Nearly 5 lakh residents living on
the periphery of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) like Thane, Mulund
and Vikhroli on the eastern suburbs and Malad, Kandivili and
Poisar in the westernsuburbs were affected by a High Court verdict
last year notifying their land. Some
huge housing complexes as well as settle ments
in existence for over six decades were declared
'illegal' in theverdict.
Prakash Paddikal of Mulund-based NGO Hillside Residents
W elf are Association (HIRWA), said, "Based on the CEC's current suggestions and the Net Present
Value for these lands, we have calculated that residents with OCs may have to pay about
Rs 8-10 lakh to regularize their homes.Considering
the pressure we have been under for so long, that
seems an acceptable suggestion."
As for
residents without valid OCs, the CEC has agreed to consider
their cases after their applications with details are duly filed, Paddikal
said. HIRWA, along with the NGO People's Power
of Nation, has beenfighting for the residents' rights
for long.
Rajendra Manglurkar, joint secretary of the state Revenue and
Forest department, said, "The illegal forest issue has been hanging in balance for the
past 34 years and we want it to be resolved once for all. If the
CEC's solution is acceptable to the public, weare more thanhappy with it."
One-time afforestation
charges for forest land residents of pre-2006 buildings possessing valid
occupation certificate or completion certificate.
Between 10 and 15 times afforestationcharges for residents who have booked flats in buildings under
construction 20 times charges for areas which
have been booked for development but work has not yet begun or is in
initial stages.
No afforestation charges for
farmers owning land in non- agricultural regions and government
buildings in private forest lands. The Issue came to limelight in 2002 after the Bombay
Environmental Action Group filed a petition in the Bombay High Court over
encroachment on forest land. In 2005, the government told the HC that there
were encroachments on private forest land.While HC ruling went againstresidentsand builders, residents associations filed a Special Leave Petition inthe SC,after which the panel was formed.
A Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has been
appointed by the Supreme Court on the forest land issue which is headed by
TV Jaikrishna and the Committee
is reported to have visited Thane,Mulund and Vikhroli on December 30,2008.
KOLKATA-BASED Eden City Projects has come up with a new scheme for its residential projects, which requires an applicant to pay only
15 per cent of the cost on allotment and the remaining amount as monthly
installments two years later, on getting the physical possession of the flat.
“Book now and start paying in 2011”, seems to the buzzword in
the realty space. Explaning the sheme, Biswadeep Gupta, General Manager said,
“In the scheme called Empower all one has to do is to fill up the prescribed
application form with requisite booking amount, which is not very high.Pay 15 per cent of the total value on
allotment and sign a home loan agreementwith thedeveloper's home loan partner (whichcould be HDFC, ICICI or someone else) andstart paying the rest ofthe money as equated monthly installments(EMI) onlyfrom 2011 onwards, after the developeractually gives physical possessionofflats.
An increasing number
of developers are coming up with similar schemes, which is just another name for discount, without actually reducing the price of property.
It means one has enough time to save up for
a house. People who pay rent would be spared from the burden of paying monthly installment
also, and no interest would be charged for the interim
period either.
Eden City
Projects was one of the first to start
the scheme when slowdown set in. Others such as Riverbank
Holdings (which is developing Calcutta Riverside Projects as Batanagar) and Ruchi Realty (which is developing Active Acres), followed the suit.
Eden City's Empower claims to have more advantages than one. One can buy
a residential property at present prevailing price,
but start paying the EMI two years
later, that is from 2011onwards. One doesn't have to pay house rent and EMI together. Besides, one can choose the EMI tenure, of course, subject to loan approval.
For a two-bedroom flat of 796 sq ft, which comes with a price tag of Rs 14.98 lakh with car park,one has
to pay Rs 2.24 lakh as booking amount and start
paying EMI from 2011. Similarly, for a three-bedroom
flat of 1,236 sq ft, whose
price is Rs 22.57 lakh, one has to pay a booking amountRs 3.38Iakh, he said.
Ruchi Realty Holdings, the realty arm of Ruchi Industries, has also come up with a subvention scheme. Shivam Asthana, vice-president of Ruchi Realty, said his company has teamed
up withHDFC to offer this subvention scheme. Interestingly, the developers in
all such cases are bearing the burden of
re-EMl interests. For allpractical purposes, therefore,it is all but a heavy discount offered tocustomers in a differentformat.
The Bombay High Court has sent notices to RBI and others to respond to
public interest litigation (PIL) that sought the court's directive to banks to put
up signboards on mortgaged lands on which construction was being undertaken.
A division bench of Chief Justice and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud was
hearing PIL filed by one Rajendra Thacker against RBI, Syndicate Bank, Housing
Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) and Enigma Constructions, which issued a brochure under the brand name Rustomjee Estate.The brochure, however, did not mention that theland was partly mortgaged to a bank.
The petitioner's lawyer Sumedha Rao said: "We want banks
to put up signboards stating that the land has been mortgaged. Also, the banks should
publish a list of properties on which
they have amortgage or a charge." The petitioner's contention wasthatif the land's title was in dispute, the builder cannot 'convey' goodandmarketable title of the flat to owners unless the litigation over the titleends. Insuch cases, the buyers may get cheated of their rights in the property for which they have paid full
consideration.
Ms Rao, further urged that the builders may make it clear in
their advertisements that land was mortgaged.
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