Fed up with potholes, Gurugram RWAs warn of boycotting polls

A couple of weeks before the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) election, several Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs) of areas such as Ardee City, Sushant Lok-1, Nirvana Country, and South City-2 protested against the civic body on Saturday.

The RWAs siad that if the MCG did not pay heed to residents’ problems, they would boycott the upcoming election.

The MCG took over the responsibility of maintaining the infrastructure in these areas in 2016 from private developers. The residents rued that the MCG and the builders now keep shifting the blame onto each other while potholes on the roads widen.

“Our colony, nearly 4 acres across, was constructed by private builders in 1985. They are yet to get completion certificate from the government and are supposed to maintain the infrastructure till they get this certificate, but they are not. It has been more than 30 years and they could not get the certificate,” said Dr AK Nagpal of Sushant Lok Phase I RWA.

He further said,“Last year, the Haryana government declared that MCG will take over and maintain these areas. Now the builder’s stopped working. That is why we have come up with the slogan ‘No Road No Vote’.”

Some residents are even planning to nominate their own candidate for the upcoming MCG election as they have lost all hope of help from political parties. 

“The roads are in bad shape. There are one-foot-deep potholes. Even villages have better roads. Apart from the MCG, we approached many government agencies as well, but they all refused to listen to us. We’re all paying taxes and we pay external development charges as well. In return, this is what we get,” rued Ajay Makhija, a member of the South City 2 RWA.