Gurgaon residents demand fully empowered civic body
Sarvadaman Oberoi
Kindly see article published in The Tribune below.
Regards. Sarvadaman Oberoi Tower 1 Flat 1102, The Uniworld Garden, Sohna Road, Gurgaon 122018 Haryana INDIA Mobile: +919818768349 Tele: +911244227522 Website: http://www.freewebs.com/homeopathy249/ email: mob...@yahoo.co.uk The Tribune
Monday, June 1, 2009, Chandigarh, India
Gurgaon residents demand fully empowered civic body ‘Multiplicity of agencies cause of all development problems’
Gurgaon, May 31 With the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) knocking doors of residents for collecting taxes, the citizens are demanding a fully empowered municipal body. They are even ready to come on roads to get their rights. They formed a resolution in this regard at a meeting held by the Gurgaon Unified Residents Movement (GURM) here on Sunday. Two large residents’ bodies—Gurgaon Citizens’ Council (GCC) and the Federation of RWAs of HUDA Sectors (FORWA) spearhead GURM. About 150 DLF residents attended the meeting. A number of resident welfare associations, civil society organizations, non-government organizations and citizens are also supporting the movement.
The members of GURM say that the Haryana state government constituted MCG in September 2008, but the first elections to the municipal council have not been held even after six months.
They mentioned that an area of 162 km has been earmarked to fall under the corporation, which includes the old city as well as all developer colonies. However, the 35-odd new sectors that had been planned for the development under the Gurgaon- Manesar 2021 Master Plan have not yet been given to the MCG.
“Multiplicity of agencies has been at the root of all development problems in cities,” said retired Major Gen Satbir Singh, senior advisor with the core committee of GURM and a member of Citizens Task Force, West Gurgaon.
“For effective results, infrastructure planning as well development and maintenance functions must remain with one agency. It is also easier for citizens to deal with a single agency, not multiple,” he added.
Advocate T K Malik affirmed that the government would not listen to them. “We need to come together on roads and then only we can achieve our target,” he said.
“Among the 18 functions granted to the municipal corporation under the 74th amendment, urban planning, including town planning is at number one while public health and sanitation is at number six,” claimed Col S.S. Oberoi, another core member of GURM.
Property tax and other forms of taxes on services are the major source of revenue for the MCG. However, GURM strongly feels that MCG has no right to collect taxes till 100 per cent development has been carried out under the corporation area.
“About Rs 3,000 crore has been collected as external development charges (EDC) from the residents, but the state of infrastructure development in the city shows inadequacy in investment. We want this fund to be transferred to the MCG or a development authority based in Gurgaon,” said R.S. Rathee, core member of GURM and president of GCC.
“We want a development authority in Gurgaon with full planning and implementation powers. We want our MCG to be a fully empowered body, granted all 18 powers under the constitution and not just end up as yet another tax collecting and sanitation agency,” Rathee told The Tribune.
The residents also want to seek out the registration of voters’ card before municipal council elections.
Prem Sablok of GURM said, “Names of thousands of urban voters, including my family, were found missing from the final voters’ list drawn up for the current Lok Sabha elections. This will have a direct impact on the results of the municipal elections in the city and all future elections. The Chief Election Commissioner and the Haryana state election commission should check the mistake.”
“Many residents from HUDA sectors have also complained of missing names,” affirmed Dharam Sagar of the Federation of Resident Welfare Associations of HUDA sectors (FORWA) and member of GURM core committee.
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sujit lahiry
Dear All,
An incidence that happened this Sunday has totally changed the way I perceive our security in DLF city. I have been hearing about mauling of residents, maids, vendors and security guards by Monkeys but could not comprehend the enormity of it till it stuck my very own house. My brother-in-law, who was visiting me from Vaishali this weekend was attacked by a group of Monkeys and suffered serious injuries, the extent of which is unthinkable till one sees it with own eyes. About 3-4 large monkeys tore flesh from both the hands and back, some bites were 2-inch deep.
When we rushed him to the Emergency at nearby Malik Hospital, we were told that they typically receive 20-25 Monkey byte cases a month! He had to be ultimately taken to AIIMS, where he was detained overnight. Further surprising was the treatment procedure and the cost of medicine, it will be very painful and debilitating for him for 15 days and costing some 30K in medicines alone. Now you can imagine the enormity of the problem that we are facing.
If we sit idle and do not take any action, the day in not far when it could claim its first direct or indirect fatality. The injuries they cause, if it is meted out to young children, the aged or small built people and accidental fall from stairways are incidents waiting to happen. Leave aside enormous loss of clothes, plants, dish TV, cables etc. Monkeys have already forced residents to construct enclosures around their overhead water tanks. I have seen several small children staying away from their evening free time on streets – the psychological element is enormous. We already have lost our freedom!
The reason I am raising this issue in this forum stems from the fact that the origins of this monkey menace is intertwined with the depletion of nearby forests and the operation of illegal garbage dump. The first time the group of monkeys emerged in DLF was in 2003, around the same time the Illegal Garbage dump started operating in the Aravali. Ever since the apathy of DLF administration, the local administration and forest department has come to the fore. They are simply sitting over this issue and pointing fingers at each other, which is amounting to nothing less than criminal negligence. If we do not take any joint action through demonstrations, sit-ins or through filing of criminal negligence or RTI case the situation would continue unabated.
I request residents to suggest course of action and provide their support for this cause.
With Regards,
Sujit Lahiry
E-11/22, DLF Ph –I
M # 98101 29360
From: Sarvadaman Oberoi <mob...@yahoo.co.uk>
To: unig...@yahoogroups.co.in; illegal-ga...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2009 2:39:15 AM
Subject: {Illegal Garbage Dump} Gurgaon residents demand fully empowered civic body
YEZAD SAM KAPADIA
Neela Sontakay
dev chopra
How right you are. We have in some ways usurped their land. Just like the Australians who pushed the aborigines out and the Americans in the US who pushed the Red Indians away. And now the Chinese who pushed the Tibetans away or overtook them in a major way and so on.
We have to be careful in all that we do and till the authorities locally do something to wean them away from your area--if that will ever get done.
They took over some parts of the Indian Govt Secretariat in New Delhi till they got a langur wallah who pushed the monkeys away from those areas.
Regards
Dev Chopra
--- On Wed, 3/6/09, Neela Sontakay <sontak...@airtelmail.in> wrote:
> From: Neela Sontakay <sontak...@airtelmail.in>
> Subject: {Illegal Garbage Dump} Re: Mokey Menace - a disaster waiting to happen
> Date: Wednesday, 3 June, 2009, 6:30 PM
>
>
>
> #yiv456202382 DIV {
> MARGIN:0px;}
DALEL AHLAWAT
dev chopra
Friends at the G-Block of DLF-I: Ahlawat sahib makes a very sensible and a logical point on how the location of the temple will bring many more woes... your end.
I would approach the new District Commissioner & the old one that we know, who has come as the HUDA Administrator, now! (such events can happen only in Haryana I must say!)
May be they both can help us in getting the temple located away from your area.
(We could not succeed to-date outside our L-15 marg in L-Ext.Phase II despite the METRO station having been created right there -- the temple priest came back and has a ramshackle of a temple recreated still...)
Peace and regards
Dev Chopra
--- On Thu, 4/6/09, DALEL AHLAWAT <dalela...@gmail.com> wrote: