Residents take to balconies to protest neglect by builders

Residents of Rishabh Cloud 9, a housing society in Indirapuram, took to their balconies from where they hung big yellow banners, to protest against the developer of the society for not maintaining facilities or working towards forming a functional apartment owners’ association (AOA).

They said they preferred protesting against the builder without disrupting work or creating a law and order situation, which was why they chose this offbeat method.

According to residents, they have been complaining for the past year about the contaminated water supply, parking space allotment and complications in forming an AOA, but the developer not acted on them.

“We have been asking the developer to cooperate with forming a functional AOA so that all maintenance can be regularly taken care of. But we have not got any response. The possession of flats was given in phases and some residents moved in about seven years ago but still don’t have a representative,” Sandeep Pandey, a resident of Cloud 9, said.

He added that at least three applications were made for the formation of the AOA but the matter is still stuck. According to residents, the various towers of the apartment complex were handed over in three phases. The first phase was handed over seven years ago, after which an AOA was formed. However, it stopped functioning and became defunct after a few years.

The residents have been trying to get a new AOA registered but the process is complicated since two AOAs cannot register from the same society. Also, for deregistering the previous AOA, all members have to be contacted, many of whom have moved out.

“If the developer cooperates, this process will become simpler for us. Since there is no AOA, the upkeep and maintenance of the complex is suffering. Lifts often need repair and water supply is a huge problem,” Pandey said.

However, representatives of the developer said that all such complications have been dealt with, but residents have been reluctant in forming an association and taking over the maintenance.

“We also want to hand over this work and have sent multiple reminders to residents but they did not form an AOA. The previous association was dissolved and it was notified through newspapers,” a spokesperson of the Rishabh group, said.

Residents said that although contaminated water supply was a major concern, the builder did not take any additional connection for water supply from the Ganga despite requests.

“The water we get is highly contaminated and stinks. We have been asking the builder to get more Ganga water but nothing has been done. The RO system also remains dysfunctional and much water is wasted in using it,” Artee Suri, another resident, said.

However, the spokesperson for the developer said that the RO system was repaired and was working fine.