Demolition: Signature View Apartments residents await house rent from DDA

Residents of unsafe Signature View Apartments in Delhi face eviction and rent payment issues amid pending demolition.

Satish Choudhary, 71, a resident of Signature View Apartments in Mukherjee Nagar, north Delhi, has been caught in a catch-22 situation. Neither does he have money to move out of the apartments, which have been declared unsafe and are awaiting demolition, nor is the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) ready to pay him the rent.

“Despite the High Court’s direction, the DDA has not made any effort to pay our rent. Where do I go?” rued the retired realtor

Several pillars and columns of the apartments, built in 2007 by the DDA, started developing cracks in 2012. A year later, exterior grit wash and plaster fell. The DDA asked the National Council for Cement and Building Materials and IIT-Delhi to study the structure, which recommended its demolition.

Mr. Choudhary is among the 336 flat owners who have been asked to vacate the premises. When they approached the Delhi High Court last year, the court ordered the DDA to pay a rent of ₹50,000 per month to owners of HIG flats and ₹38,000 per month to MIG flat owners until the reconstructed flats are allotted to them. The court also asked the DDA to increase the rent by 10% every year.

“I put my entire life’s savings into this home, and every day I live in fear,” Mr. Choudhary added.

Gaurav Pandey, the housing complex’s RWA secretary, told The Hindu that they had met DDA Vice Chairperson Vijay Kumar Singh and senior officials multiple times over the rent payment but in vain.

He added that they are planning to meet Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena, who is also the chairperson of the DDA, in the upcoming week to discuss the contempt of court.