Taxes, Real Estate & Affordable Home!

The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing...Jean Baptist Colbert

Well looking around the scene in real estate our Govt seems not to have heard this famous quote about taxation as the feathers are not only been plucked out, ignoring the hisses but even wailing of the Goose! Especially when it comes to Real Estate Industry, it’s bleeding by now leave apart shouting while the taxation continues under different headings!

As usual many rather most will say what’s wrong, if you earn then pay! And any ways when it comes to builders they are usually reluctant to pay back even a single rupee for any cause that’s why the Govt has to pull the things away from them! Well may be true in some cases but not always. For instance take the recent news which has stormed Real Estate Industry across the State of Maharashtra ( or soon will storm) is the VAT i.e. Value Addition Tax case in which the High court has decided against the developers. And has allowed the Sales Tax Department to collect the VAT from 2010 but  to charge for the same since 2006 i.e. even on completed projects too. After all its a court decision & the matter will go surely to higher courts but till the time being it’s one more hole in the pocket for the developers & eventually for the flat buyers. As usual many rather most will say what big deal, which developer pays the same from his pocket! Well this time the case is bit different & complex as the retrospective effect for VAT collection is from 2006, many of the projects have been completed & flat holders have been given possession of their respective homes. Though this particular clash was going on since then that whether VAT is applicable on home making, the Sales Tax dept hasn’t been collecting the same till 2010 so whatever tax was due in these five years is the issue of dispute now between the Developers & the Sales Tax Dept. Though by agreement it’s mandatory to pay it by the flat holder as mostly in all flat agreements this idea has been clearly given to the flat buyer, yet now the conflict will be between the customers & the developers over paying this tax even after getting possession of their home! Not many of the flat holders will be even remembering such clause in their flat agreements leave apart paying the liability. And this may cause the developers to take a stand not to make conveyance of the such properties as if the flat holder refuses to pay  Vat then it will be breech of the contract, if there is such clause in flat sale agreement between himself & the developer. One direct impact which is unavoidable is the hike in home prices as the developers will have to recover this unexpected financial burden & if they are unable to do it from the existing flat holders then naturally other only way is get it from the new ones! I am not justifying this action just putting forward the facts what may happen.

Now with the case has been lost by Developers on high Court the Sales Tax Dept has started plucking the feathers i.e. sent notices & the dead line to pay the tax liability from 2006 has been set as 31st August!  By now there must have been many news making headlines as well articles written on the issue by tax experts so no point in going in the details as even the experts seems to be yet confused about the mode of VAT for the retrospective effect years. I am not authority to decide whether its justifiable to charge any tax retrospective as courts are there to decide but as developer by myself &a as a commoner who knows little about taxes all I expect is whatever you charge should be simple to understand. At least what I am going to pay from my pocket should be clear to me so I can arrange my finances accordingly & this is the least any tax payer can ask for! Look at the scene this is going to cause, I have to pay something which I don’t know how much it’s going to be, and whenever such situation is there we all know where it will lead at end? You may not name corruption directly but there will be many cases of trying to run away from the actual figure is a fact. Why can’t before serving the notices the concerned dept itself do a little home work & figure out exact & simple way of calculating the VAT, so there would not have been the confusion about arriving at the figure in itself!

Similar thing have kept happening may it be VAT or Service tax or even the premiums required for the plan sanctioning at governing body's level. Everyone thinks that Real Estate is like the Hen in that story which used to lay Golden eggs. But then we have never known to learn from the folk stories & like the story here in actual too we are hell bend on cutting the Hen than enjoying one egg per day forever! One will wonder with my statement but fact is ever Govt dept concerned with real estate wants their cut from the industry & in the process they are forgetting that to whom they are actually bleeding? A home is very basic need of any citizen of this country especially the urban India & already the prices are way beyond budge for most of the people. On one side the Govt is screaming to make affordable houses & making appeals to the developers for making them & on other side burdening the homes each day with new taxes. Have we thought who is getting burdened under these taxes? The developer isn’t surely going to take any of this load but to pass on the end buyer who is a common man seeking for his own home. Just take a look at the list of the taxes or money being paid to various Govt agencies in process of sanctioning a home to make it ready & then you will realize the quantum of money a common home buyer ends up in paying to the Govt for buying a home!

