‘DDA yet to deliver on promise’: Signature View Apartments’ residents face double whammy of paying EMI & rent
It will take the remaining 201 families around 30-45 days to move out of the complex, as per the RWA, if they decide to shift and place confidence in the DDA
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The L-G and the MCD had ordered that the building be evacuated following a survey by IIT Delhi (File)Shweta Verma, a homemaker, moved out of her flat in Signature View Apartments, a premium housing complex in Northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, with her family in April 2023. Amid safety concerns, the lift in her tower had stopped working. “I was very scared… it was a matter of life and death,” she recalled.
The family, like 134 others in the housing complex, relied on the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to rebuild the flats, and meanwhile, pay them the rent for an alternate accommodation.
More than two years have passed.
Of the 135 families that moved out, 55 submitted the necessary documents to receive the rent, according to the Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) but all of them have been left in lurch.
The Signature View Apartments was launched by the DDA in 2007 and handed over to residents in 2012.
The 12 towers in the residential complex have a total of 336 HIG (high-income group) and MIG (middle-income group) flats. Soon after moving in, however, residents claimed that they started noticing the sub-standard construction.
Since then, there have been multiple incidents of debris falling inside flats and outside on cars. Following a structural audit conducted by IIT Delhi, Signature View Apartments was declared unsafe for inhabitation in November 2022. The survey recommended the demolition of all 12 buildings.
Later, the Lieutenant Governor ordered that all the flats had to be vacated.
In 2023, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) also issued demolition orders for the housing complex.
In a key meeting on July 11, DDA approved a “facilitation amount of Rs 50,000 per month for HIG flats and Rs 38,000 per month for MIG flats towards rent for residents of Signature View Apartments during the period of reconstruction”.
“The rent will be paid unit-wise to each allottee/owner as and when the flat is vacated,” an official had said.
Last week, the development body – during a hearing on July 18 in the Delhi High Court – stated that “those who have submitted their requisite papers and have been found eligible are being paid the rent“.
A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked DDA to file an affidavit, giving the details of the approval.
Urging release of the rent amount without delay, RWA president Amarender Rakesh argued that timely payments could come as assurance as people try to tackle uncertainty. “Once people see that DDA is actually paying rent, it will boost confidence and motivate more families to move out,” he said.
It will take the remaining 201 families around 30-45 days to move out of the complex, as per the RWA, if they decide to shift and place confidence in the DDA.
Manu Dhawan, an IT engineer and father of five, echoed skepticism prevailing among residents.
“They sent offer letters one-and-a-half years ago promising rent, but no one received anything. People are paying EMIs and rent. We spent so much money renovating our places when we shifted. We are bound to face losses. Now, we’re being asked to leave without financial support for even relocation,” Dhawan (44) said.
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