Hon PM Sir, You Too!

“My own recipe for world peace is a bit of land for everyone.”…Gladys Taber

Gladys Bagg Taber, author of 59 books, including the Still-meadow books, and columnist for Ladies' Home Journal and Family Circle. She used to teach creative writing at Columbia Varsity! While reading her quote I felt like I am listening words of our great PM as he too has put forward vision a step ahead than Gladys i.e. home for everyone! Indeed a noble thought as out of one twenty crore Indians I guess nearly eighty percent are homeless or don’t have a decent home to live! This is my guess from my exposure to real estate as to my knowledge no exact such figure exists & as the real estate lacks on data that too on Country level, it’s just a guess work of the figures for most of the fronts related to real estate! So on 25^th June was in a way historic for urban India; as though there were plans & schemes for cities of the country yet probably for the first time our country’s top bosses have accepted importance of proper well planned cities & announced a focused plan backed up by funding for the urban India. What exactly the schemes are will be published soon like "Amrit" which is for mid level cities with population above one lac & the hyped smart cities concept which has a provision of Rs 100 crores per year for the cities which will be selected under this scheme! So one can say “achee din” are on cards for the cities now!    

But in doing so, Hon PM lashed out on builders saying, ”For years the builders have lynched the millions of home seekers of this country & in the process all planning of the cities has been controlled by the builders & this won’t be allowed here after! The public (read as aam janata) only will control the development & housing related policies of the cities!” Well, there seems to be a fashion with politicians to lash out on builders on public dais & I thought our PM at least would be an exception as he comes from a region where every business is respected but he too didn’t spared builders! Though I was surprised to know the power of my own community that we control every housing related policy in this country, wow sweet surprise it was indeed! Before going in to details of what our PM meant or what he wants to make the change let’s have a look at the scene in Urban India; as why such sudden need of housing the rulers started realizing, then we can come back to the policies regarding housing & who controls it! Our country really amazes me many times, especially about our attitude towards certain industries; look at this, the govt advertises against all sort of tobacco as well alcohol consumption & yet it enjoys huge revenues from the taxes on these products instead banning such products production! Same way every govt officer & ruler criticizes builders & real estate, yet the govt gets benefitted maximum from all sorts of taxes on real estate & the very govt neither takes any action against any such builder who they call is building illegally & not giving good service to the customers nor against any such illegal buildings! Who has stopped govt from taking action against such builders & still all  the rulers & media claims builders are the main reason of making every crime related to the real estate & deterioration of urban India; well well, who we are fooling here but our own selves!

Announcement of schemes like Amrit & Smart Cities is very important step in many ways though as I am not in favor or in oppose of any political party yet somehow the past rulers have never acknowledges leave apart meeting the needs of urban India. In nearly seventy years after independence most of the population has shifted in cities mainly in Metros like Mumbai or Delhi. The govt neither gave any thought why this shifting is happening nor did anything to stop the migration. Here two fold solution was requires in actual; one is create a cause or conditions for the people who were living in villages or towns so that they didn’t need to leave their home towns & second brace i.e. prepare the Metros or bigger cities for this migration!  Effect was the bigger cities just swelled under the pressure of the migrants & now are on the verge of collapse due to lack of infrastructure & on other hand the smaller villages & towns local public bodies like gram panchayts & nagar parishads are on the verge of bank corrupsy because of no source of income to make them sustain the demands of the residents! Let’s take example of this State of ours which we proudly call as one of the progressive States of the country; today if you visit any small town or a village & look at the infrastructure then what we see? No drinking water supply, no public drainage system, no public transport, no electricity (I meant load shading, as electric poles are there but no power), medical facilities as well education facilities are ill maintained mostly understaffed & roads are main target of whats app jokes! This is about physical infrastructure & as its missing or poor so no Industries comes here so no jobs are here & as most of the agriculture is rain fall or nature dependant so the changed weather pattern has ruined farmers of agro based professions! Result is millions have to leave their home land & migrate to adjoin or nearby bigger cities like Pune, Nasik or Mumbai where at least they feel they will get a job which will take care of their basic survival need which is food!

