Today, we are ensconced in the ideally located Samachar Apartments thanks to a path breaking initiative taken far back in 1977 by some 60 enterprising employees of the Samachar news agency. Huddling in the basement of the PTI building on Sansad Marg on September 24, they formed the Samachar Cooperative Group Housing Society with Mr KPK Kutty as President and Mr BR Biswas as General Secretary.
These employees, who dared to dream of having their own dwelling units despite their virtual hand-to-mouth existence arising from poor salaries paid to newsmen then, were from two English and two Hindi news agencies — Press Trust of India (PTI), United News of India (UNI), Samachar Bharati and Hindustan Samachar — that had been merged in the name of Samachar for political reasons during the Emergency. Within a week of their move, Samachar CGHS wrote a letter to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, seeking registration of the Society.
RCS issued the registration certificate on March 17, 1980 and informed the society that a request has been made to the Delhi Development Authority to allot a parcel of land. DDA handed over to the society a plot in Geeta Colony on July 9, 1983 but due to litigation the authority had to cancel the allotment. Shocked by the sudden turn of events, the then office bearers ran from pillar to post to get another plot allotted and their efforts fructified with the DDA allotting us the land where we are enjoying the fruits of their toil now. The Bhoomi Pujan for the housing complex was performed on May 12, 1985.
After the allotment of flats to the 250 members and handing over of possession in 1989, the society had to struggle again to get electricity and water connection. Samachar was the first housing society to come up in the Mayur Vihar Phase 1 Extension area and as such there were no roads and shops. But the infrastructure sprang up quite fast, owing to the journalistic influence exerted on the powers that be. Now, the wheel has come a full circle and it is time for mounting another herculean effort to go for redevelopment to overcome the plethora of problems: flooding during monsoon due to our society’s low ground level, absence of a community hall to conduct functions, gym, sports facilities, swimming pool, and dedicated parking lots. Above all, redevelopment will usher in a never-before feel-good factor and no prizes for those guessing the reason right.