Noida Extension buyers to join Anna’s fast

NOIDA: Even after the NCR Planning Board meeting on Thursday gave some hope for resumption of projects in Noida Extension, homebuyers are sceptical over the assurance being given to them from several quarters. Buyers feel that it is high time that a time-bound action plan is put in place for all agencies involved in the process of approving the Master Plan 2021 of the Greater Noida Authority.While their petition for putting a timeframe on NCRPB is scheduled for hearing on March 27 in Allahabad high court, several homebuyers have now decided to join Anna Hazare in his fast at Jantar Mantar on Sunday as a mark of protest.
Buyers feel that time limits should be imposed not only on the Greater Noida Authority to ensure that NCRPB’s recommendations are properly incorporated into its Master Plan, but also on the courts to dispose the numerous cases filed by farmers in Greater Noida.
“In order to avoid pushing thousands of middle-income families into financial disarray, it is important that a particular time limit is now put on all concerned parties to work towards winding up this dispute,” said Ravi Garg, a homebuyer in Panchsheel Greens project in Noida Extension. “We have been assured several times in the past that projects would resume soon. The fact, however, remains that nothing positive has happened so far and we have lost a lot of time. With burdens of home loans over our heads, any further delay might reduce us to bankruptcy,” added Garg.
Several homebuyers have also decided to join Anna Hazare’s fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Sunday in protest against the apathy shown towards them. “Of all parties involved in this imbroglio, we are the ones who have been affected the most,” said Abhisek Kumar, a member of another homebuyers’ group, NEFOMA. “We have decided to join Anna Hazare in his fast in order to make our grievances felt at the highest levels in the country,” said Kumar.
In addition to the NCRPB hurdle, there are also a number of petitions against land acquisition which are pending in various courts. “If any of these cases go in favour of farmers and land acquisition is quashed, certain projects might get affected,” said Sumit Bansal, who has booked a villa in Amrapalli Dream Valley. “It is not possible for us to hang on to our investments in these projects if we are not assured of a time limit within which the cases are resolved and construction would begin. The prospect of making an exit from the project after staying put for so long is not at all viable because the returns on these investments would be nil,” added Bansal.
The Noida Extension Flat Buyers’ Welfare Association (NEFBWA) has already filed a petition in the Allahabad high court to impose a time limit on NCRPB to give its sanctions to Master Plan 2021. “It does not seem that agencies would expedite work for resumption of construction until there is a legal obligation on them to do so,” said secretary of NEFBWA, GL Sagar.
“The hearing to our petition is less than a week away and we think that the only outcome to this is through the court,” said Sagar.