Stuck property registries, delayed possession of flats, not to mention the lack of basic infrastructure in some housing societies and the areas adjoining them, are the issues that independent candidate Anu Khan from Dadri constituency, also a homebuyer, is fighting for in the UP elections.
Khan, a homebuyers' rights activist, is in the fray against BJP MLA Tejpal Nagar in the Dadri Assembly constituency, which comprises parts of Noida Extension (also called Greater Noida West) and Greater Noida. The constituency has around six lakh people eligible to vote, with flat owners and homebuyers constituting around 1.25 lakh voters in the region.
Khan said as an election candidate his top priority is to resolve problems of homebuyers that include possession of incomplete flats, registration of properties and providing basic amenities in housing complexes.
Khan’s manifesto talks about issues faced by middle class homebuyers. He is being backed by the Noida Extension Flat Owners and Members Associations (NEFOMA), an outfit which he headed earlier when he fought for the rights of homebuyers during the land acquisition row in Greater Noida in 2010.
“With lakhs of homebuyers unable to get their houses registered, some left in the lurch with incomplete flats, not to mention the absence of facilities in housing societies, homebuyers are where they were back in 2010,” he told Moneycontrol.
Currently, there are a lakh buyers who are waiting to get their houses registered. Another 50,000 are yet to get delivery. There are thousands of buyers who are fighting for basic amenities in housing societies.
“We have spent weekends fighting for our rights by sitting on dharna. If I come to power my priority will be to fight for the rights of homebuyers who are yet to receive their flats or have not been able to register their homes. Also, there are colonies that have sprung up next to housing societies which do not have basic infrastructure such as roads and sewage. It’s here that most maids, guards and maintenance staff reside. My aim would be to get EWS housing constructed in these areas,” he says.
In the previous elections, thousands of disgruntled homebuyers supported the ‘No Home, No Vote’ campaign through which they had expressed their anguish over delays in getting possession of flats, Khan noted.
Another group of homebuyers in the Greater Noida area has asked the candidates to sign on a stamp paper that they would address homebuyers’ issues if elected to power. “Two candidates have so far signed on the stamp paper in which they have promised to look into issues of pending registries, incomplete projects and lack of basic amenities in housing complexes,” Abhishek Kumar, president of the Noida Extension Flat Owners’ Association (NEFOWA) told Moneycontrol.
Residents of several high-rise apartments in Lucknow have also threatened to boycott the upcoming assembly elections, saying that various amenities promised to them were not provided despite repeated assurances.
According to media reports, residents of Saupan Apartments located on Sitapur Road have even put up a banner announcing their intent to boycott the elections. "We will not vote if encroachments from the road are not removed. We will boycott elections," reads the message that hangs on the main entrance of the apartment complex.
In 2017, buyers in Greater Noida fed up with delays in delivery of their apartments, had launched a Twitter campaign: ‘no house, no vote’.
Last year, the BJP, in its manifesto unveiled just before the West Bengal polls had promised that it will implement the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act to allow “seamless real estate development” and create a “standardized and transparent framework” for the buyers.
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