Latest news with #RWA
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
Police involve RWAs in New Town, neighbouring areas for tenant check
Kolkata: Bidhannagar police are reaching out to residents' welfare association (RWA) office bearers of residential housing complexes in New Town and other parts of the commissionerate, asking them to furnish a list of tenants living there and ensure all of them police clearance certificates. If the list does not match the database available with the police, they are calling up the landlords and tenants to immediately fill up a KYC verification form or face a penalty. Last month, Bidhannagar police issued an order requiring all landlords to provide tenant details to local police stations before renting out properties. "Now, a police clearance certificate is a must for every tenant, as well as paying guests staying within our commissionerate jurisdiction, be it in gated complexes or stand-alone houses. We are appealing to all RWAs to help us in this process," said an officer. A Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) is an official document issued by the police or govt agency of a country to certify that an individual has no criminal record or has not been involved in any criminal activity that resulted in a criminal conviction. Speaking to TOI, RWA office bearers of multiple complexes said they have attended the meetings at police stations and their complexes. "Cops have told us to maintain a database of tenants along with basic details, like names, tower and flat number, number of persons staying in one flat, duration of stay, their occupations, as well as names and phone numbers of brokers and landlords, and submit it to the local police station," said an RWA official from VIP Road. An RWA official from New Town said 25% of the 800 flats in the complex are occupied by tenants, a large share of whom are Bangladeshi. "We are cooperating with cops," he said. Tausif Ali Azhar, DCP, Special Branch of Bidhannagar police, told TOI they have issued notices to 93 landlords for renting properties without submission of PCC and background checks on tenants. "We are giving them 7 days, and if they do not furnish the documents by then, they will be penalised."
Time of India
a day ago
- General
- Time of India
Panchkula residents protest double garbage collection charges
1 2 Panchkula: Residents of various housing societies are expressing frustration over being compelled to pay double for garbage collection services. Despite hiring private door-to-door waste collectors, they are still being billed by the municipal corporation (MC) for the same service. Previously, following a dispute, the MC had waived these charges for two years. However, this year, residents were surprised to receive garbage collection bills again, even though they continue to pay their private collectors. Col Avinash Sharma, a resident of Sun City Parikarma in Sector 20, which houses 1,113 flats, voiced his concern, stating that the MC's system is designed for streets and independent houses, not for societies. He said residents are forced to pay both private collectors and the MC, as the latter's no-objection certificate (NOC) is essential for various administrative tasks in tehsils. Krishan Jindal, president of the RWA of another society in Sector 20, echoed similar sentiments. He pointed out that despite receiving no waste collection service from the civic body, residents are still being charged. He called the charges unjust and demanded that the MC either exempt societies from these fees or deploy its own waste collectors to serve them. Adding to the residents' grievances is the issue of some MC-hired waste collectors allegedly collecting monthly fee from residents, even though they are salaried employees of the corporation. While the MC claimed in a recent house meeting that such payments are made voluntarily, many residents disagree. One resident from the sector said their collector charges Rs 100 monthly, despite the fact that they already pay annual garbage collection fees to the MC. This has led to calls for a uniform and transparent policy to be implemented across the city. Another unresolved issue is the lack of refunds for residents who paid garbage collection charges during the waiver period. The MC has stated that it has written to the department of urban local bodies regarding the matter but has yet to receive a response. Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal clarified the MC's position, stating that there is no provision for waste collection from inside housing societies. According to him, the waste collection vehicles are designated to operate on roads and streets. He also explained that the charges collected by the MC are not solely for collection but also cover transportation and garbage processing.
