Since last many years there was a Builders Vs Buyers scenario in Indian Real Estate Industry and it seem that this scenario is going to remain there in future also . Because lies and secrecy have become unique selling Propositions (USP) of this industry .Government authorities also keep mum on buyers issues. Why don’t concerned authorities provide necessary information to buyers ?, why builders don’t put real facts before them, why they hide vital information from buyers?
Since my last posts Pune - hub of illegal
Real estate activities,More than 150 projects violated Environment clearance
norms and what is the future of the projects that have
violated environment norms ? I received many phone calls and
emails. All the calls and mails mostly were revolving around only environment
clearance (EC) problems. For readers’ perusal reproducing four excerpts from
those emails and my comments here.
Problem 1 - The
Projects to whom State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) has
recommended Government of Maharashtra to
take action for violation of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 .Can you guide
me to find what were the issue in the case and if the case open against the
builder or has been cleared or not
My comment–
in my post what is the
future of the projects that have violated environment norms ? I have made it clear. And best option is to
ask this question to the builder because after legal action and clearing
objection taken by SEAC he may get EC. Hence it is their responsibility to
disclose the information about what action has been taken on the builder,
has the builder cleared all the objections and whether EC has been given to him
or not.
Problem 2- After going through your blog I asked builder
about EC.He said that he has applied for EC
& will get the clearance within 115 days.He said that he is not
going to start building construction till he get clearance. Now he is
asking me to do agreement by demanding 20% amount of flat cost. In this case I
am not sure to go for agreement with builder or not. What I should do in this
case? Can you please help me in the given situation? I have draft copy of
agreement sent by builder, can share it if you allow for it. Can I get your
appointment for consultation?
My comment –
Builders seems to be law abiding but then why he is asking money in advance.
Because environment clearance (EC) should be there prior to starting
construction? And what if he doesn’t get it? . Is there any clause mentioned in
agreement regarding that aspect?. What will happen if he doesn’t get EC.
( he may be sure about it because of something else).To me it is crime to sell,
make agreement or demand money before obtaining all the necessary permissions.
Email 3 -.
As a RTI activitist you surely or might have the contact or email id of
the group where we can Seek information whether any particular project
go to clearance or not.I have already gone through the Maha site link but couldn't
find my builder project so just want to re-assure whether my builder got
environment certificate or not. Request to share the contact number or email id
of the point of contact or SPOC who is responsible to provide environment
certificate for residential project
going on Pune.
My comment –
unfortunately there is no such forum where property buyers can get all the
relevant and authentic information.
Unfortunately all these mails
talk of only environment clearances and nothing else, as if that is the only
thing about which builder has lied and everything else is right. I wonder
how do people believe in the builder whose USP ( Unique selling point) is “
telling lies”. Environment clearance is one thing that has come to light but
there are many more things that are to be taken care before buying flats.
But big
question is why public authorities don’t put information related to real estate
projects in public domain?. Reason is
simple. Most of the bureaucrats and politicians directly or indirectly get
benefits from such projects.
In last many years in India housing
for poor or affordable housing has become a serious issue. Many Governments
brought many legislation or schemes to promote such housing. Be it urban land
ceiling Act ( Funny thing is this act was brought so that poor people should
get house and it was repealed for the same reason) , Housing for economically
weaker section ( EWS ) , Housing for dis housed (HDH), special Township schemes
etc. etc.
Many concessions benefits were
given to promote such schemes. The Idea
was to make available affordable housing for poor. But that didn’t happen
because builder with help of politicians and bureaucrats siphoned off all
these concessions and benefits in between. They didn’t reach to whom those
were meant for i.e real, poor and needy flat buyer.
For example for special townships
builder gets following concessions
i) automatic Non-agriculture
permission.
ii) Exemption from Urban Land
(Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976.
iii) Government land falling under
township area leased out to the developer at the current market rate.
iv) The condition that only
agriculturist will be eligible to buy agriculture land is not applicable in
Special Township Areas.
v) Nno ceiling limit for holding
agriculture land to be purchased by the owner/developer for such project.
vi) Floating FSI in the township.