But in the process the bigger cities or Metros got broke under the burden of these migrants. As no planning authority was smart enough to gauge the speed of migration which we consider as development or growth of these cities & then comes the failure of executing whatever little bit has planned. Let’s take example of Pune city, in last twenty years nearly twenty lac vehicles have come on the city roads, so however widening we do the roads won’t be able to sustain the load of vehicles & traffic issues will worsen! On same lines the present water supply agreement with the irrigation department is now nearly fifteen years old & the population has increased four times than what was then; outcome is water cuts & shortages & tanker lobby getting strong. As on one side we have fewer water supplies at source & then our existing water supply lines are inadequate & third are incapability in making new net work in the newly developed suburbs! Same thing is happening with every infrastructural fronts of the city & yet it’s growing! This is where the builders came in as increased populations other side was huge demand for the homes in cities & the result was increase in land prices!

So when Hon PM says no more policy fixing by the builders, I will like to ask that which city & which builders Hon PM was referring to? As speaking about Pune, to my knowledge no builder has got even power to get his own projects plans sanctioned in fortnight leave apart role in deciding policies for the city! And today whatever planning failures we are witnessing on every urban front i.e. right from public transport to absence of public toilets to beyond budget rates of land prices & even things like TDR, how any builder can be responsible for all this mess? Dear PM sir leave apart we the builders making policies but we haven’t been taken in confidence in making single policy like height of building or parking norms & rather that’s the reason of failure of all such city policies which we are facing today! Agreed the history of real estate & builders isn’t much glorious when it comes to giving service to the customers but yet millions of people are living in thousands of homes built by the builders only & its hundred times better than staying in slums & not having own home! And then we can’t ignore the role of builders as govt can make policies but it’s the builder who has to invest by paying high price for land, invest his money in building a project & then wait to sale the same building. Here when any auto industry related policy is being framed all the auto segment people are involved in it & same way the builders must be involved in making any real estate policy & then only if it won’t work, one can blame builders!  

Hon PM Sir, ask any builder of the Pune city that whether he has been called for basic things like making Development Plan or issues like Metro Rail or BRT? Also do ask what happened to hundreds of suggestions which our associations i.e. CREDAI or MBVA have given to local bodies like PMC or to the State Urban Development department on various issues related to real estate & then you will know who decides the policies here!

After all it’s the builders & not the govt who builds the homes & unless we take builders experiences in consideration no housing policy is going to work, that’s what has happened over the years! First of foremost is controlling land prices as well the material prices related to housing industry then only we can speak of controlling finished products price i.e. of home! Then comes the sanctioning process & various rules & regulations which has to be practical enough to execute what we want to build & then comes the service give by the developers to the customers. Hon PM, irony is in this very city an illegal building got built with poor quality, the very same buildings got sold to the citizens of the city & when such building collapse damaging human life as well life time investments of common men; now ask how many developers got punished for this crime & then do ask was the builder alone responsible for construction of illegal buildings & its sale & the mishap of the same? Sad part is nobody is afraid of the system governing the real estate, if at all its there & few people claiming themselves as builders take advantage of this system & entire industry has to suffer! Need of the time is strengthen the system & make every person associated with it to fear & respect it, even including the clients who buys flat in the illegal buildings or from so called such builders!

Hon PM sir, what hurts most to the person like myself, who is an engineer as well a builder by profession, is the top boss of my country making allegation on my entire community just because some men from my profession has misbehaved & whose fault it is that they have misbehaved & yet free & building more buildings still? That way right from bureaucrats to politicians, also has some bad names associated with them in the past but yet whatever we plan the very same system we are expecting to deliver the results!

