A rift that turned ugly

A peaceful protest carried out with the motive to urge the builder to make initiatives to solve the pending issues of the society took a fierce turn in Olive County, Indirapuram on April 1.

The residents of Orange County Society, Indirapuram, which was constructed by ABA builder, were supposed to have a meeting with the builder on April 1 to solve the concerns of the society. However, when the builder, despite being requested innumerable times, didn't turn up the residents decided to carry out a peaceful yet impactful demonstration against him. The matter became worse when the residents were held as hostage in the builder's another construction site. According to some residents, they were also beaten mercilessly.
According to the residents, in a meeting that held on December 25, the builder gave them a deadline to complete the pending works in the society. However, the deadline got over long time back but he never turned up or completed the work. Another meeting was scheduled on March 24, but he didn't turn up again. "On April 1 once again, a meeting was organised, but again the same thing happened. Finally, we decided to carry a demonstration within our society. However, when we got to know that the builder is busy selling his flats in Olive County site we decided to carry a peaceful protest there. While we were protesting an unidentified mob entered the society and locked the gate. They began beating us and broke the cameras with which we were recording the entire protest proceedings. Some of our representatives were held hostages and were tied with ropes. Police was there yet they didn't make an effort to disperse the mob. We were sheltered by the residents of Olive County in their houses," complained Madhur Dadlani, vice-president, Orange County RWA. It was after the intervention of other RWAs that the matter was brought under control.
Such cases have become quite common in Trans-Hindon area. Ugly tussles between builders and residents have been seen in societies like Designarch Vasundhra, Aditya Garden City Vasundhra, Amrapali Royal Indirapuram, Eastern Heights Indirapuram, Gulmohar Green Mohan Nagar and many others. However, despite knowing about these brawls in the city, the civic authorities have turned a blind eye towards them.  
Ashwin Gupta, director, ABA builders said, "The residents tried to damage the property and forcefully barged inside our construction site. The guards, who are supposed to restrict the entry of any unknown person in the property, tried to stop them but a brawl happened between them. They also abused the labourers working on the site and hence the gates were closed so that the kin and friends of the labourers don't enter as it could have made the matter worse. After the brawl, we also sent a message to the representatives of Orange County to conduct a meeting soon as previously we were in Singapore so couldn't attend the previous meetings. However, the RWA has not confirmed till now about participating in the meeting."
GDA secretary Subhash Chandra Uttam said, "We have asked many such societies to conduct a peaceful meeting with builders in the presence of GDA officials."