Unused FSI of one plot can be used anywhere in the whole township.
vii) The stamp duty rates
applicable in the Special Township area are 50% of prevailing rates.
viii) A Special Township Projects
are partially exempted from payment of
scrutiny fee for processing the development proposal.
ix) 50% concession in payment of
development charge.
x) Development of basic
infrastructure and amenities.
However there are some conditions
also like
(a) Water supply. The developer is
required to develop a source for drinking water (excluding ground water source)
or get a firm commitment from any water supply authority to meet the daily requirement
of 140 litre per person a day. This excludes water required for fire-fighting
and gardening. The storage capacity provided should be 1.5 times more than the
requirement.
(b) Drainage and garbage
disposal. Environment-friendly disposal of sewage and solid waste management as
per the norms of the state pollution control board.
(c) The developer has to ensure
continuous and good quality power supply through captive power generation, or
draw from the existing supply system.
(d) The developer must get prior environment
clearance certificate from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests
(MoEF).
(e) Twenty per cent of the area
is to be reserved for park/gardens/playgrounds.
(f) Eco-friendly amenities like
solar water heating.
(g) 60% of the area to be purely
residential and out of the total floor area proposed to be utilized for
residential development, 20% of the same to be used for residential tenements
of 40 sq m.
(h) Proper road area with the
main road being 24 meters wide. etc etc
But what happens in reality. Builders get all the benefits in advance, however when it comes to fulfilment of conditions.
Both the builders and authorities keep mum. Whenever builders face some
difficulty bureaucrats and politicians come to their rescue. Whenever builder
finds any difficulty in getting commencement certificate they introduce a term
called “conditional permission“which is totally illegal. Yes there two types of
conditions some have to comply before work starts and others have to comply while
work in progress.
For first type of conditions
there is no excuse. Even then builders start construction and even before that
they start selling the flats. But when it comes to the compliance of earlier or
latter conditions authorities cry of having no authority to act on non- compliance
or violations. When it comes to oblige builders
, authorities read too much between the lines but when it comes to held
builder responsible for some thing, they don’t even read what has been written
in black and white?
For example
1)Central government by a notification
on 28 February 2014 conferred state units powers to issue show cause notice
to project proponents in case of violation of the conditions of the environment
clearances issued by the said Authorities to projects or activities within
their jurisdiction and to issue directions to the said project proponents for keeping
such environment clearances in abeyance or withdrawing them, if required, for
violations. But has any body heard or seen on their website of state units that
have kept someone’s EC in abeyance or revoked it ?
2) i) It is mandatory for the project management to submit
half-yearly compliance reports
in respect of the stipulated
prior environmental clearance terms and conditions in hard and soft copies to
the regulatory authority concerned, on 1st June and 1st December of each
calendar year.
(ii) All such compliance reports
submitted by the project management are public
documents. Copies of the same
shall be given to any person on application to the concerned
regulatory authority. The latest
such compliance report shall also be displayed on the web site of the concerned
regulatory authority.
Have you seen any of these
documents on environment department’s website?
As per environ protection act and
as per section 4 of Right to Information act all the documents pertaining to
various permissions, compliances, authorizations , action taken reports and plans must be in public domain. But what is
the reality? . If you go to environment
department’s portal, they have uploaded some information but that is
insufficient and not in searchable mode, hence people can’t obtain any information
they want. If you go to pune collector’s
website it also doesn’t help. If you go to pune
municipal corporations website, yes they have made available facility
to obtain information on commencement certificates given and plans sanctioned thereon
but it doesn’t work. Do you all this is just a coincidence? , certainly not.
Now what is the option for the
flat buyers?. They must do some homework; consult some legal expert or sensible people before
investing their money.
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