Annoyed by the absence of trash pickers for the past three days, the residents of the Gaur City 5th Avenue, a high-rise in Greater Noida West, on Wednesday, dumped the garbage of their household at the maintenance office of the society.
Besides trash pickers, the maintenance department of the apartment in the last couple of days has partially reduced the number of staff members required for daily services like security, cleaning and other services.
Talking about the issue, Preet Bhargava, a resident said, “There used to be three cleaning staff members for each block which has now been reduced to just one for two blocks. Number of security guards at the gate, for the garden and other places have also been reduced. Two security guards, who were deployed in the park to ensure the security of the children, have also been withdrawn.”
“For how long we will keep the garbage in our flats. I mean we waited for 3 days and when it started stinking, we were left with no option than to dump it at the maintenance office,” Bhargava added.
As per the sources, the conflict emerged over increasing maintenance charges which the residents have unanimously opposed. Earlier, the maintenance department had proposed to increase maintenance charges saying the company which is providing the daily maintenance services is facing loss. However, the residents had opposed the proposal.
As told by the residents to City Spidey, the delay in the formation of the Apartment Owners Association (AOA) is another major conflict between the residents and the developer. One group of the residents wants to form the AOA whereas another group says election for the AOA should be held only after pending developments are completed by the developer.
Pankaj Patel, another resident of the Gaur Avenue said, “We neither have occupation certificates nor completion certificates from the Greater Noida Authority. We are ready to accept it because none of the society in Greater Noida West have so far received completion certificates. But, an audit of electricity bill must be done because if AOA takes power during the summer then residents will face a huge financial burden. Leave aside all these issues, my only question is that how can maintenance services be reduced when maintenance charges are being paid in advance.”
We spoke to Sidharth Sood, head of the maintenance department to know the reason behind the partial withdrawal of daily maintenance services. Sood was of the view that the society has almost 100 per cent possession and around 98 per cent occupancy of flats is at present.
“As per the RERA, societies need to have AOA with 70 per cent of occupancy. We asked residents to form AOA and take handover of the maintenance because the service provider has refused to continue with the same amount. But, residents are deliberately delaying the election to the AOA. We decided to reduce the services in order to build pressure on residents so that they unanimously decide to form AOA,” Sood concluded.
While the residents say that the election process will take time and they are in process to conduct it as soon as possible, the decision to withdraw services has left them in a panic mode. They have unanimously condemned the decision taken by the maintenance department.
