Sahibabad’s Tulsi Niketan flat owners to approach HC for justice after getting eviction notice

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has informed the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation that flats in Tulsi Niketan residential scheme are unsafe. A total of 2,292 occupants have received eviction notices as their homes are in a dilapidated condition.

Flat owners of the Tulsi Niketan housing complex in Ghaziabad’s Sahibabad area have decided to approach Allahabad High Court to seek justice.

The GDA wants to reconstruct the Tulsi Niketan flats for safety reasons, but owners do not want to vacate on “mere verbal assurances”. (Sakib Ali / HT Photo)

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has informed the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation that flats in Tulsi Niketan residential scheme are unsafe. A total of 2,292 occupants have received eviction notices as their homes are in a dilapidated condition. The GDA wants to reconstruct the buildings to provide each owner a new, safe flat, but flat owners do not want to vacate on the “mere verbal assurances” made by the officials.

The residents’ welfare association (RWA) and flat owners of Tulsi Niketan housing complex met on Sunday to plan further legal action in this case.

“The GDA officials have given us verbal assurances that they will construct new buildings and provide each owner a new flat. But we demand that the GDA give us allotment letters for flats in the new proposed housing towers. They can mention in the allotment letters that the flats will be delivered in next two or three years. If they do not, then we will go to Allahabad High Court,” Kuldip Kasana, president of Tulsi Niketan RWA and former corporater of the area, who was part of the meeting, said.

The GDA had, in 1988, allotted 2,292 flats via the Tulsi Niketan housing scheme at the Ghaziabad-Delhi border. Two-hundred-and-eighty-eight flats are 40 square metres in size and the remaining are 20 square metres in size.

“We have decided to approach the consumer court to question how our buildings became unsafe in just 27 years. We demand that the GDA act against those officials who got this housing project constructed with poor construction material,” Balwant Singh Rawat, general secretary of Tulsi Niketan housing scheme RWA, said.

Flat owners said that they do not trust “verbal assurances” because they may face problems in case the state government changes and the new government comes up with a new policy for this project.

GDA officials said over 80% occupants in Tulsi Niketan do not have property titles to their names and occupy the flats on the basis of power of attorney. The power of attorney is a legal method of having rights over a property, but it does not allow transferring the title from one owner to another, officials said. Therefore, around 15,000 people who are living here fear for their rights over the new proposed flats.

“The issue of having property title on the basis of power of attorney has been sent to the UP government for a final decision. And as far as the issue of assurance in written is concerned, the GDA cannot do that. But we are trying to reach a solution in this issue. We have called flat owners for meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. We hope this matter will be resolved soon. We cannot allow them to stay in these flats due to safety reasons,” VN Singh, chief engineer of the GDA, said.