RWAs face financial crisis as MCD delays payments for park maintenance

New Delhi: A residents’ welfare association (RWA) in Sector-15, Rohini, had to take a loan and use it to maintain their colony parks. The RWA hasn’t received even a single penny from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the last five years, and now the pending amount has touched into lakh. This is one example, and several RWAs recently have passed through the same situation.

MCD failed to pay Rs 8 crore to such resident groups under a public-private partnership scheme due to a shortage of funds. The system got underway over a decade ago to help communities take care of their parks. Overall, Rs 2 crore of this amount is pending in three areas: Rohini, Keshavpuram, and Narela.

Lakhvinder Singh, president of the D Block, Sector-15, Rohini RWA, said it is difficult to maintain parks and pay the gardeners. “Sixty months is a long time, and we don’t have patience anymore. We took over the parks to make them beautiful. However, it is now a burden for us as MCD is not ready to listen to our complaints in spite of sending a huge number of reminders.

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Currently, there are 1,315 RWAs registered under the scheme, and most of them have been deprived of getting money for the last two years. As per the scheme, the MCD has to pay Rs 31,500 per month for the maintenance of one park. Residents are in a catch-22 situation about whether to continue or break up the contract. In fact, park maintenance has been suffering owing to a dearth of money.

However, as per an MCD official, RWA had stopped the maintenance of several parks last year, and those who adopted the parks under the scheme are still taking care of them. “There is no doubt of pending amounts, but they will be cleared soon after the availability of funds,” said the official.