Hon PM Sir, we have very high hopes from you for making this country a better place to live & trust me no sane builder wants to earn extraordinary profits by making homes but what vision you have we also share the same i.e. home for each everybody! But that will be only possible by working together & not by keeping any of the entity away & trusting each other the way a team trusts its team mates! Like you are selecting smart cities I request to select builders from each such city whose character is spotless & do involve them in the entire process of achieving this vision as then only it will be our vision & each of us will take responsibility to achieve it!

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

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Agreement ho gaya rabba rabba... permanent hua kya?

“Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent”…Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician, author, and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize & sure the words in above quote tells us he deserved the Noble for Peace! After all when both sides win there only lays the road to peace! Now as usual it may sound an abstract start of sharing but when the topic is agreement then what better quote I could have used than the above one? Well, my real estate blogger friend Ravi, who is consultant to many of home aspirants’ smsd me asking what if someone has paid stamp duty of the agreement & now wants to cancel his flat? What will be my response as a developer? Curious about the message I instead text replying called him about why he asked so? Before going in detail let me explain what are stamp duty & its role of flat agreement.

As per the law, any agreement between two parties about sale of any immovable property like a home or say a flat, has to be registered via govt by paying certain amount which is called as stamp duty. This stamp duty varies city as well area wise & the agreement is accepted by the civil law only if registered by paying the stamp duty as agreed by the registrar. Now the reason Ravi has smsed me is one of his blog reader has ran away (he used the word ran away so I am using the same) from the registrar office at the time of registering his flat agreement & as his stamp duty has been purchased so he wanted to know status of the same! I told that he will get his stamp duty refund, at least 90% of it as ten percent govt retains in case of cancelation. Or if the builder is good enough rather fair enough then in case he sales the same flat to any other buyer then within six months if such deal happens then the same stamp duty can be used in that case this guy will get full refund as it will be recovered by the builder from the new buyer! But these chances are remote! It’s said that curiosity is worst enemy of a man; so my curiosity made me ask to Ravi but why your reader ran off from the registrar office before signing agreement? Ravi said when he read the agreement final draft in the registration office the possession date which was told to him at the booking time has been extended by one year in the agreement! I was really surprised with the awareness level as very few people even bother to read the agreement draft in first place & to re-read it at the time of agreement is real admirable awareness & on the top of it react like this that to run away from the agreement itself! Well it indeed was a smart move by the guy is what I felt!

This made me think about my encounters with the customers & N number of stories which we read in media about disputes between the builder & the client! The agreement draft, sale agreement is correct term is the key factor which is neglected by most of the customer to avoid any unplesenteries later with the entire deal of a home which is once in life time buy for most people. Agreement of your own home is very important document & many come to know its importance only in crisis. Right from being a valuable asset to keep your claim full proof on the same to your residential address proof; this document is a key to many of the aspects of the life ahead. Also whatever has been committed to you by the developer while buying the flat, the agreement is a mirror which should reflect all those commitments in it! Again agreed to a layman’s eyes & mind the legal language is always boring & mostly we tend to avoid taking pains to read the lengthy agreement drafts is a fact. But we can try to study it as it’s for sake of our own home & then we can always take help from someone who is in the same field to read the draft & make you understand its essence!

What this conversation made me do is draft a few important say top ten points in a flat agreement which must be checked by the buyer. As even if we as a flat buyer check these main points then also lots of troubles can be avoided. Sharing the same here…

 Top Ten Clauses you must check while signing your home’s agreement!

1. Recital of property i.e. information in detail about the flat or unit you are buying. All the necessary areas carpet & built up should be mentioned including the attached terrace or garden area details if it’s there. Check for the conversation from sq ft to sq meter; remember 1 sq m is equal to 10.764 sq ft! The flat numbers & floor should be matching to what you have selected! Also check the parking lot, its dimension & its covered or open.

2. Sanction number & date of the plan of the project by the local sanctioning authority & NA order number. Also check that flat or unit you have booked is mentioned & shown in that sanction plan & all details such as flat numbers, floor are same as in sale drawing.