India Today
2 days ago
- India Today
Human skull and bones found in Bengaluru apartment pit, police launch probe
Human bones and a skull were discovered inside a percolation pit, from where the rainwater is channeled to the ground, at an apartment complex in the Begur area of Bengaluru, police remains were found on June 16 during cleaning work at MN Credence Flora Apartments in New Mico to the Begur police, the skeletal parts were spotted by workers hired by the Residents' Welfare Association (RWA) to clean the pit. The RWA president subsequently filed a complaint, based on which an Unnatural Death Report (UDR) was "We have sent them for forensic analysis. It would take a week before we could get any other details," said an official from the Begur police origin and identity of the remains are yet to be established. Police are awaiting the forensic report to determine whether there was any foul play week, a 36-year-old woman named Harini was allegedly murdered by her lover in a hotel room in Poorna Prajna Layout. Her body was found two days after the accused, Yashas, a 25-year-old techie and also a resident of Kengeri like the victim, is suspected to have killed her on Friday night. Police say the two had known each other for about a year, but over the past two months, Harini had begun distancing herself from appears there was a strain in their relationship. We're looking into all aspects,' said DCP South, Lokesh Jagalasar. IN THIS STORY#Bengaluru
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
A Tale of Two Cities: How Delhi's RWAs get the job done
It is the best of times; it is the worst of times. It is the age of speed-dialling government agencies to prune trees and bushes; it is the age of garbage and water trucks unable to enter narrow streets and turning back. It is the epoch of MLAs and MCD councillors smiling through complaints of sarkari (government) inefficiency to maintain good relations with the complainants; it is the epoch of work promptly promised but begun long after private contractors have solved the problem. It is the season of street vendors plying their trade under threat of police action; it is the season of domestic workers walking out of houses under the faceless gaze of CCTV cameras operated by the same people they work for. It is a tale of two cities, often unfolding in one. Take Delhi, for instance. An hour's drive across the city's southern half will reveal two sides — gated societies with freshly trimmed grass next to localities with rivers of sewage. Most of these societies have a Residents' Welfare Association (RWA); they are considered NGOs by the government under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and have no legal powers — but they do have social ones. Since the 1970s, they have been considered powerful links between authorities and city dwellers. Former Congress CM Sheila Dikshit would famously meet RWA representatives during her tenure. The Aam Aadmi Party even promised them more funds in their 2020 and 2025 Delhi Assembly poll campaigns. WhatsApp groups are often full of demands by locals asking their elected RWA representatives to reach out to the civic authorities for road repairs, security, street lighting, or cleaning sewage pipes. But there are caveats too. RWAs are often seen as conservative bodies, with only residents who pay to vote allowed to participate in decision-making. Young tenants frequently report monitoring non-vegetarian cooking, entry and exit of opposite-sex guests, and playing loud music. Urban planning scholars like D Asher Ghertner have pointed to how RWAs may have made things easier for the upper class, but have excluded the poor from much of the decision-making that affects their lives. With Delhi's administration changing political colours, The Indian Express travels to six localities around South Delhi — across income groups — to see how its RWAs, seen as the most influential in the city, are dealing with a range of issues. The affluent colonies In Greater Kailash 2, the primary issue seems to be encroachment. RWA president Ram Sharma says street vendors, who are supposed to only put up temporary stalls, have ended up making permanent structures — sometimes even building small huts in the back alleys of flats. With the patronage of some residents, they share electricity and water connections or, in some cases, allegedly hijack them. 'When there's confrontation, we've even gone to the police and High Court. GK-2 is affluent but there's so much dirt. People have started calling it gutter Kailash,' says Sharma. 'Sometimes vendors go away if we take the help of the police but they come back,' he adds. 'There was once a structure between flats with a woman and her mother living there. They started it as a mud structure, then made it pucca. We got their bathroom destroyed. They even offered money to stay here but obviously, we wouldn't accept.' The RWA has also written a letter to recently elected BJP MLA Shikha Roy, saying the colony is in danger of becoming a 'glorified slum.' Ratna Sahi, RWA president of Sheikh Sarai's Triveni Apartments, has a similar complaint. While there are many issues of a civic nature — road or sewer lines not being repaired promptly — the biggest grouse seems to relate to drivers and domestic workers, many of whom work in the locality and come from the nearby Jagdamba slum. Sahi says buses are parked outside the locality boundary late at night. 'In 2019, we moved the High Court to stop this illegal parking. In December, we even filed a contempt of court petition, with pictures of what goes on,' says Sahi. 'The traffic police commissioner came and fined them, but you know, a fine doesn't work. You fine them Rs 500, the bus and truck drivers will share the cost. You take action with a crane or whatever, only then it works,' she asserts. Security is a concern in Vasant Kunj's C-9 block too. RWA Vice-President S K Kapoor says that while the body doesn't try to deal with street vendors — they forward any complaints to the MCD — he has instituted regular documentation of anyone who enters and exits the block, particularly domestic workers and dailywage labourers. 'Crime goes down with fear, not the police,' he says. 