Woodstock, Nirvana RWA in standoff over membership

GURUGRAM: Residents of Woodstock Floors society of Nirvana Country mini-township in Sector 50 have alleged that officials of Nirvana's RWA were denying them membership, and also arbitrarily erecting barricades to impede their movement.
They also alleged that when they had tried to re-submit their membership forms last Sunday, RWA officials misbehaved with them. However, members of the Nirvana RWA dismissed the allegations, claiming Woodstock residents had trespassed into their offices, created a ruckus and had become abusive. Following Sunday afternoon's stand-off, both parties filed complaints with police, accusing the other of improper conduct.

The issue dates back to 2014, when bulk of the 369 Woodstock units were handed over to the buyers. The rest of Nirvana, spread over 180 acres with five blocks and 1,200 units, was administered since 2011 by builder Unitech, but because completion of Woodstock was delayed, they decided to form an RWA responsible only for the five completed societies, excluding Woodstock. But Woodstock residents disagreed, claiming since Nirvana has a single license where all societies shared parks and a community centre maintained by NRWA, they can't have a separate RWA.

In 2015, the then deputy commissioner had ordered Unitech to hand over maintenance of Nirvana to NRWA. Woodstock residents allege since then NRWA has harassed them by erecting barricades to block their way. "They told us to take a circuitous route, and wouldn't let visitors reach our society through their areas," said Savio Nunes, a resident. Residents said this only stopped in October 2016 after DTCP gave orders to the effect.

They also alleged they had approached the registrar of societies, who had reaffirmed that Woodstock must be included within NRWA, provided its residents paid maintenance fees. Woodstock residents said they had first approached the NRWA office in August 2017 to submit their fees to gain membership. "But our cheques were not en-cashed. On Sunday, after registrar of societies on December 29 issued a fourth order in our favour, we approached NRWA once again, and were accused of trespassing," said Sumit Kapoor, another Woodstock resident.

NRWA president Sandeep Mirukhar told TOI the allegations of Woodstock residents were all false. "We could have included them in our RWA, but that would mean Rs 10 lakh losses for NRWA," he said, adding, "Legally, we're not supposed to charge residents differently, even if Woodstock residents agree to pay up the difference. We've already given them access to our parks and community centre, but on Sunday they trespassed into my office, made casteist slurs and thrashed our members. After that, none of our members is willing to accommodate them," he said.

Deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh told TOI, "The matter is being considered by the district registrar of firms and societies, and DTCP. We'll decide after they submit their reports."