Government, Gunthewari & House- Maid's Dream of a Home!

 

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“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” …  Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Well, I respect Maya for her wonderful clarity about the terminologies like family, home, togetherness & bonding, all such are getting rare by day & that’s why I have been grateful to her wisdom which has helped me on many of my sharing about home! This one is no exception & thanks to Maya once again for her wonderful description for home & the reason for this sharing is three different news or say incidences & all of them are linked with real estate i.e., home!

First there was a news about “Mai Baap” govt i.e., Cabinet Ministry (who else) itself clearing a supposedly illegal structure or say building in Thane city (does it matters where is it) & waved fine which is in Crores of rupees which has been levied on the said project or builder by the local body i.e. Municipal Corporation. In plain words the govt has regularized the so-called illegal building without charging anything to the builder. Second, there was news in media about regularizing Gunthewari & conditions necessary for the same by the local bodies which in our case is PMC i.e. Pune Municipal Corporation & the buzz it has created among the concerns i.e. builders & people living in such projects or say homes! And third, my house maid was requesting me if I can look out for Rs 5 lakh loan to her as her present room’s (in some chawal, again illegal building) owner has asked her to vacate the same & she wants to buy a home for herself nearby, needless to say I stay in central part of Pune city. So, I asked where she is getting a room or home in Rs 5 lakhs in nearby location, she named area of a slum along Sinhagad road & it will be assured well-built one room with attach toilet & will be on her name but she wants a loan for that & no banker will give loan to a housemaid with no salary certificate or documents about income was her concern! And every day I come across this question by my drivers, peons, housemaids, watchmen of the buildings, how they can get a home of theirs in the central part or suburbs in the city & who can arrange loan from them!

And then I was asked by some builder friends to write about this Gunthewari thing & hurdles as well as regularizing other illegal structures, as if some buildings in Thane can be given clean chit then why not others as well! If Gunthewari can be legalized till 2020 then why not every such home can be cleared. Though no maid, driver or peon asks me to write about their problem of getting a legal home in their budget as first, they may not be reading what I write & second, they don’t believe that such writing can make any difference in their situation!  This last part even I wonder yet I keep writing as that’s all in my capacity, is what I feel & so here it is!

About the first incident of news, let me be clear, I am not a judge to decide what is legal or illegal neither I am taking any side about being wrong or right, I am just analysing the scene on the front of affordable housing as well real estate, which happens to be my work zone!  So, this Thane project which was going through a legal battle where the said developer has built a few floors without sanction which is violation of law & the local body was asking for fine which runs into some cores of rupees & which the developer eventually successful in waving it from govt itself! Ok, the builder has political background so it was obvious ripples it causes in social media as well concerned circles but let me put very clear, when it’s about violation of law & deciding on fines or waving of fines regarding buildings then the govt holds all such rights, so again speaking about legality this is no offence. Now speaking about application or use of the rights of the govt then comes the question of morals which I think is pointless when the scale of politics is applied, right? As even in case of murder or any such gruesome crime the Hon President has right of waving out the punishment of death which has been verdict by even the Supreme Court! Only thing is why & how Hon President uses this power to give relief to some criminal is the matter or can be the matter of discussion, which is the case in Thane building regularization!

In second incidence i.e. Gunthewari, first lets understand what Gunthewari means, as many people know this terminology just they know about GDP or Sensex but never know what it actually means! One Guntha, means a piece of land measuring approx. 1000sft. When you buy any land, however small a piece of it, there are some laws & rules which are supposedly to be followed for getting this piece of land to come into existence such as the plan of such plots needs to be sanctioned from the local authority. In nutshell, it’s like difference between a child with legitimate birth certificate & a bastard (i.e., a child without legal parents), same is applicable that you have a plot of your own but without any legal documentation & a home built on such plot is illegal as the plot itself is illegally created! Now thousands of such plots have been created in & around only Pune city & the Govt is in process of regularizing it by making policy with respective local body & here is where the PMC has made a list of documents which makes it impossible for such Gunthewari home dwellers to comply with & there is a huge cry over it as what’s meaning of regularizing if you can’t comply the documentation!

Ohk, again I am not judging but true if you can’t make something possible to execute then why you make such rules but here there is moral side of it as any such authorization even by the “Mai Bapp” govt which has been used immorally can be challenged in the court & that’s what Govt is playing safe on Gunthewari front! As on one side govt wants their millions of the voters which are living in these thousands of Gunthewari homes (read as illegal) to be happy by making their homes legal but on other side the govt don’t want to get stamped as immoral & illegal in doing so, right? So, what govt does, simple, declare something which won't ever be possible to execute & keep the issue dragging, that’s what it has done by making local bodies to face criticism for making the rules unworkable for regularizing the Gunthewari!

And that’s why I can’t ignore the plea from the builders who has done irregularity in constructing their projects & now expects the govt to regularize the same by paying minimum charges because if the govt can make every illegal thing legal or regular then why differentiate between the proposals, is logical question which the govt can’t escape from answering!  At the same time one newspaper has urged or appealed organizations of developers to challenge the decision of the govt to waive the fine in the Thane matter as its directly in contrast with the developers who builds their projects going through the grind of getting hundreds of NOC’s for getting one project sanction however small or big it may be! In nutshell, there is complete chaos on all the fronts of real estate & that’s bound to be the outcome when you don’t have a clear definition of wrong & right & keeps it changing as per your convenience, which exactly the “Mai Bapp” govt is doing!

And on all such backgrounds I see the face of a maid & hundreds of other faces who have nobody to answer their simple question about a safe & comfortable (and legal) home of their own! As is the case in the tiger-human conflicts around reserved forests, when a tiger moves out of a reserved forest & enters in nearby unprotected forest or village, it doesn’t understand the difference between such terminologies as protected or unprotected forests as they are made by humans & not the tiger, right? Same way, a legal or illegal home, is not defined by the people like my house-maid or peon or watchmen & many such. All they know is they need a home of their own & which will be affordable in their limited fixed income as well it will be at location to take care of their commuting to respective workplaces & basic living needs & where luxury is not at all the aspect of living! And when they get such a home, they don’t know (or care) whether its legal or illegal but the unfortunate fact is we the so-called superior humans who make laws & policies can discount the tigers for not understanding the human laws but not to our own fellow humans for their needs! I repeat I don’t support or in favour of illegal homes or construction but to condemn them isn’t enough as that doesn’t take care of millions of homeless humans who deserve their own home!

Need of the time is to control our greed, some logical planning & a will to make the real estate industry for the masses & not for just bunch of lucky or superior few & when I say “our” it includes every segment associated with the real estate, even the present buyers as when we buy a home at premium rate with all luxuries of the life, do mind somewhere around millions are living in the situation worse than the hell!  Here is where real estate, govt, policy makers as well media should come together & work out solution for affordable home to every segment of the society or there will be a day (which is not far away) that we will have to abolish the term “Illegal Home” itself as no one will be following any law for building his or her Home; if we want this scenario as our future then so be it, amen! 

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

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