Residents in Noida are much better informed than those in many satellite townships. Newsletters such as Samvad and Flash are providing a lot of information that improves the quality of life of the residents. RWA of Sector 41 has now a website too. However, many a times some controversial local issues cause some ruffles too. Here is one:

I was shocked and pained after going through the December Issue of ‘Samvada Sector 41, Noida’. As I glanced, I found four of the write-ups in the issue are by the same person. I couldn’t understand if in absence of any one from the sector writing about the issues of the sector, the reporter has been hired by someone with vested interest to do it. I didn’t like the mention of my name in the cover report- ‘Residents Happy With The A-B Boundary Wall’.

Let me tell the writer and the publishers that the residents affected are not happy at all. Unfortunately, we shall have to live with it with all inconveniences thrust on us by some collaborative efforts of RWA executives and Noida Authority officers with vested interests. I was neither a leader nor I had supporters ever, as mentioned in the report. I was never the leader on the issue of raising the wall too. I only assisted when the residents that too almost all of them facing the road, requested me to be with them. On the day Noida Authority bulldozed the gardens and its own fencing, I had requested the President of the RWA to come and listen to the residents, but he never did. In evening some residents from Block A went to the RWA office to plead the case of security. I was among them. I was for a wall, wrote abut it but wanted it to be aesthetically designed and constructed without becoming an eyesore. Thereafter perhaps RWA approached CEO for a boundary wall without apprehending that the wall will not be constructed in place of fencing but it will be at only 9 meters from the built-up end of the residences. The residents objected when it started getting built up, protested, and represented too, as the free space available to the residents since the dates of the purchase, got restricted. For many like me, the choice of the house was only because there was open space before it. The protest was but natural.

After the representation by the whole lot of the residents facing the proposed wall, the CEO and DCEO agreed to drop the project. It got withheld. But then the CEO got suddenly transferred. In a mysterious manner, the project got started with urgency and under threat of police shield. The project can be a nice case study in collaborative corruption that is going on in all government institutions.

The boundary wall has come up. Noida authority has considered my appeal to make it nice looking. The wall can’t be demolished anymore, as it happened for the walls of the Block C market. But, the boundary wall has created problem for the affected residents. It restricts the movement of the cars of the residents and their guests.

Those who are taking credit for building this China’s Wall and are celebrating must also answer at least two questions and provide solutions or services. All the residents are concerned and worried, as it has started happening.

With the walls providing privacy, dogs, the pet ones and some humans of the same class are defecating in the area beyond the boundary wall. Passersby are daring to urinate in this no man’s land. Who should take care of this nuisance- RWA or Noida Authority?

Secondly, many of the residents of Block A-B had planted trees including some fruit-bearing ones (such as guava and aamla in my area) that have grown but gone on the other side of the wall. Who will water them, put in the manures and protect them?

Will the writer or his mentor take a lead to get this service for the residents through RWA or the horticulture department of Noida Authority?

However, Noida Authority has not done anything to provide suitable drainage to remove the water logging in the area when it rains. Now the water logging will be on the both sides of the wall. I wish RWA took up the issue with Noida Authority.

The executives of RWA must listen to the people affected with open mind and seek their active assistance in getting the maximum benefits out of the Noida Authority projects carried out at huge cost. Two recent projects in the sector: the boundary wall and the service lane along the sector are simply wasted money.

One question comes up in my mind after seeing the wide red line showing the wall with the report. Will the Noida Authority construct it all around the Sector 41? Unless the wall runs all around, it hardly helps the security cause. If the cost of the present boundary wall is Rs 16 lakh, what will be the cost of the total? Will Noida Authority create similar walls around all the sectors? What will be the overall project cost for the whole of Noida? Is it the best use of the taxpayers’ money? Should it not instead be a RO system for drinking water for all the residents or a world-class library or gym?