‘Decades of suffering’: 200 residents from Gurugram condominium protest

Around 200 residents of Malibu Towne in Gurugram’s Sector 47 on Saturday protested against the poor upkeep of the colony and lack of amenities plaguing the residential complex for over two decades.

Protesters alleged that despite the launch of the township in 1992, it faces shortage of electricity every summer, waterlogging in monsoons, does not have proper gates, roads are in bad condition among a host of other issues. Currently, 2,200 families live in the township. Repeated requests to the developers to take the necessary repairs have fallen on deaf ears, said residents.

Vijay Shivnath, president of Malibu Floors residents’ welfare association said they have held countless meetings with builder’s representative and demanded action but nothing has happened on ground. “There are power outages in summer as there is no sub-station here. There is no community centre for the residents, the roads are out of order and the club has been sealed. It is almost 25 years that residents have been living here but they are still deprived of most of the facilities,” he said.

The protesters said they have submitted a memorandum to the developer demanding repair of the road in the whole township within a month. They have also demanded reopening the club within a month and completing the works at the sub-station in the next three months. They also demanded that gates and boundary walls be erected and a community centre be set up at the earliest.

“Waterlogging is a major problem in the colony . We also don’t have an underground water tank; this should be constructed at the earliest as the residents face acute water shortage during summers. If the necessary works are not taken up by the developer, we will stage a protest in front of their residences in Delhi,” said Niranjan Yadav, chairman of Malibu Federation.

Residents said Mamman Khan, MLA of Firozepur Jhirka, and local councillor Kuldeep Yadav also joined their protest. “The MLA is a resident of the colony and Yadav is our councillor. They agreed to take up the matter with the authorities. We want the maintenance of Malibu Towne to be transferred to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram at the earliest,” said a resident on the condition of anonymity.

The township has four RWAs. The protest was jointly called by Floors RWA whose president is Vijay Shivnath, Plots RWA led by president Suresh Dhundia, Towers RWA led by Sanjay Satyabrat, Starwood RWA led by D B Misra and Malibu Federation—a body comprising members of all the four RWAs led by chairman Niranjan Yadav.

The RWAs said the residents will not accept any increase in maintenance charges given the poor upkeep of the colony. They also demanded that a detailed account of maintenance expenditure should be shared with them for scrutiny.

When contacted, Subash Raghav, vice president of Malibu Estates Private Limited, refuted the allegations of poor maintenance and said he was ready to get an inspection done with regard to the maintenance works.

“As far as the substation is concerned, it is the residents who have opposed the site proposed for it and the matter is pending. Regular patch work is being done on the roads. For waterlogging, we have installed a dewatering pump but this problem is an issue across the city due to lack of a proper drainage system. Still, we will work on the issues where there is room for improvement. Moreover, many residents don’t pay maintenance fees but want top class maintenance,” said Raghav.