Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Real Estate's Package Named Pain Killer !!

“The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.”… Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster was an American statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the United States Congress and served as the United States Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. Well, you don’t serve three US Presidents' in succession unless you have clarity of thoughts about why a govt exists in first place & this is why though we might be a largest democracy in the world yet USA still remains the best democratic country as people like Daniel are part of that democracy (well, until now at least). With announcement of RS 25,000 crore packages for real estate (read as home buyers) industry our govt surely has shown its willingness to make lives of people in real estate industry easy. Though many will say, which people, is the question as why help builders when they have enough money accumulated over the years! Well, builders have ample of (real loads of) money is sweet myth which common man believes firmly & I won’t blame him because not just the lavish life style of most builders we have witnessed over the decades (thanks to Page 3) but media also has portrayed it through TV serials, Movies & now web series, all of these shows a builder is someone with pockets full of money & an attitude which comes with it as well viilinaish characteristics i.e. going to any length to earn that money. So why govt now has to be so generous to help such community instead, can't they help with this money to the millions of needy common people who are living either in rental homes or illegal homes as they can’t afford a good legal home of their own! And again I don’t blame these people for such view as indeed we have millions of homeless people & this is exactly govt wants to do, to give these people their dream home & that’s why the package of Rs. 25k crores !

Indeed a noble gesture by the govt & on the face intention of the govt is very clean & simple as thousands of projects (read buildings) across the country are stalled due to recession (well we don’t say that word officially yet) making builders bank corrupt & damaging worst to the people who has invested their life time earnings in these stalled projects. So the govt intends to pump in this money in all such projects & save the dream of owning a home of the common man. Wow, great, noble, superb & etc etc but (sorry but this but don’t leave me ever) as usual just the way they say “behind every successful man there is a woman’, it’s an age old ghisa pita dialogue now, the newer version is, “behind every successful business empire there is a crime”! Again many of my fellow friends won’t like it yet on these lines I have formulated a thumb-rule, “behind most (not every) noble thoughts there is a selfish motif” & our govt is not exception to this thumb-rule! Again many will say so typical Puneri negativenss & I can’t help it as when this particular package to real estate news made an head line in most news papers & media by our Hon FM, share market responded in bullish way (what else) & developers cheered govt (bound to be) & we conveniently forgot many other headlines few of them are like, Vodafone (mobile network giant) CEO hailed govt policies & blamed the same for making its nearly impossible to do business here. One more was few of the big names in IT industry have announced huge cutting in jobs (read as existing jobs). Then one big name in food processing (Parle Industries) also announced removing existing employees, making a big stir in food industry. And then there are news of backbone of the production i.e. automobile industry’s sales hitting every quarter new low, Along with now routine (sorry no offence, we are immune actually, accept it) news of farmer’s suicides as well weather damaging the crops along the country! All above news were sidelined under the real estate package news & yes there is one firsthand experience also which I had, my younger son was working with Amazon who has done his graduation in administration & his batch of some fifteen members out of that nearly thirteen are from engineer faculties & he was telling me they are holding on this job which is a non0engineering job because they are not sure if they leave this one they will ever get another!

If you are wondering what I am trying to tell as we all know, business is not so good & there are job cuts around, so what? Rather that’s why the govt has declared package isn’t it, can’t I just see brighter side of the package thing? I do see, but there are some more headlines, now from our Smart City Pune, such as its six months, PMRDA (Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority) which covers nearly entire Pune district for its development planning, mainly Urban part, has not received a single drop of its due (read as demanded) water supply quota from the irrigation dept. And then there were news about PMC not getting its GST rebate from State Govt’s finance or whatsoever dept. And then we are immune to reading news of many govt’s infrastructure projects stalled or are going on at snails speed such as Pune-Satara high way work, Bhama-Askhed water pipe line, Mula-Mutha River (are they rivers, plz don’t ask) beautification again the list is endless. Ohh, can’t complete this list without adding few more names (read as projects) i.e. Garbage depot for Pune city & New Domestic Airport & The Ring Road, around Pune (actually there are two ring roads & it’s not joke) & The HCMTR (High Capacity Mass Transit Route), actually I am bored writing this long-form for ages! And then there is news about Judicial Dept (again govt) not appointing technical posts at NGT i.e. National Green Tribunal causing delay in several cases which are important better (read as Green) future of this city as well society, though sometimes it’s not so yet we need it to keep a balance between development & environment is also a fact.

And lastly there was a news (I mean any day you open news paper you get to read about it) about a Talathi of Mulshi i.e. Pune which is lowest rank of revenue dept, getting caught while accepting bribe for making entry of just 5000 sq ft on 7/12 (ownership document of land) of some piece of a land. And there was news, how some Aviation (NDA /Lohagaon airports) Authorities’ NOC is required for new developments in & around Pune & it has made hundreds of projects got stopped! There are many many, more such news but you will say is this my sharing or reading a news bulletin, so will stop reading news headlines.

So this Rs 25 k crore may seem a big chunk but looking at the volume of stalled real estate projects & land as well other costs its peanuts is what any small time developer will also tell you. But ok, even if it’s a good start, issue is how we (read as govt) will be identifying such needy developers because every project has different reasons & not all are right reasons. And in many projects its greed of the developer which has made the project in trouble so who will be competing such projects is the question & in many cases changed govt policy is a problem, what about such projects! Best way will be fund this money to the Banks & ask them to monitor every individual project or make a separate body (not again though) & give this fund to such body & ask it to analyze individual project so as the money will be used for the right cause & for that first decide the norms or criteria of the right cause! Or else this package will be restricted as usual to few lucky ones only and we know, what criteria for being lucky in this country are!

And now coming back to our govt’s package thing, how all above news are related to this package announcement, simple it’s all above such news & the reason behind them is what has caused the need of this package in first place! As real estate i.e. a home is costliest product (read as legal home) yet it’s a basic need, so just the way some money package couldn’t stop suicides’ of the farmers, no package can save real estate, mind it & accept it! Instead try to work on all above news headlines & their root cause is what I will suggest. A financial package is like shot of pain killer for the accident patient but what we need a surgery of the damaged parts & then physiotherapy, to make the patient stand back & walk, on his feet! And the patient in this case is real estate which is dependent on every above news item. A man or a woman will think (read as can think) of buying costly product like home only when he or she is financially stable means has a decent long term job surety or a good running business or a healthy professional earning & for that all above factors are a must which our Mai Bap Govt is either ignoring or neglecting & trying to wrap it under the package named over-coat! But do mind, (read as bosses in govt) a guy can’t remain naked under the over-coat, he needs other clothing also as then only he can sustain harsh winter. We need infrastructure, we need proper policies regarding developments, we need one window clearances for all type of industries (not just real estate), we need a corruption-free system (read as govt) & we need all above things fast, as the patient named real estate is dying & just some heavy pain killer dosage named as package won’t make him live, mind it!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..

https://youtu.be/al0NZ-7Zhq0

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html