GHAZIABAD: Ghaziabad Development Authority‘s (GDA) board approved on Monday a proposal to collect Rs 200 crore from flat and plot owners in Vaishali, almost 36 years after land was acquired by it for the township.
The GDA board met in Meerut, taking several decisions that affect property owners in Ghaziabad. Among other proposals, the board deferred the implementation of mandatory structural audits for multi-storey buildings until discussions were held with members of Credai — an umbrella of developers.
The decision to collect Rs 200 crore from property owners in Vaishali is the fallout of a decades old land acquisition case — dating back to the years between 1986 and 1989, when GDA took possession of 453 acres from farmers at the rate of Rs 50 per square yard.
In 1991, farmers sought higher compensation and moved the district court, which ruled in their favour and increased the amount to Rs 160 per square yard in 2001. GDA challenged the decision in the Allahabad high court, but it further enhanced the compensation to Rs 297 per square yard in 2017.
The development authority then moved the Supreme Court in 2019, but suffered a setback there too. The apex court asked GDA to file a review petition in the Allahabad HC, but it failed to get relief.
Consequently, the development authority must now honour the court’s order to compensate farmers at the enhanced rate of Rs 297 per square yard.
“The cumulative amount that must be paid comes to around Rs 200 crore. This will be recovered from the original plot and flat owners of Vaishali,” said Rajesh Kumar Singh, the GDA secretary.
Asked how GDA planned to initiate the recovery process after 36 years, Singh asserted that the action was “court-mandated” and not “a unilateral GDA decision”.
“We are working on a recovery plan. Let’s see how we go about it,” he added.
Chaired by Meerut divisional commissioner Hrishikesh Bhaskar Yashod, a total of 16 proposals were discussed at the GDA meeting, of which 14 received approval.
The decision to defer the structural audit of highrises came with the GDA board’s order to consult Credai members before its implementation.
According to the original plan, structural audits of multi-storey buildings were made mandatory after every three years. The responsibility would lie with developers or, if maintenance was transferred, with the apartment owners associations (AOA). The audits were to be conducted by IITs, NITs, or equivalent institutes.