'I've created fear with all this, registration of who's coming in… If something happens, they know they'll get caught. I'm just here to do public service.' The other side The view changes down the income ladder. Over in Kalkaji Extension's DDA colony, for the erstwhile Bhoomiheen Camp slum-dwellers, the most common complaints are drugs being dealt to children, sewage discharge overflowing the streets, and seepage so rampant that houses risk falling. Geeta Das, 'ad-hoc' president of the colony's RWA, is often met with requests to get windows repaired, bathroom pipes unblocked, and pensions released from government coffers. She's not the elected president as a formal RWA can't come into place till all houses are constructed and allotted, but because of her promptness in getting rid of a mountain of rubble around the locality when she first moved in, the DDA 'recognised' her as a leader 'who wants to take society in a good direction', she says. She, along with 12 other residents, has formed an ad-hoc body. A major concern of the area is the sale of marijuana and alcohol out of the DDA flats, often to youngsters. Das says she has written letters to the Deputy Commissioner of Police and DDA to investigate the identities of the men but hasn't gotten an appointment with the latter's chief engineer in months. 'There are 2,000 families living here and some of the flats have been rented (to outsiders). That isn't supposed to happen. Some flats have four residents, some 12, but the size of the house remains the same – one bedroom and a drawing room…,' she claims. At Aya Nagar, a village on the Delhi border, residents complain of dysfunctional tubewells, blocked sewage lines and roads so narrow that even ambulances find it difficult to enter if a family has an emergency. But the biggest problem, they claim, is having to pay bribes to get any construction done in the area. 'We've written to the MCD and MLAs… but nobody has helped,' says Kush Kumar, President of the C-3 block's RWA. For other issues, like water supply and garbage collection, tanks and trucks are brought in at personal cost, with the RWA collecting money based on the issue that crops up. 'The RWA is powerless (against the authorities),' says a local. 'What will they do?' But there are also stories of solidarity. Madanpur Khadar, another border village of Delhi, deals with many of the same issues. But Abdul Wari, public secretary of a local RWA, says the body bands together whenever government agencies fail to come through. He says, 'If garbage isn't collected on a day, there could be any number of reasons – maybe the truck's CNG tank didn't come, maybe the driver fell ill – but we have a WhatsApp group with residents and authorities. We send photos, they say it'll be taken care of.' 'Once, a resident wanted to bring a relative's corpse back from the hospital but the ambulance needed Rs 1,800,' he says. 'We got a letter signed by the committee, didn't ask for any donation, and used the money to help them out. We don't get any government funds but we keep a record of all that we collect. If someone isn't well, we try to help.'
Time of India
3 days ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Showers bring relief from heat, but outages continue in Noida
Noida: As Tuesday's brief showers brought some respite from the scorching heat, several areas in Noida and Ghaziabad were left without electricity for 30 minutes to an hour in the afternoon. In Noida, sectors 36, 115, 100x, 71, 7x, 130, and 135 along the expressway were the most affected. While residents of Ghaziabad's Sanjay Nagar, Loni, Vaishali, Indirapuram, and Vasundhara also reported disruptions, some due to local faults and overloaded equipment. Officials, however, said that most faults were resolved quickly as rain eased in the evening, but residents have pointed to the persistent outage issue that escalates, especially after the rains. Yashpal Singh Chikara, the RWA secretary of Block HD in Duplex Villas, Sector 135, told TOI that they were facing regular outages amid excessive heat, and Tuesday's showers contributed to nearly half an hour of power cuts. "Every time there's even a little rain or strong wind, the power goes out in Duplex Villa, Sector 135. Today, it went off due to a fault during the showers. Neighbouring sectors like 130 and 137 were also affected," he said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Skype Phone Alternative Undo Residents also pointed to the waterlogging issue, followed by the rain. Ashoo Sharma, RWA vice president in Sector 36, reported an outage that lasted for nearly half an hour and highlighted how old wiring in the area adds to the woes during the rainy season. He said, "The power is immediately cut off after any strong wind or showers. Our sector's wiring is nearly 48 years old, and no upgrades have been made to the substation. We have had numerous meetings with senior officials and filed more than 60 complaints through the integrated grievance redressal system (IGRS) regarding underground wiring, but action has been taken." Similar was the situation in Sector 100x after the breakdown of the 33kV line from Sector 115 affected the power supply in the area, leading to an outage that lasted for more than an hour. "Today's power cuts severely impacted several societies in Noida, including Home 121, Gaur Grandeur, Amrapali Platinum, Eldeco Aamantran, Aranya in Sector 119, and Prateek Laurel, Amrapali Zodiac in Sector 120, among others. "The discom confirmed that the power failure originated from the Sector 115 substation due to a transformer tripping issue," said Nikhil Singhal, president of the Noida High-Rise Federation (NHRF) for the 100x sectors. Indra Singh Rana from Abhay Khand 3, Indirapuram, complained of nearly 40 minutes of power cuts. "There were power cuts 3 to 4 times during the day in Sanjay Nagar on Tuesday, both before and after the rain," Tyagi pointed out, adding that the situation was poor consistently, regardless of the weather. "For the past three to four days, we experienced power cuts lasting over 2 hours during both day and night in Sector 23, Sanjay Nagar. The conditions were similar in Kavi Nagar, Raj Nagar, and other areas in Ghaziabad. This is primarily due to transformers breaking down from overloading and cable faults caused by excessive heat," Tyagi added.
