The Hindu : New Delhi News : Chinks visible in RWAs' armour

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Wednesday, Sep 13, 2006
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New Delhi

Chinks visible in RWAs' armour

Staff Reporter

`Not equipped to check misuse of property, unauthorised constructions'

NEW DELHI: It is not something that the residents' welfare associations across the Capital had fought for. From taking up and agitating on public interest issues, the slide into "politicking" and taking sides has now started taking its toll. The division within the RWAs is clearly visible with many stating that they are not equipped enough to deal with the responsibility of checking misuse of property and unauthorised constructions.

The latest notification of the Union Urban Development Ministry empowering the RWAs in A, B, C and D category colonies has left the various RWAs divided and the bitter battle threatens to spill over on to the streets in the residential areas. A few instances have also come to light where representatives of the RWAs have been roughed up by agitated residents or traders protesting against objections raised by a few RWAs over commercial activity in these colonies. Some people physically assaulted D.M. Narang and Arvind Mehta of the New Rajinder Nagar Residents' Welfare Association recently for their reported stand against allowing mixed land use and commercial activity in their area.

Similarly, Delhi Resident's Welfare Association Joint Front president V.C. Tandon, who until recently was very happy with the empowerment of RWAs on allowing mixed land use and commercial use of premises in A and B category colonies, is now on the back foot. Faced with stiff resistance from various RWAs and residents, he is now pleading that they do not have adequate infrastructure to decide on such important matters and wants the civic agencies to discharge their responsibilities and not drag the RWAs into it. What started as a movement against the poor power and water situation in the Capital has suddenly turned into a political agenda for some of the RWAs that got patronage from the Chief Minister's Office. The Delhi Residents' Welfare Association Joint Front, which once took up cudgels on behalf of harassed power consumers, suddenly dropped the issue like a hot potato. However, this charge is strongly denied by its secretary Pankaj Aggarwal.

People's Action and United Residents' Joint Association continue to agitate over power-related issues and adopted a middle path as far as sealing and demolitions were concerned. "We stand by our stated position that the inclusion of RWAs into the procedure for disallowing or abetting encroachments or illegal operation of shops was a bad idea from Day One. It was done at the behest of a few RWAs who have scant regard for anything except their personal comfort," said People's Action president Sanjay Kaul.

There have been instances in South Delhi colonies where local residents have staged protests outside the premises of the RWA office-bearers and even threatened them against creating obstacles in letting them continue with their business under mixed land use. In some other areas, parallel RWAs have cropped up who are now countering the original RWAs claiming they do not reflect the real face of the colony or its residents.

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