RWAs seek to take over maintenance

A delegation of resident welfare associations (RWAs) and citizen pressure groups, led by New Gurgaon municipal councillor Rama Rani Rathee, met Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his official residence in New Delhi on Monday.

A delegation of resident welfare associations (RWAs) and citizen pressure groups, led by New Gurgaon municipal councillor Rama Rani Rathee, met Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his official residence in New Delhi on Monday.

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The group demanded that the government work out a mechanism or enact a law for handing over privately-developed plotted townships to the local RWAs as is the case in high-rise group housing societies and condominiums.

Hooda is learnt to have assured the delegation and said he will take up the matter with the directorate of town and country planning department.

At present, the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act allows handing over of privately-developed townships to government authorities such as municipal corporations.

Ironically, none of the private localities in Gurgaon have so far been handed over to the RWA. Recently, the maintenance of Palam Vihar was transferred to the RWA in a mutually agreed-upon arrangement but not under any law or act.

Plotted townships such as DLF City, Sushant Lok, Southcity and others cover at least 100 acres area.

Despite the fact that all developed townships now come under the jurisdiction of MCG, none of these localities have been handed over to it.

The responsibility of RWAs include sanitation, gardening, road-resurfacing, power and water distribution, internal security, parks, lifts and maintenance of sewerage treatment plant.