3. Check the layout of the project if its multi-building project & location of your unit's building in it. For e.g. you might have been told that yours will be a garden facing flat but in actual that may not be the case, the drawing attached to the agreement should confirm it. Same is with parking layout; check the parking drive ways & confirm its feasibility as many a time there can be a column in between reducing size of parking lot. Also check the change in drawings or layout of project clause. It should be mentioned that the developer has right to change the drawings but if your unit is getting affected by any such change in the drawing then your consent has to be taken for doing any such change.

4. All payment term details i.e. whatever single rupee you have agreed to pay has to get reflected in the agreement along with the stages clearly defined when they are payable & consequences in-case of delay in payment . 

5. Check the calculations for govt taxes such as stamp duty & registration as well service tax & VAT. See that you are paying what’s applicable only & noting excess or less as both ways you only lose. As if today you have paid less then later on govt can claim the same from you & with interest!

6. Possession date of your unit & the amenities as well infrastructure you will be getting along with your flat. For e.g. construction your building might get completed but the amenities like swimming pool or club house may not be there & builder will say he has assured your units possession & not all these things & he will do it at his convenience! Also check the clause mentioning all external infrastructural amenities such as drainage, power & water as well access road for the project & whose responsibility it is to provide the same.

7. Check the anexture containing all work specifications as well amenities list which should be in tune with what has been committed to you on marketing brouture, or whatever has been committed to you while booking. Also check out for the common areas & restricted areas as in many complexes later on the developer kept the rights of club house & gym & amenities like that; & the members have to pay separately for use of such facilities. Also check the window & door positions especially entrance door & lift numbers & arrangements! 

8. Look out for the possession delay clause & its implementation i.e. in what condition you are agreeing delayed possession & when you are liable to get compensation for delayed possession. Also check for the compensation terms & conditions in case of delayed possession.

9. One very important clause is maintenance clause for faulty construction or defect liability clause. What comes under defect or construction fault is needed to be clarified clearly.

10. Most important all the details about your own name, age, address & unit as well parking details etc should be reflected on index 2, a document which posses all the agreement & ownership details;  as many a times the clerk at the registrar office makes typo mistake & then you have to chase developer to get it corrected!

Let’s remember just above ten points doesn’t mean the entire flat agreement as each clause of the agreement is equally important yet these details can be confirmed even by a person who isn’t familiar to the legal language. Equally true is, not that all builders are cheat & of mentality to ditch their clients. As I have come across some clients who have appointed their own lawyers to study the agreement draft & no two lawyers can agree on each others drafting is a naked truth! No problem in getting the agreement draft crosschecked from your own lawyer but it should be in benefit of making a smooth deal & not to point out each others faults!

Finally as Mr. Carter said any deal should be making both parties happy & at peace then it’s worth entering; and a transparent agreement document is the one which assures that win-win deal! But then to any agreement both the parties are equally responsible, so to understand that responsibility & give justice to the same is what one has to learn; then only you find the key to permanent agreement of your own happy home!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

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Smart Cities are here, where are Smart Citizens?

“In great cities, spaces as well as places are designed and built: walking, witnessing, being in public, are as much part of the design and purpose as is being inside to eat, sleep, make shoes or love or music. The word citizen has to do with cities, and the ideal city is organized around citizenship -- around participation in public life.”
…Rebecca Solnit.

