Residents of South City-1 urge MCG to take over colony

The residents’ welfare association (RWA) of South City-1 has written to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), asking it to take over civic maintenance of

The residents’ welfare association (RWA) of South City-1 has written to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), asking it to take over civic maintenance of the plotted township from the private developer at the earliest. Residents claim that this move will bring them permanent relief by providing them with quality services in terms of water, electricity and other amenities.

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A group of residents met with Sudhir Singla, MLA from Gurugram constituency, on Friday and submitted to him a letter, asking him to put pressure on the MCG to expedite the process of colony takeover. After the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) on November 3 disconnected the colony’s water supply, affecting nearly 2,500 families, the residents had been knocking at the doors of the civic body and deputy commissioner’s office to hasten the process of colony transfer.

The GMDA, which is the master water supplier of the city and supplies bulk water to privately developed areas directly, had disconnected the water supply due to non-payment of water bills to the tune of ₹1.27 crore for the period, November 2018 to October 2019.

Later, the South City-1 RWA moved the local court on November 16 against the GMDA and the MCG, holding the two agencies responsible for the problem. The residents stated in their petition that had the MCG taken over the colony, there would not have been any pending bills.

The court in its observation had mentioned that water is not a luxury service. Rather, it is an essential service without which people cannot survive. As such, the GMDA should not have disconnected the water supply. The court also fixed the next date of hearing on February 5, asking the authority to submit the details of the pending bills.

In its fresh letter sent to the MCG on Wednesday, the RWA has mentioned that the MCG on April 23 had asked Unitech to hand over the colony by April 30.

Ram Gupta, RWA president, said, “Seven months have passed and there is still no progress in this regard. Why doesn’t the MCG take over the colony and start collecting maintenance fees, including water and sanitation charges directly from us? The current outstanding includes the water bills of several commercial establishments of South City-1. Why should we be held responsible for that? Why should our water services be disrupted? We met with the MLA and he spoke to Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner of Gurugram, to resolve the issue.” Singla also said that he had discussed the matter with Khatri.

The residents said they have been paying maintenance regularly to Unitech Limited, which developed the township 30 years ago and still maintaining it. Raman Sharma, MCG chief engineer, said, “This issue is being discussed at a high level in the Haryana government. We will do as per the directions from the government.”

The developer said that the Unitech Limited had offered handover of the township to the MCG a year ago. “Unitech Limited wants the MCG to take over the colony. We have no problem,” said a Unitech Limited senior executive on the condition of anonymity.