Picture used for representative purposes only.
The election commissioner appointed for conducting the AOA elections of Grand Omaxe, Sector 93B, Noida, cancelled the election process at the last moment.
Mritunjay Kumar Singh, the election commissioner appointed by Noida Authority, said that he was ready to conduct the election, but some candidates strongly opposed the provision of proxy voting, thus forcing him to call off the election scheduled on June 4.
A quarrel broke out between two groups of residents over proxy voting. While one group said that according to the by-laws, tenants have the authority to vote on behalf of the flat owners, the other faction maintained that proxy voting should not be allowed and only flat owners, who come to vote, should be allowed to cast their votes.
Residents said that this is the third time that the AOA election has been postponed. Earlier, the election for the apartment was scheduled on January 24 and then it was rescheduled for March 20 this year. According to residents, the election was postponed as the builder does not want the election to be held.
The above video shows the state of affairs during voting on June 4.
Surya Prakash, a resident, said, “After the Allahabad High Court ordered Noida Authority to look into the matter and ensure that the election is conducted, June 4 was the last date fixed for elections.” He also alleged that once the election is held, the builder will no longer be able to collect maintenance charges from flat owners.
The apartment has 1,320 flats and maintenance charges collected amount to Rs 60 lakh per month. Residents said that once the AOA is formed, the builder will have to pay back residents Rs 10 crore, which he took as security deposit from flat owners. Surya Prakash pointed out that this is reason due to which builder does not want the elections to be held.
But these allegations were strongly refuted by the representative of the builder. On condition of anonymity, a senior officer of Grand Omaxe told City Spidey that once Noida Authority gave the responsibility of conducting AOA elections, the builder was nowhere involved in the election process. He added that it would be wrong to blame the builder if elections could not be held this time around.
Residents pointed out that the cancellation of the election is in violation of Society Registration Act that says within 90 days of registration of apartment, the AOA election has to be held. Besides, it’s been 10 months since Allahabad High Court ordered Noida Authority to conduct elections.
Ved Pal, project engineer of Noida Authority told City Spidey, “I will call a joint meeting of both the groups of residents who are at loggerheads over the election process and will try to bring both parties on a common platform.”
The above photo shows the letter written by Mritunjay Kumar Singh to the project engineer of Noida Authority about the election.