Rebecca Solnit is a writer who lives in San Francisco, California. She has written on a variety of subjects, including the environment, politics, place, and art. And no wonder as she resides in probably one of the best city her views about the city are so open , so very human which makes her all time great critics about urban planning especially city planning! Well in past one year what is the most used or referred term in urban India? Answer is uniquely one term & it’s “Smart City”! This is why I choose quote of Rebecca to start this sharing. I am no city planner neither any urban designer yet somewhere because of my profession I have been associated with the term “City’ very closely! As real estate is one profession which is very much dependent rather byproduct of a city life & that’s why since long when I first heard the term Smart City though my thought process was curiously on about it yet I was trying to gather as much knowledge I can about this term! As per many philosopher planners, architects every city has a face & it’s given by the citizen so whenever I heard Smart City term I used to think what it means by a smart city? Does it mean it has all the best gadgets like whole city WI fi & every action right from signals to infrastructural systems from drainage to water supply to public transport are controlled by one single computer like thing? Does the city can think rather is there any such thing like considering a city as one single personality as we call smart to an individual then how can we make a city smart? 

On this back ground first of all let’s see why the need of smart cities has arrived? Are there not already well developed & planned cities like Chandigarh or Ahmadabad i.e. Gandhinagar or New Delhi or for some part even New Mumbai which was planned keeping better life of citizen in mind? And then we have Metro cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai & Kolkata which are having great deal of potential & serving billions of its citizens for years! So what’s this need of smart cities in addition? Well answer lies in the current situation of existing cities as well the shifting of population’s fulcrum towards urbanization in last few decades. Till year 2000 we were semi urban country with most population living in small towns or villages but suddenly like an elephant getting awake from deep sleep & started running the Internet era grabbed our hundred crore plus population & speedily the social boundaries between city & villages were melted, too fast it happened before anyone realized it! Earlier a village or town boy like me has seen plush apartments in city like Mumbai only in movies & was happy as well contended with whatever surrounding we used to live. Same was with the boy who was in Mumbai about cities like San Francisco which were shown in some Hollywood movies or big budget Hindi movies. But come era of IT & Software, even village boys can have live access to all the information of life styles of Amabnai’s Antelia residence & boys from Punerei Peths have become frequent traveler to Bay area in USA. What this change has done is it has enhanced expectations of people about the surrounding they are living in! As now they have seen what it means better life which in actual is outcome of better infrastructure (though I defer personally about this concept but we will come to that point later) & now people are demanding this better infrastructure all around the country!  

This is where the concept of smart cities has been roped in by the present rulers is what I feel! As by next election more than fifty percent voters will be coming from the urban localities & if they are not happy with their surroundings in city as well with the facilities their city is offering then we don’t need an astrologer for the elections outcome & present rulers are smart enough to know this!

Now when the concept of smart cities has been launched but by me what is needed most is a standard pattern of explaining what it takes to make a smart city which is missing & even the top bureaucrats or the aristocrats are also not clear how to make a city smart is the scene around.  Here I remember the way world automobile giant Toyota works; while I was working on their service center in Pune, they sent us a manual about the service center & right from the logo at reception to service bay sizes & specifications everything has been documented so as there isn’t any space left for doubt or discretion & making its look same like any service station on free way in USA! This is what we need, detailed documentation of the concept smart city in depth & with proper definitions of the terminology. Even if it takes a year or two doesn’t matter but it’s a must or else even if the concept may be noble but the implementation is going to happen at local level & we all have witnessed especially with our beloved Pune city what’s happens with however great idea it may be! See the infamous BRT; we have invented the term mixed BRT, only the local body can tell what it means as where barricades are there its dedicated bus route or else its part of common road traffic! My my, I have seen a hilarious movie named, "Gods Must Be Crazy”, I think after looking at what we have done with our public transport  & with BRT, there can be a movie with name, “Punekars Must Be Crazy”!