The journey starts right from the sanction process of a home i.e. project by the developer. Presently just in forms of various premiums like for balcony, terraces, stair case areas & development charges one has to pay nearly 150/- to 300/- per sft of FSI. Then there are labor fund charges. You have to pay for slum rehabilitation for use of slum TDR. Then there are various charges to be paid for use of road FSI ( though it’s your own road you are handing over to PMC), water development charges. All such are being collected by local governing body. After that come in revenue dept which chare for NA i.e. giving Non Agricultural permissions after the plans have been sanctioned & then City Survey Dept which charges hefty for measuring your own plot! All these charges are paid by the developer to get the project sanctioned. Then comes the registration charges & stamp duty. That is nearly 6% of agreement cost in city limits i.e. if flat agreement of 4000/- per sft the you end up paying nearly 240/- per sft to stamp dept of Govt. The story doesn’t end her then you have service tax for Central Govt which is nearly 2.5% of the agreement cost & latest entry is VAT which will be 3% approximately ( not sure as final way of charging is yet to arrived) of the agreement cost. If roughly calculated then to my opinion we will be paying nearly 600/- per sq.ft of the flat area in the form of various taxes & charges to the Govt's different Departments in the process of making a home & selling the same. Here I am not counting the time consumed in all this process & cost of the same. Needless to say this amount is being eventually recovered by the customer only! Then there is the power supply i.e. MSEB meter charges which are like icing on cake & charged separately per flat & that varies from project to project. And lastly for those who avails the home loan there is bank processing fees & registration / stamp duty for loan amount!

Here no developer is paying this from his pocket & why blame developer no manufacturer ever pays anything from his pocket is a well known but unsaid truth! Every single Rupee is charged on the end buyer of the product & a home is not exception! This is what I never understand as when the product is like home & one so dear to the heart of millions in this country why can’t there has been a single taxation concept which will make life easier for many. Nobody is against paying taxes  it’s about the way you worked out them. As the developer will know how much he has to pay for making a home so as there can be better transparency in the entire process which is missing presently. Today mostly all flat agreements carries a clause a saying whatever Govt Taxes/ Duties applicable will have to be paid by the purchaser as actual. This clause even puts the purchaser in dilemma as he never knows actually how much he is going to pay till end while buying a home. This does not only disturbs his financial planning but the entire real estate industry comes in doubt as where is the term we call Transparency? Lastly have we thought that by charging so much on every aspect of real estate how we are going to make the home affordable which is the main need of the time. As agreed it’s the taxes we pay which makes a nation able to go on but that has to be done balancing all these aspects & if there are taxes then there should be rewards also for right cause such as making homes available to real needy ones! After all what a common man can expect from the Govt is just a shelter on his head & for that he is going to pay whatever the Govt asks, question is are we going to consider his shouts of pain while doing this or going ahead to pluck the feathers ignoring the same!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.

com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !(Click link below)

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65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

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Expanding the City! Part 3

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell...Edward Abbey.

Well this quote from the great author perfectly fits for our subject i.e. merging of adjoining new villages in Municipal Corporation. We should remember the basic objective of expanding the city limits or else it will be just on paper & not towards what we want to achieve out of it. What we should be looking for is a monolithic growth covering all features of development of this very city but in actual look what we are doing? More than ten years have been passed by de-merging 8 villages & merging 15 villages in PMC & we are yet unable to approve final Development plan of the city & major issues like TDR these area which are very important for acquiring the lands for various reservations haven’t yet decided up on. Why TDR even we have not taken any firm stand of burning issue of Hill Top Hill Slope under which more than 10% of the newly acquired villages area is coming!

Being an engineer by myself as well having a little bit exposure for urban planning I haven’t yet understood why we made two development plans for one city? I.e. for old limits separate DP & for newly acquired villages separate DP! Has such thing been done any where i.e. wit any other city, have we checked it with senior urban planners? Why one city couldn’t have one DP? Will it not be more easier to plan a city in whole than in pieces & then to link them? And why it’s taking so long for us to get our DP sanctioned & come in working? All these things shows our rulers attitude towards the issue of city development. And these things do come to even common man's mind also but seems to get skipped by our rulers!

