June 21, 2022 12:53:45 pm
The resident association secretary said that the issues with the lifts were not new. (File)Residents of a Noida highrise were allegedly beaten up by goons on Sunday after they protested against the builder’s alleged poor upkeep and refusal to hand over the maintenance to the resident welfare association (RWA).
The police said that they have arrested seven people in connection with the incident at Sunshine Helios in Sector 78 and registered a case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 147 (rioting) and 323 (causing hurt). The police added that they were probing allegations that the arrested individuals were linked to the builder. Meanwhile, the builder company, Sunshine Infrawell denied the allegations and said that it was the residents who had hired goons.
Things came to a head on Saturday after four children got stuck inside an elevator in the society for 20 minutes. The resident association secretary said that the issues with the lifts were not new. “On May 12, one of the lifts dropped an entire floor. On Saturday, three children were stuck in a lift for almost 20 minutes,” the secretary alleged.
According to the association secretary, maintenance responsibilities have not been handed over to them for years despite a court order in their favour. “We have an order from the Allahabad High Court from March 2021. We also have four orders from the Noida Authority referring to this. Thirteen of our residents have won cases related to this,” the secretary said.
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On Sunday, residents took over maintenance and staged a protest at the main gate of the society around 3 pm. Karuna, a resident, claimed, “We were conducting a peaceful protest when a large group of goondas came in forcibly and beat up four residents.”
RWA president, Colonel (Retired) Gurwinder Sidhu, said he was among those injured. “I had a cut on my forehead that was bleeding quite badly… We are just ordinary citizens, we have no means of defending ourselves if they try to harm us,” he said.
The residents also complained that the builder was overcharging for electricity and had shut off the backup power.
When contacted, Sunshine Infrawell promoter and chairman Harender Kumar denied the allegations. “The residents were the ones who hired the goons in order to chase away the previously hired security guards,” he said.
“These allegations are being made to exploit our company… Electricity rates are being charged as per grid rates. Further, for several years, approximately 70 per cent of residents have not been paying maintenance charges. Their backup power has been cut for non-payment,” he added.
He also said that the lift maintenance is handled by a different company under an annual maintenance contract.
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