What worries me most is the entire concept may get washed away if the people associated with it don’t understand the gist of the concept! More important is a manual which will decide the way the concept should be implemented as again I put forward that the brain child Smart City may have come from top level but the executioners are locals only! And a city where a new road gets dug very next of its surfacing for any numbers of reasons like laying water line to optical fiber cable, we all can imagine what will happen if proper guide lines are not given about making a smart city. Another aspect is defining clear responsibilities of every task in the smart city or else like cc TV fixing; the cameras were installed all over the city for controlling traffic chaos & signal jumping but no output the city got as who will maintain these cameras & who will process the millions of images was the issue as neither PMC nor Police were accepting the responsibility of cameras maintenance, leave apart the action about output of these cameras! If you dig the road for drainage line or water line by PMC i.e. local body then there are no charges but if MSEDCL dig is for power cables then they have to pay for whooping RS 5000/meter! And funny thing is all three i.e. drainage, water, power lines are part of public infrastructure only, such jokes can happen in this city only! On this back ground now one can understand the difficulties in making a city smart city as right from coordination between the governing bodies smartness is necessary & who is going to achieve it. So while making a smart city clear cut responsibility fixing of authorities right from planning to execution is a must & what if the responsible body fails to execute should also be very clear as then only people will perform!

After all smartness is something one has to feel & experience & not to be measured as how you are going to decide whether a city is smart or not? It’s the standard of living of the citizen which will reflect that & all one will expect is there should be minimum botheration for day to day living in a city. No problem of digging any road but repair it in time & properly is what a road commuter expects. People are ready to pay the property tax but the give them services mentioned on the tax bill. Here if a stray dog got killed on road accident, his dead body keeps rotting on streets for days as no one comes to pick it up is a fact! In a smart city all is expected is people should know who is responsible for every service provided & that responsible person is in place to respond in case of any problem in service arises! 

Another very important aspect is getting all the necessary permissions in time for whatever development private sector will be doing as no smart city can be developed without participation of private sector. Here a genuine developer or any businessman has to face two fold challenges; one is getting all sorts of permissions for his business as he is doing everything legally & then second is competition from illegal players in the profession who cares a hang about any law & yet gets away with it!  Also a respect for law has to be there in the minds of every citizen whoever he or she may be which isn’t a seen right now. This is the city where very basic law like following a traffic signal is also obeyed only if traffic police s there & the concerned police too are busy in collecting fines after breaking the signal than stopping the commuters from jumping it!

So, what is equally important while making a smart city is making the citizens smart in first place! Recently in Pune, along all the bridges on nallahs & natural streams I saw a nearly 20’ high chain link railing being erected. When I asked one of my PMC friends the reason he said it’s to make people refrain from throwing garbage in the nallah! God bless this city as what next? Make wear a mask to every persons mouth so he won’t spit on road or make chain link cage around every citizen to stop them throwing garbage around or fix a cc TV camera behind every person to keep trace of his breaking the civic law? Well, smartness is a characteristic or concept behind a city & any city you can plan & develop on smart concepts but to maintain it smart only the people living in the city can do it & by their own behavior! Let’s hope the top bosses understand this fact & then execute the smart city concept or else it will end up as one more fad in the eyes of common man & money making machine by many; like the last scheme named JNNURM from central govt was there!

To conclude I will give two recent examples which I witnessed about our present city; there was news about some Inamdar hospital building & illegal constructions of its building. Here when a common man goes for extension of his bungalow he has to go through all sorts of sanctioning grind & yet even a smallest irregularity in construction then every govt agency is ready to punish him but look at the news about this hospital, they have built five floors without any sanction is what PMC officials accepts yet they stood proudly without any action against them! Another example is even if I want to erect a small hording on my own project then I need permissions or else the PMC squad makes me remove the hoarding & fines me! But last week I was walking on paud road & there was usual cutouts of an Education Don (I think that’s a proper word than Shikashan Maharshi) & on the footpath & cycle tracks were blocked by these cutouts & no PMC or Police authority was taking any action on the same! What message we are sending to the common man by such attitude?  

I think in the so called Smart City, all the citizens should be treated as equal in front of the law then only it will become as smart city! So let’s remember a city becomes smart not by the rules or systems or buildings it has; but by the attitude of its citizens & every individual citizen has to understand & accept this responsibility towards the city; as there only lies the hope for making our city smart!

 

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

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