And on this back ground we are going ahead for expanding our city further by acquiring nearly 10 more villages. Going with the present logic of planning, shall we expect a third DP for these villages? Which sure will be a gunnies book record i.e. making three development plan for one city! And if we are taking ten years for just getting one DP sanctioned of newly merged villages which are with us & even elections being conducted for the same & they have representives from them on PMC, yet no one demands the DP for their area, what all this indicates? Look at the areas which are there now with PMC since ten years, even the most accessible & sought after suburbs like Baner & Balewadi, basic facilities like drainage, water & road network isn’t been there yet to even 50% of the area! And when some proposal is made to get the road net work done there is a shout that it’s for developers benefit! Well, where ever a building is being build & sold there is developers benefit but then where should the citizens of this city will live if not in buildings? The infrastructure in whatever form it comes should be welcomed as every citizen of this city deserves good roads , water supply, drainage & electricity as his basic right. And even a single building has been build in any of the suburb, we have to give them proper infrastructure like other citizen in main city are having as they too are paying property tax like all other people does. And in fact acquiring land for roads is first & foremost important thing in any urban planning as along the roads only other services can be planned as well we can go to the lands which have been reserved for different purposes. Simple thing like proper tree plantation along the roads should be done as early as possible as then only the trees we have planted now will be in position to absorb the polluted gases when the traffic on these roads will increase in future! Actually we should learn from countries like USA where roads are build first & then the buildings follows. Leave apart the cultural infrastructure like play ground & hospitals which are always neglected here in our urban planning which comes last. All this because we have taken the villages in PMC just for the sake of growth & not for development is what one can conclude if going by our actions.

Recently there was a news about a court case by the residents of a complex against the developer for supplying the water for a project which is in PMC limits. The court gave a verdict against the developer saying it’s his responsibility as at the time of plan sanctioning he has submitted an undertaking in PMC that it will be his responsibility to provide the water at his cost to the residents if PMC fails to do so! Well it’s good to save their own skin but when PMC accepts all the money paid in form of various premiums which is supposed for the development of infrastructure & approves the plans then is not their primary responsibility to provide water & drainage like facilities! Taking such undertaking & passing the plans is a sign of sheer monopoly ruling system & just as they are the only governing authority they are making rules on one way & getting benefitted both ways without any responsibility. If the residents are living their & using the water why shall not they only pay for the same, was PMC supposed to supply them water at free of cost? Why PMC has to take undertaking saying developer will bear the expenses of water supply? And as I have already said this is just tip of the iceberg  because there will be many more issues about the road condition, drainage discharge in adjoining natural water bodies , because we have expanded  ourselves but not grown! It’s like a child who simply increase in size with age but totally dependent on the parents for daily basic activities. Unfortunately in our case the parents have refused to take responsibility of the child yet have given birth to it is the fact!

No one denies the need of merging the adjoining villages as the city is growing & will keep on in future to is a writing on the wall. But then we were never known to read the writings on the wall! This merging should have done ten years back only but any ways now also the time has yet run out fullely. And why just ten villages? Like the core area of forest has a buffer zone , whatever is our buffer area lets define it first & then merge that all will be a proper way to do it. As planning of city is not a thing one keeps on doing on yearly basis. Such types of decisions have long lasting impact on the main city & its people so we need to think down the line for at least 50-60 years & then decide our capacity to expand for once on final time only. As it’s a shame that just after ten years even before we have finalized the DP for the same we realize that whatever merging has been done ten years back was inadequate & so put forward proposal for new merging of surrounding villages! The same story should not be repeated every ten years like Jana Ganana is what good planning is.

And the journey has just started by making a resolution that to by just one of the ruling party. It has to be yet tabled in front of General Body i.e. main house of all elected members then the comprehensive plan has to be made for the exact area to be acquired. Again the said villages Gram Panchayts has to accept this merging & then proposal will be send to State Govt's Urban Development Dept & suggestion objects will be called up on then green signal will be shown to the proposal. We can imagine when just DP passing of existing acquired area can take ten years then how much time will be required to complete the whole journey of new acquisition & planning for the same! Unfortunate is the city won’t stop growing in all these years which will be wasted in just deciding whether to acquire the villages or not & if yes how? We are neglecting this fact & not prepared to deal with it. There is provision of applying rules  for the areas within ten kilometer radius from the existing PMC boundary, which are for class A municipal corporation but the current governing bodies for this area has got no man power or system  to keep proper check on the implementation of these rules. The plans of the new developments in these to be acquired villages may get passed by applying the rules but there is no assurance that it will be followed in actual at site. And what about acquisition of reservation lands & their safety, who will be taking that responsibility, just few more undertakings! Nobody is taking in to consideration what has happened all around us; for e.g. Parvati Hills slum! What guarantee is there that when all the procedure for acquiring villages get completes these reservation lands will be vacant & in proper form to get developed the same for the purpose they have been kept? And another issue is what about the infrastructure to the residents of these areas till all this process gets completed? Till then are these people supposed to survive on undertakings taken by the developers! Are we interested in just collecting revenues & let the city grow in whatever way its growing or are we interested in giving good life to its citizens? Some day someone is going to ask these questions of which we don’t have any answers.

