Prateek Fedora: AOA election runs into controversy with arbitrary rules
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Prateek Fedora: AOA election runs into controversy with arbitrary rules

It has come to the fore that around 76 flat owners were declared ineligible for neither contesting elections nor voting in the elections.

Prateek Fedora: AOA election runs into controversy with arbitrary rules

With fresh round of Apartment Owners Association (AOA) election scheduled on June 30 at Prateek Fedora, allegations and counter allegations among the residents regarding non-compliance of the norms of UP Apartment Act has reached to a new level.

The society, which has nearly 250 flats, is located in Sector 61, Noida. It was established in 2013-14 and since then elected management committee (AOA) has been looking after the management despite having various difference on issues among its elected members.

However, the fresh conflict which has emerged is more serious than previous ones. It has come to the fore that around 76 flat owners were declared ineligible for neither contesting elections nor voting in the elections.

As per the information, in the last general body meeting (GBM) held last month, the managing committee issued a notification demanding that flat owners have to submit the copy lease certificate of the property. Apart from it, extending the criteria of proxy voting was another issue which many residents opposed. They also did not submit their lease certificates of their flats. 

“What surprised us that till last elections, we all were eligible for voting and contesting the elections. I think opposing their unjustified rules worked against us,” said a resident on condition of anonymity whose name was missing from the new list of members of the society.

Displeased with the dictatorial decision by the management committee, they said that a group of residents have complained to the registrar office in Meerut and the district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar and have sought its intervention to conduct fair elections.

A letter submitted to the competent authorities (District Magistrate, Noida authority and Registrar office) signed by 20 flat owners has called the current managing committee defunct as its tenure ended on April 17 this year. They further claimed that out of the three members in the committee constituted for conducting election, two have resigned and hence the committee stands dissolved.

These residents also claimed that the committee had fixed the date of April 21 for the elections and a notice in this regard was issued on March 21. However, the election committee postponed the date and has fixed June 30 for the election. 

“This committee has changed proxy voting bye-laws on its own and has demanded lease deed certificates of flats which we have opposed,” said Amitabh Srivastava, one of the complainants.

Dinesh Batra, another resident, talking to City Spidey said, “When two of the members out of three have resigned from the post then this election committee is itself ‘null and void’. And even if election is conducted it won’t be justifiable.”

However, the opposition differed with the claims mentioned above and said that the appointed election committee tried its best to conduct fair elections. 

According to Namit Gautam, who served as treasurer in the previous managing committee said, “The committee has observed that there were misuse on the name of proxy voting and therefore this time the committee demanded a copy of lease deed of flats to ascertain the authentic flat owners. As many as 96 flat owners have participated in voting for proxy voting and out of them, 65 had supported while 31 disagreed with it.”

“In the previously held elections, it was observed that many members were added for voting even from unsold flats. Apart from all these, in joint ownership of flats, only first owner is eligible for vote and contest elections. So there were many loopholes which the EC tired to avoid this time. They may have complained to the authorities but we have not received notice so far,” he added.