Ggn pvt colony residents in a fix after both MCG & developers charge maintenance fees
GURUGRAM: Residents of private colonies of Gurugram are facing a major problem as they have to pay maintenance fees to both Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and the private colony authorities.
In addition to maintenance fees, the residents in the colonies made by private developers also have to pay the house tax to the MCG. It has been officially announced that the private colonies developed by DLF, Ansals, Mayfield, Sun City and Unitech be handed over to the MCG. However, it has yet not been done as the developers have highlighted that they need to collect their pending amount of the maintenance fee from the residents. This proposal was accepted by the former MCG commissioner T L Satyaprakash who had stated that there will be no takeover by MCG till the time all the pending amount to private developers is cleared. Even as MCG has not officially taken over most of the private colonies, they have started issuing maintenance fees along with house tax to the residents. The difficulties of the residents are further compounded as the developers still send the maintenance bills to the residents.
Certain developers are still responsible for the upkeep of the colonies like ensuring security, ensuring street lighting and collection of garbage from homes.
However, residents in some of these private colonies complain that the maintenance of the colonies has degraded.
“There is a big problem of collection of garbage from my home. The services have degraded to such levels that at times for more than three days the person who collects the garbage does not come. There is also a problem of increase of stray animals like dogs and pigs around our neighbourhood. Today, no agency wants to take accountability and yet they want to charge hefty maintenance bills,” said Sushma Oberoi who is a resident of DLF Phase -1.
“Even though I am receiving the main- tenance bills from the developer as well as from MCG, I have been advised by the RWA to not pay the maintenance bill to the developer,” added Oberoi.
Most of the Resident Welfare Associations allege that the delay of passing over the colonies is been done deliberately.
“Maintenance bills have become a big source of income for most of the builders. They are charging hefty amount from the residents and are not providing similar services. Even though we have been fighting that the transfer should be done immediately, it is sad that even the MCG officials do not seem interested,” said Dhruv Bansal of Gurgaon Citizens Council.