October 03, 2018

Tired of waiting for the construction of their new homes in Bhiwandi, members of around 15 families stormed into the developer’s office in Thane's Lake City Mall on September 30, camping in the cramped room overnight in an unusual protest. They demanded that their money should be refunded or the company should present a credible plan for speeding up the work on the apartment complex.

Nearly 300 buyers had booked flats in Shree Dhanalakshmi Developers’ project, which has neither secured non-agricultural (NA) land certification nor MahaRERA registration. The bookings began in 2013 with families paying 20 percent of the flat price.

"I had booked a 2BHK in Triupati Pushp Kalash. Five years later, the construction of the flat has not begun. The company doesn’t even have NA clearance for the land and it refuses to return our money citing a cash crunch. Where do we go?" said Pramod Mane, who paid Rs 3.25 lakh.

On September 30, the protesters took up every inch of the company's tiny office in Lake City Mall, in a Mumbai version of the international socio-political campaign 'Occupy Movement'. Men and women slept on sofas, chairs and the floor in the 12x12 space. Company bosses, Virendra Singh and his wife Anita, tried to provide assurances, but they refused to budge, demanding refund cheques.

"We are fed up with the developers. Every time we raised the issue before, they promised us that NA clearance would arrive in a month or two. It didn't," another buyer said while spending the night inside the office. "We don’t want new flats; we just want our money back."

Ajay Tayade, whose three family members paid Rs 9 lakh in 2013, alleged that Virendra and Anita went home without worrying about the protesters' condition on September 30.

Another buyer, Rajani Jaiswar, initially paid a booking amount of Rs 51,000. "I refused to pay more without the NA certificate. The developers then threatened to dock the amount and said the rate would go up from Rs 1,800 per sqft to Rs 2,000 per sqft if I didn't pay up. I relented and paid Rs 1.2 lakh more," she said.

What the firm says

On October 1, Virendra, whose elder brother Mahindra Singh launched the project under Tirupati Balaji Group, and Anita tried to distance themselves from the business of this company. Mahindra was arrested by the Navi Mumbai police in 2016 over an alleged fraud in a Panvel project.

"My wife and I were never part of my brother's company, though my brother did give me power of attorney and I signed some allotment letters. After his arrest, we took it upon ourselves to complete this (Bhiwandi) project and brought it under the aegis of Shree Dhanalakshmi Developers," Virendra told Mirror.

He added that when the bookings started in 2013, the area was brought under Coastal Regulation Zone and Tirupati Balaji Group lost a lot of time trying to get the status changed. "It applied for NA certificate, but my brother was arrested and the company, and our family, plunged into a financial crisis. We need to pay Rs 50 lakh to get the certificate. We are confident that we will get it by December. We can issue refunds then," Singh said.

Anita said she per suaded her cousin, Sanjay Singh, to pay for the NA process to avoid troubling the buyers. "We haven't run away. We are trying to take the liability of what has happened and see that we complete the project. We have completed 90 percent of work in B1, B6 and B7 buildings. But there is a severe cash crunch and we can move forward only if all buyers cooperate with us," Anita said.

The Singhs have now given it in writing on Dhanalskhmi Developers' letterhead that they would obtain the NA clearance before December and they would hold a meeting with all 300 buyers. Depending on the cash availability, they will offer refunds to those who want to exit the project. Payments will be then made over a period of 12 months.

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Source:realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com