The Ghaziabad Development Authority has started posting recovery notices in Indirapuram to collect compensation linked to enhanced payments for farmers, triggering uncertainty among residents who bought flats and houses through resale transactions. The recovery process could affect more than two lakh people across the township, according to a report by Live Hindustan – NCR.
Notices began appearing in Shakti Khand-2 on Wednesday. Residents said the notices have been issued in the names of original allottees who received plots several years ago, while many of those allottees are no longer traceable. Most of the plots now contain multiple flats, occupied by people who purchased their homes later.
The immediate concern for residents is whether current occupants or buyers will be asked to pay amounts linked to land compensation decisions that predate their purchases. Sudarshan Awasthi, general secretary of the Indirapuram Welfare Association, said residents had bought flats or houses at prevailing market prices, and had also paid stamp duty and other charges on those transactions.
Awasthi has written to the GDA vice-chairperson seeking clarity on the recovery process and asking the authority to explain the legal and financial responsibility before further notices are posted. Residents have questioned the basis for seeking payment from people who were not the original allottees and who had no role in the earlier land acquisition process.
GDA secretary Vivek Mishra said the recovery notices were being issued because the authority has to pay enhanced compensation to farmers in compliance with a court order. The authority is seeking to recover the amount from the original allottees as compensation-related dues, he said.
The dispute is connected to land acquired for Indirapuram and Vaishali. The GDA acquired 1,295 acres for Indirapuram between 1986 and 1989 at a rate of Rs 90 per square yard, while 453 acres for Vaishali was acquired at Rs 50 per square yard. Following a Supreme Court order, the compensation rate was increased to Rs 297 per square yard.
After interest and damages are included, the amounts to be recovered have been calculated at Rs 1,355 per square metre for Indirapuram and Rs 2,381 per square metre for Vaishali. The figures have raised concerns in developments where the original allotments have changed hands over several years and residential buildings now house multiple families.
The notices have brought an old land acquisition and compensation dispute into the present-day housing market, where ownership records, resale transactions and authority dues may not align. The GDA has not, in the supplied report, specified how individual liabilities will be calculated for current residents or how cases involving untraceable original allottees will be handled. The authority’s clarification to the residents’ association is now the next expected step.
