NEW DELHI: A large number of occupants of flats who had bought their property on general power of attorney (GPA) have resolved neither to pay the Rs. 10,000 demanded towards society membership fee nor to convert their flats to freehold to obtain membership of the society as the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act 2003demands.

Declaring that they would rather have a peaceful agitation to press for their demands, the members who came together at a meeting of various cooperative group housing societies of North West Delhi on Tuesday, also threatened to move court if their demands were not met by the Delhi Government.

The meeting was convened at Amit Apartments in Rohini to discuss the harsh provisions of the Act and the Delhi Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act 2004, both of which were promulgated on April 1, 2005. The office bearers of nearly 20 societies vowed to strongly oppose the restraining clauses of the Act.

Presiding over the meeting, the convener of Residents' Front on Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, Sanjiv Kumar, said a movement had been launched under the umbrella of the Front to get justice for GPA occupants.

Alleging that the DCS Act in its present form was an instrument of revenue extraction, he said, the meeting decided to oppose the payment of Rs 10,000 which the Act stipulates should be charged from a GPA occupant if he or she chooses to become member of the society, since a GPA occupant can legally become a member on payment of just Rs. 110, the prescribed fees in the registered by-laws of the society.

Also, the GPA occupants have decided not to convert their properties from leasehold to freehold which the new Act stipulates as a condition for obtaining the membership of a society since the conversion charges run into lakhs and their levy discriminates between the original allottees and the GPA occupants. The members demanded that GPA occupants should be treated as equal with original member allottees in all respects in the DCS Act without any discrimination and should be enrolled as members without any pre-conditions.

During the meeting many original allottees like the president of Sai Apartments, Rohini, V.M. Sahni, also came in support of the GPA allottees.

He said the Government should recognize GPA occupants as "first-class citizens of society at par with original allottees''

Other residents spoke about how they were being charged heavy illegal entry fee and still being deprived of permanent electricity connections by managements which were siphoning off funds.

And as many have been forced to knock at the doors of courts for justice, they wondered what the Delhi Government sought to achieve by putting a clause in the Act which notes that these cases would be referred back to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

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