NEW DELHI: A group of residents, led by the Senior Citizens Welfare Association from Signature View Apartments, plans to approach Delhi High Court on Tuesday with a plea to permit the evacuation and payment of rent amount as promised by Delhi Development Authority.
The apartment has 10 towers with a stilt+10 storied structure and two towers with a stilt+6 storied structure. While the matter is listed for hearing in the high court on April 22, last month, DDA initiated the process for hiring a contractor for dismantling and demolishing the existing structures. The complex was built between 2007 and 2010 and allotted to residents in 2011-2012. Butin a few years, they flagged the lack of structural safety.
“We will submit a prayer to direct the evacuation considering the towers are not safe to live in and are in a terrible state. There might be petitions filed by 29 people on this matter, but our demands are different,” Satish Chaudhary, vice-president of the Senior Citizens’ Association, said.
He said members from among senior citizens and at least 140 other residents decided to file the petition.
In Nov, the court had stayed the DDA’s proposed plan to demolish the apartments while hearing the plea of another group of residents. In March, the court asked MCDto explain why it declared the apartment dangerous, in connection with another plea by a resident. It also sought the Centre’s stand on the status of the building.
Last year, the high court stayed a plan by DDA to demolish the apartments in north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar on a plea by some residents.
On the Signature View case, VB Pandey, joint secretary of the Senior Citizens’ Association, said the building was declared unsafe by DDA years ago on the basis of a study done by IIT-Delhi in 2021-22. “It recommended steps to ‘vacate and dismantle’ the buildings immediately…. Based on this report, over 100 families left,” Pandey said. He added that DDA should remove the clause of paying them rent after all 336 apartments are vacated “as the majority is paying loan EMIs and not in a position to pay a rent also.”
