Haryana RWAs plan signature drive against ‘apartment culture’

Tribune News Service

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, January 29

A signature campaign will be started across the state against the government provision to allow four-storey constructions on stilt parking in plotted sectors.

This decision was taken at the meeting of the Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs), which met under the banner of the Haryana State HUDA Sectors Confederation in Panipat today.

Setting a target of one lakh signatures from all over the state till February 18, the meeting resolved to submit these to the Haryana Governor. Simultaneously, the RWAs will give a representation against the “flat culture being brought to plotted sectors” to the Deputy Commissioner of their respective districts for the Chief Minister.

Will hold rally in Faridabad

We will give the government a fortnight to consider our demand of suspending this provision, failing which we will hold a rally in the first week of March in Faridabad. — Yashvir Malik, convenor,Haryana State HUDA Sectors Confederation

“We will give the government a fortnight to consider our demand of suspending this provision failing which we will hold a rally in the first week of March in Faridabad,” said Yashvir Malik, convenor of the confederation. A demand for compensating directly affected residents (where houses have developed cracks due to construction in the neighbourhood) will also be made.

Decrying the mess being created in sectors due to the construction of four floors with stilts, the speakers highlighted the load on the existing services while advocating offence being the best form of defence to stop this “apartment culture”. The government’s decision of e-auction of plots also came under fire.

From Sirsa, Rajpal Singh, said: “For any project to come up, a survey is carried out and the requirements assessed. Being an engineer, I know that any project is conceptualised for a particular number of houses and population. These sectors were conceived for single units and not four separate units.”

While Rohtak speaker Kadam Singh highlighted how new construction was leading to cracks in walls of adjoining houses, Surender Singh from Jind gave an example of a resident who moved out of his locality after a four-storey house came up next to his. “It blocked his sun completely and that led to a dispute as well before the resident finally decided to move out,” he said at the meeting.

Gurugram’s Baljit Rathi highlighted the pressure on existing services while a number of other speakers, referring to the Joshimath situation, said a similar situation could arise in Haryana on account of such government policies. A few others also emphasised how the builder lobby was buying all such properties and benefitting from this provision.

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