We are forgetting that first duty of any governing urban body is to provide a proper shelter to its citizens & that won’t happen automatically. One has to plan & see that the plan gets in existence by the actions. Here not only the PMC or Urban Development Dept but even the role of Developers & Media is equally important. As common man isn’t aware of any of these things so we need to make them realize the truth about the city they are living in. In any planning time is the essence as even if we don’t acquire the villages they will be & are going to be part of the city is a fact, issue is whether we are going learn from the mistakes in past or continuing the same story from the last page! That is what going to decide the faith of our beloved city & real estate in it. After all what is a Real Estate Industry? It’s one of the basic need fulfilling aspect of the society & this has to be understand by all those who are related to it. As then only we can make the life of common man in this city a bit easier & what better can he ask for?

--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !(Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

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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Expanding the City!

“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.

Coming to the core part of our subject of merging the adjoining villages in to Municipal Corporations, the quote by the great planner certainly makes me think about the scene around. It’s not the question of merging but question is where are we heading for? I remember a story from my earlier days of starting my field work;  In a big industry there was a canteen for the people working at the industry & where a board has been displayed saying  " Our workers eat the same food which our Managers eat!" One day someone changed the board saying " Our Managers eat the same food which our Workers eat!" Leave apart the joke or sarcastisum in the story but same logic is applicable here is what many will say. Like the villagers will get the same infrastructure which citizen in the corporation gets or will it be citizen in our corporation will get the same infrastructure which the villagers have! Truth remains that however we accept the fact that villages i.e. Gram Panchayts are surely not structured for giving proper infrastructure to the increasing demands from urbanization; but are the Municipal Corporations  really capable of giving that assurance to the citizens? Sadly the facts here also says no. See the current water or traffic problems & you will know what I meant. Though these are just tip of iceberg when it comes to problems of city life! And the scene is same all around the country except few examples like Ahmadabad or Chandigarh where the not just the Civic Administration but even the State bosses also joined the hand to plan a better life offering city & then to execute what they have planned.

On such scenario many will say then what’s the need of acquiring or merging the new or adjoining villages when we can’t serve properly the existing citizen of the city? Well saying this is one thing & accepting this logic will be making ourselves  the infamous " Shaikhchilly" who cut down the very branch of the tree on which he was sitting! Looking around at what we call  our city & its planning then  the new DP i.e. development plan of the old city is in making & will be soon tabled before the city fathers. That itself has crossed the time limit but any ways at least now it’s been drafted. We have heard from many of the city prominent figures saying we should plan for minimum 100 years for the city! Well, saying is easy as words don’t cost but a city is never stand still & is ever growing; so are the problems generated by its growth. In such conditions to plan something which will be freeze for 100 years is simply illogical on the aspect of development. Instead take opinion of real great urban planning minds which are abundantly available in our country, a factor which we never took in account & what they will suggest is freeze the concepts of planning for 100 years & plan the DP around these principals for shorter spans i.e. 20 years & move ahead. This will ensure the basic principles of planning & road to access the  growth problems will remain same & a direction of the journey will be fixed. Then all what is left will be ensuring its execution on smaller spans which also needs to be monitored regularly even yearly.

