NEW DELHI: Amrapali continues to be in news with cricketer Harbhajan Singh praising Indian cricket team captain M S Dhoni for resigning as the brand ambassador of the realty firm and complaining that the builder has not given villas to players as promised after 2011 world cup victory.
Amrapali Chairman and Managing Director Anil Sharma immediately reacted saying the players would be given the villas as promised by the company and the project is in final stage.
Dhoni yesterday resigned as brand ambassador of Amrapali, days after the unhappy residents of a housing project in Noida launched a social media campaign asking the cricketer to dis-associate himself from the builder.
Coming out in support of Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh tweeted: "Well done @msdhoni for dropping #Amarpali builders' brand ambassadorship..they didn't gave us VILLAS they announce after 2011 worldcup win".
"At least they should give them houses who paid..may be announcing a villa for us was a publicity stunt," he said in another tweet.
Reacting to Harbhajan's complaints on social media, Amrapali CMD said: "We offered these villas to World Cup winning team as to honour their efforts, for that we did not
charge anything. Amrapali Group never denied to handover those villas, nor now."
"In this duration, cricketers or their representatives did not ask about the status of their villas and also there were some relevant process and formalities need to be done from their end.
"Whenever they will ask us, we will share the required details of their villas with them. I would also like to clarify that the project is in final stage where villas were promised," Sharma said in a statement.
The complaints from the residents of Amrapali's Saphhire project in Noida had gone viral on Twitter after they tagged Dhoni in their tweets asking the cricketer to dis-associate himself from the builder.
Residents are complaining about the pending civil and electrical works in the project. The company said it would complete the same in next three months.
On reports that Dhoni's wife Sakshi has 25 per cent stake in a company formed by the Amrapali group, the company's CMD clarified that "this firm was established with the objective of charity, whose main motive was to serve poor and needy people through charitable hospital."
"But no activities were performed and no transaction has been done through this firm. So, there is no question of any revenue generating financial activity," Sharma said.
"Unnecessary, if a renowned player's image gets maligned, then both the parties will not be able to run the firm, whose motive was purely pious and charitable," he added.
Amrapali group is developing various projects at Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, among others.