HUDA, MCG to hear plea against sector transfer

GURGAON: Succumbing to pressure from residents of 18 HUDA sectors, whose maintenance are to be transferred to the MCG, the heads of both the government bodies have decided to jointly address meetings with residents' representatives, starting this week, and address all their concerns regarding the transfer process.
The decision was taken by HUDA administrator Anita Yadav and MCG chief Vikas Gupta in a meeting on Tuesday, a day after TOI reported that the RWAs of the 18 HUDA sectors submitted a petition to Gurgaon MLA Umesh Aggarwal, asking him to intervene and stop the transfer citing various demerits of the move.
According to the HUDA chief, though the transfer process is a policy matter, major concerns of the residents will also be addressed. "We will be meeting RWA officials from sectors 4 and 7 on Thursday to discuss the transfer process and redress their grievances. A similar meeting will be held with RWAs of sectors 21, 22A, 22B, 23A and 23 on Monday," she told TOI.
Yadav, however, said that the final handing over of the maintenance of the 18 sectors by the HUDA to the MCG might now be deferred by over a month.
The sectors to be transferred are 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 extension, 9, 9 A, 10, 10A, 12A, 14, 15 (parts 1 and 2), 17, 21, 22, 23 and 23A. The date of transfer was earlier slated for February 1. The presidents of the RWAs of sectors 21 and 12A, Umed Singh and OP Kataria, submitted the petition signed by the heads of all 18 sectors to the Gurgaon MLA on Sunday.
In their petition, the residents have said that most of these 18 HUDA sectors are yet to be developed as per the original sector plans and thus transferring the incomplete sectors to an already overburdened MCG will make things worse.
Moreover, the residents believe that the MCG will not bear expenses of further development of these sectors at its own expense and so they want the EDC/IDC (external and internal development charges) collected from these sectors to be transferred to the MCG.
HUDA had said that once the sectors are transferred to MCG's control, it will be responsible for maintenance of all services including roads, streetlights, water supply and drainage in these areas for both residential and commercial areas. The records of all properties will also be transferred to the MCG. Vacant plots, however, will continue to remain under HUDA.
It had also said that to tackle staff crunch in MCG, HUDA staff serving in the sectors could be transferred to the civic agency depending on requirements.