We have things like Environment Report which seems to be being published now yearly & we do read the news about the same when its published, that’s all! What is more important is implementation of the same & making it more transparent by virtue of which we can actually assess the impact on common man's life with whatever policies we are making for the better environment of the city. I haven't read the Environment Report but I am curious whether it has interviews of people from all segments from the city & their views about the kind of life this city is offering to them! I am sure that will make the Environment Report more interesting as well realistic as a City don’t get read by the reports but by the people living in it & their day to day experiences with the City! We have  green belts which are being utilized for all sorts of things but greening! We have rivers & streams but they are worst than nallahs! We have hills which are turning gray with the slums & illegal constructions than being a green cover for the city! So many things needs to look in while fixing the policies & the main is why in last 30 years we could not implement the Development Plan of the city at its fullest? Statistics says we have not acquired even 40% of the reservations from the last development plan which was made in 87 & we don’t have exact figures how many reservations of acquired have been developed for the purpose they have been acquired! Classic example is we raise hell about the traffic problems & its solutions on one side & on other side we have the HCMTR i.e. High Capacity Mass Transport Route which has been planned since last 25 or more years but only on plan! Not a single inch of it has been built in all these years! So many such examples we have from the existing city planning which can be an eye opener while planning our any next move towards the future of this city! This column is not to blame Govt or ruling parties but to analyze the facts around us & may once we have got the problem then only we can have the solution, is the way I look at it. On all above back ground we need to seriously ask a question to our own self that are we ready to expand really? Or instead while making  a Greater City are we going to end up as a Greater Village!

One will again ask, what’s all this to real estate industry? It is any way growing so why to worry? Well, ignorance is bliss but not for long! When we say real estate is growing it’s not just the prices we should be looking for its the availability of a good home to all segments of the society is what we should be aiming for. And where we stand on this scale? Frankly even a small kid can tell how poorly we are doing  on this front. Series of illegal constructions, ever expanding slums & encroachments on reservation lands, shrinking of natural water channels & continuously expanding city limits in itself tell the story that we are far behind on providing good affordable homes to the citizen of this very city within the so called city! Just more & more people are coming here & willing to live in this city, that doesn’t mean all is well. It’s out of compulsion this may be happening, the day they will get better alternative they will choose that option over this city, let’s not forget this fact! We need to conserve our strengths & explore them than ruining our resources. Role of Developers also is equally important on this front as we need to plan the homes keeping in mind that Real Estate is not only money making thing but a service to the society also! Call it Municipal limit or Grampanchayat, the target should be giving a good accommodation to the common man which may not have a fancy living amenities but a basic infrastructure where they can live at peace & what more a good city can offer to its residents! For that need of the time is will power to do so; which seem to be missing & this responsibility is not of just the Govt or the Town Planning Officers or some department of administration but of every citizen. Unless we press our demands strongly we are not going to get them is a truth. And for that we need to table them & put forward on every platform then only some where some hope is alive. As to deserve an ideal city we need to be an ideal citizen first & that is in our own hands only!

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !(Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

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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Sample flat, a concept!

Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is...Charles M. Schulz

Well, how opt are the words on the back ground of today's subject! Many a developers won’t like the comparison with what they are doing at their projects but truthfully that's the whole purpose of the concept Sample flat or more popularly known as Show Flat! Since long the concept of sample flat exists in real estate Industry as unlike any other industry to make a prototype model is extremely difficult & for years the customers had to wait to get possession of their own home to understand & feel the exact nature of their own home! As in Auto or White Goods i.e. AC/Freeze products you can actually see a model, observe its features, check their performance, feel them in the show room & then select what you want to buy. Whereas while buying the costliest product of your life all you have is a brochure, some images & sometimes a model of the building & that to miniature one! Never one could have got the feel of interior of the home then.

Well sure it was a difficult situation & many years the industry went along with it but lastly in late 90's when more than single building projects started & the concept of townships come in then to sale the volume of the homes, developers started realizing to have a life style model of the home they have to sale. As with large volumes to sale there was a strong need to give something more to attract the customer in compare with others as well to make them feel larger than the life while selecting their home. In a way this was one marketing move too. Also when the height of building was restricted to 4-5 floors it wasn't technically possible to finish one flat earlier but with technology changing & building height lifted to 10-11 storied it was possible to complete all civil works of 1st floor flats & make it ready for display. It started with a regular finish flat with standard amenities s the project would be having. Then slowly some developers started putting furniture in it to give the idea of the room lay out & now days we have designer flats specially made as show flat. These many a times may not be matching with the standard amenities but like in automobile advertise, it carries a note that the customer can get the flat made up like the show flat by paying extra.

