Aggrieved flat buyers, who have been waiting for years now to get possession of their dream houses, have decided to put forward their demands in front of the central government through a protest march to be held on December 14 at the Parliament Street.
Buyers who have been left in the lurch by the builders are demanding intervention from the central government. The march has been timed in accordance with the Parliament’s winter session, which started on December 11 and will go on till January 8 next year.
Flat buyers want Centre to find a solution for the projects where the work is incomplete and the developers are either in jail or have run away with buyers’ money. One such incomplete project is Sampada Livia, a housing project in Greater Noida where construction work is incomplete even after nine years of the sale of flats.
Amrapali Group is another example where the developers are under police surveillance for diverting homebuyers’ money and the flats are nowhere near completion. According to homebuyers, Amrapali group alone needs to handover nearly 42,000 flats.
K K Kaushal, a homebuyer in one of the Amrapali projects, said, “The matter is before the Supreme Court and three directors of the company have been sent under police surveillance. We are happy with the legal action being taken but who will now fund these incomplete projects. When will we get our flats? How long will we keep paying bank’s EMI as well as rent?”
National Building Construction Company (NBCC) — government-run construction company — had told the Supreme Court that it will take over all Amrapali projects but only if the required finances are provided.
The flat buyers want the Centre to take over all the incomplete projects and deliver them at their own cost.
Shweta Bharti, general secretary of Noida Extension Flat Owners Welfare Association (NEFOWA), said, “In the past, we had reached out to political leaders representing GB Nagar and even UP chief minister, but no one has come out with a solution so far. Therefore, we have decided to take the protest to Delhi. We sincerely hope that the government will help us out here.” The protest will be held under the aegis of NEFOWA.
According to estimates, nearly 1.5 lakh fat buyers have been waiting for more than eight years now to get possession of their homes in Greater Noida alone.
“Enough is enough. Action needs to be taken now. We are all middle-class taxpayers who have been duped by builders. We can’t keep paying EMI as well as rent. We had booked flats on projects that were to be built on land approved by government authorities. Now, it is the responsibility of the government to see that we get those fats,” said Abhishek Kumar, president of NEFOWA.
