Greater Noida residents demand civic redress

GREATER NOIDA: Residents from Greater Noida complain lack of civic upkeep including horticulture waste in parks to unattended garbage on streets, increasing stray dog menace to rampant encroachment (by roadside eateries, kiosks, cart-pullers to erecting unauthorised unipoles for advertisement etc.) across residential sectors such as Beta 1, 2, Alpha, Gamma, Pari Chowk etc. While residents maintain neglect by private contractors they also complain authority apathy leading to a planned and green city like Greater Noida increasingly turning into a civic mess.

“The most green and well planned place like Greater Noida has turned into a mess of garbage heap, all round encroachment, parks full of unattended dry leaves, overgrown shrubs, broken roads and daily traffic snarls. Despite planned infrastructure, authority officials are unable to handle the needs of rising population in the city. All contractors of the authority are only interested in making money with no delivery on ground. As a result Greater Noida sectors are suffering all round civic mess,” said Harinder Bhati, RWA general secretary sector Beta 1.

Lack of authority apathy can also be seen in rampant unauthorised paying guest or hostel accommodations operating out of residential sectors. “Many times we have complained to the authority on these PG and student hostels which are all unauthorised. The owner of these accommodations is mostly out of town and only interested in the rent/tariff collected from such letting out his property. At times we have managed to carry verification drives with the help of police earlier, but still there’s no deterrent to this activity,” said Bhati who adds that most such PG homes are also a den of anti-social elements who resort to late night drinking and vandalising.

Further the all-round encroachment, despite GNIDA’s claim of carrying out periodic anti-encroachment drives only corroborates the residents’ claim. “Many times, the encroachers are pre-warned by junior staff from authority, as a result the encroachment drive only mocks the whole process. Unipoles across residential sectors are all littered with unauthorised advertisements even as Pari chowk area surrounded by many colleges is always plastered with poster banners of PG accommodation, food items or other services ads,” said Bhati who has also written to GNIDA CEO on the matter.

While K D Mani senior manager in-charge urban services GNIDA maintained that they carry out regular anti-encroachment drives as well as cleaning of defaced public spaces, the recurrent activity needs to be monitored and penalised. “Only last week we pulled down over 20 unipoles from different sectors and will continue the drive across other places in Greater Noida. We are also penalising encroachers,” said Mani.