3 min readJan 20, 2026 08:55 AM IST
First published on: Jan 20, 2026 at 07:53 AM IST
Four and a half months before Yuvraj Mehta (27) drowned in a ditch in Noida’s Sector 150, residents of the area had written to Gautam Buddha Nagar MP Dr Mahesh Sharma highlighting the lack of basic civic infrastructure, including poor lighting, damaged roads, waterlogging, and uncovered drains.
Sharma had forwarded the residents’ complaint to the Noida Authority Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Lokesh M, asking him to take the requisite steps in the matter.
Following the tragedy, the Uttar Pradesh government removed Lokesh from his post on Monday, and put him on the “waitlist”.
The letter to Sharma was sent by the residents of Samridhi Luxuriya Avenue, a housing society that shares a boundary with the water-filled ditch, on August 27, 2025.
The residents listed seven issues “directly affecting our daily lives”, including “the problem of accumulated water”, “need to repair roads”, “installation of CCTV cameras”, and the “lack of street lights”.
The letter was forwarded to the Noida Authority CEO by Sharma on September 2, along with a note.
On Monday evening, Sharma told The Indian Express: “When people write to us with complaints, we forward them to the authorities concerned. In this case also, the people of the locality wrote to me and I forwarded that letter to the Noida authorities with a covering letter asking them to take the action deemed fit, and to inform me.”
Four months after Sharma forwarded the letter to the Noida Authority, another complaint was submitted about open sewers in the area. This complaint was filed online by one Kunal Bhatia, a resident of Tata Eureka Park, the same society in which Yuvraj lived.
The status of this second complaint is currently “pending”, according to the official website, residents of the area said.
In their letter to the MP, the residents wrote: “Street lights are either not installed or are out of order at many places in the area, which leads to darkness at night and increases the security risk.” They warned that the poor state of roads had “increased the possibility of accidents” and sought immediate repairs. “The condition of the roads in the area is very bad, which has increased the possibility of accidents and is causing inconvenience to the general public,” the letter stated.
Soon after midnight on Friday, Yuvraj, a software professional, drove his car over a low, broken fence along the dark road in the fog, and drowned shouting for help in the deep swamp into which the vehicle landed.
Yuvraj’s family and area residents have alleged that the broken boundary wall of the plot, and the absence of reflectors and street lights added to the danger of driving in the fog and contributed to the tragedy.
Noida Authority has started identifying gradient slopes — that can pose safety hazards for drivers — and erecting signage borders and crash barriers around the identified vulnerable points. (File) 
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