the GMDA for past many months. GMDA on Thursday gave us a pending water bill of Rs1.05 crore till June 30,” said the RWA president, adding that 2,500 houses are under threat of water supply disconnection.
Unitech, in turn, accused the residents of not paying maintenance charges, claiming total outstanding amount is close to Rs11 crore. “We cannot open any joint account with RWA due to some legal reasons. However, fact of the matter behind non-payment of water bills is that residents have not been paying maintenance to Unitech for the past two years and total outstanding amount is close to Rs11 crore,” said a Unitech representative, who was present in the GMDA meet.
