A resident of Supertech Livingston today complained to the GDA VC, Ritu Maheshwari, about an irrational surge in the maintenance charges by the builder.
Vinay Khandelwal alleged that the builder has hiked the maintenance charge by 50 paise without taking the consent of all the residents. He also complained that the builder is illegally extracting the maintenance charges from prepaid meters. “It is a violation of the electricity supply code. The maintenance charges can’t be extracted from electricity meters,” he alleged.
Khandelwal also alleged that when he refused to comply with the new maintenance charges, his electricity supply was cut off. Ghaziabad News
Crossings Republik based society’s maintenance is currently taken care of by the builder. In August 2017, the builder had increased the maintenance charges from Rs 1.50 per square foot to Rs 2 per square foot. The decision was taken without the consent of all the residents, Khandelwal said.
Khandelwal said that he had complained about the hike with the GDA earlier also. “GDA had then asked the builder to retract the hike but he didn’t do that,” he said.
Meanwhile, another resident, Kuldeep Dubey, said that Khandelwal was creating an issue out of nothing. The builder had organised meetings with residents and issued notices that extra money was needed to run the premises.
“We all had agreed to the hike, but it looks like a few people want to live for free in the society. I don’t understand this sudden activism on a matter that is more than a year old,” added Dubey.
Reacting to this, Khandelwal said that the consent of all the residents was not taken. “We have over 1,300 flats and I understand that the builder can’t ask each one personally. In such cases, they need to take consent of the AOA, which is currently defunct in our society.”.
In March 2018, the SDM had declared the AOA election at Livingston illegal. The elections were held in 2017 and a few residents had complained to the Deputy Registrar (DR), citing irregularities. The DR had then asked the SDM to investigate.
Dubey, however, blamed Khandelwal for manipulating the truth. “His balance was over, that’s why his electricity was cut off. Nobody did it deliberately,” he said.
But this goes against the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC)’s tariff order 2016-17, which states that the electric supply of a resident shall not be disconnected in the case of default in payment of maintenance charges.
City Spidey tried to reach the builder but the calls went unanswered. Attempts were also made to contact Nitish Arora, Vice President of facilities and maintenance, but he did not comment.
