First they left the boardroom to hit the streets, protesting about garbage. CEOs living in Gurgaon may not return to the boardroom anytime soon.
In the coming days, they plan to visit the courtroom, again to protest about garbage.
From CEOs and senior citizens to ordinary men and women, Gurgaon residents will board a bus and head to Chandigarh on October 3, hoping to find a solution to Gurgaon’s collapsing civic infrastructure.
The desperate measure comes after the Hindustan Times carried a series titled “Collapsing Gurgaon”, highlighting the decrepit civic infrastructure in a place pitched to foreigners and Indians alike as the gateway to the new India.
In Chandigarh, the group nearly 35 strong will knock on the doors of scores of high-ranking civic officials, asking them what they plan to do to make Gurgaon liveable — and, crucially, by when?
The group will also troop into the Punjab and Haryana High Court to update itself on a case linked to garbage dumping.
DLF City residents filed a petition against the Haryana government in the High Court in 2007 against dumping of garbage near DLF City just off the Faridabad-Gurgaon road.
{{/usCountry}}DLF City residents filed a petition against the Haryana government in the High Court in 2007 against dumping of garbage near DLF City just off the Faridabad-Gurgaon road.
{{/usCountry}}On October 3, the case will be heard again.
“I would be taking off from my busy schedule and boarding the bus to Chandigarh to attend the court hearing. I have been actively participating in the movement against garbage dumping,” said Sunil Jhaveri, CEO NSJ Capital, a corporate advisory company.
Prabhat Agarwal, founder and CEO Parsec Technologies, an IT company, said: “I would be cutting short my vacation to Coimbatore where I have come with my wife, children and ailing parents. The issue of garbage dumping is pertinent to us and we would be reaching Gurgaon on October 2 just for this bus to Chandigarh only.”
Cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s mother Shabnam Singh will fly in from Mumbai to join them in the courtroom.
“I am a resident of DLF Phase I. The administration must take measures to stop garbage dumping that is causing stress to Gurgaon residents,” she said from Mumbai by phone.
DLF City’s Sudhir Kapoor said in a fresh affidavit on Tuesday the interview of Haryana Development Authority Administrator G. Anupama with the Hindustan Times was specially quoted.
“Millennium City”, as its administrators and builders often call Gurgaon, where 2 million live and work, accounts for more than 10 per cent of India’s $40 billion (about Rs 18,400 crore) in annual software exports.
It is home to offices of some 200 Fortune 500 companies, from General Electric to Coca Cola.
Gurgaon was to do to Delhi what Pudong did to Shanghai — put it on the global business map.
Pudong made that jump into the first world. Gurgaon is sliding further and faster every day into the third world.
From potholed roads and power outages to worsening law and order, each passing day brings more agony to companies that have pumped in billions in investments.