As an engineer  I can say that the importance  of a sample flat is much more for the developers, architects & the construction team than for customer. A building is a complex thing & has many agencies working over it. Here in our country mostly all the works at site are being carried out manually; especially works which are related to finishing i.e. Plastering, Tiling, Wood work like doors fittings, Painting etc. Now as there are many masons or painters who will be working at a time in a single project, so it’s very difficult to define the quality of the workmanship of the job of a individual worker. As two individuals will have different skills it’s important that all people working should have one basic scale of finishing quality in their mind & this we can show them actually via sample flat. As finishing of a plaster surface or paint quality can’t be described in mere words, one has to actually see it to achieve the same. Here the sample flat plays important role for the workers & supervisors at the site. As they all come on a equal platform for defining the term quality of finishing. Then there are many things which people are unable to understand on drawing, things like plumbing arrangements & fittings. It’s always helpful to do a role model as if there are some designing faults they can be restricted to the sample flat level only & other flats can have improved version  eliminating the faults of the sample flat. This usually happens with electric & plumbing systems of a home as things may look different when put in actual than in drawings. Also many a times things like door sizes or window arrangements you realize in more better way when you actually feel them in existence & then you can improvise the same in better way for next flats. Work specification gets finalized in this process & things like color of flooring as well dado tiles in toilets you can decide in better way when gets actually displayed at site than just in product catalogue. And this is why however small project may be a sample flat is important keeping in minds better work out put & not just by marketing angle.

From the customer point of view it’s vital to understand the specifications & amenities provided in show flat & ensure out of that what he will be getting actually for his flat as per the agreement. Mainly what one should learn from the show flat is feel of the flat he will be buying. Many will ask what I meant by feel of the flat? It means getting judgment of the space you will be getting to use after getting possession. The room sizes, their interrelation with each other, natural light for each room & wind direction by arrangement of windows. Also one should understand that sample flat can give you idea of the inside only. When its numbers of buildings one has to remember that outside view will be different for each corner & you have to imagine accordingly the outside view from each room as per the internal arrangement of the flat. Also do ask about what kind of changes can be done in your flat to personalize the same in compare with the sample flat. Usually I don't recommend change in plumbing arrangement as in multi-storied building that may cause later maintenance problems. So if you have any real difficulty with the show flat arrangement of plumbing then do ask to the developer whether it can be changed in the entire flats so as everyone can get benefited with the change if its genuine!

At the same time see that the space is enough for the furniture lay out you have got in your mind & the use of the rooms is feasible as per the sizes of the rooms. Check out the furniture displayed whether it’s too the mark i.e. dining table size & bed dimensions. For e.g. there has to be enough space to accommodate a proper sized bed, a wardrobe& a dressing table, which is bare minimum must in a bed room. This aspect one should check while seeing the sample flat. Also check up for window arrangements in each room & light & ventilation they will be providing at your flat. Remember that the sample flat displays just the inside & the location within the building as well within the complex if there are numbers of buildings also plays significant role in light ventilation, privacy & view fronts of a home.

The best I can suggest here is not just relay on the sample flat but visit the developers completed project if any having flats of similar pattern. It will give you idea about his commitments not only towards the inside of the flat but about entire set up i.e. from surrounding development to arrangement of buildings & the interrelation of the flats within the building. As then only one can get the complete realistic idea about your builders approach towards your home & that is most important than just displaying a designer show flat!
--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !(Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

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

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

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Understanding Eco Tourism!

The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands…Havelock Ellis

Recently I went through an article about Eco Tourism & its ill effect on the entire nature especially wild life! It was indeed very touchy & well covered thoughts about the impact of the entire tourist & their related activities on the surrounding natural habitat, but I will say we haven't yet understood the word Eco Tourism in real term! Its like the quote said, with which most of the environmentalists will agree yet we are seeing the wrong side of the coin is what I feel! First of all analyze that what ever we are doing is it really giving justice to the term Eco Tourism! Well just to go & enjoy our self on the back-ground of nature isn't Eco Tourism & that's what is happening right now here in our country! May it be Mr. Amitabh Bachhan appealing for Kutch Dessert in Gujarat Tourism advertise or may it be an Announcer assuring “Bagh Darshan” ( Tiger sighting) in Madhya Pradesh Tourism advertises! All we sale is nature & what most of the tourist will like to see & nothing to conserve it, is a fact. But isn't it wrong to tag the entire concept of Eco tourism as bad business than correcting our own steps?

In our country unfortunately making money is considered as serious crime & that's the main crux! When we say some thing as sustainable then it does include sustainable financially also & in Eco Tourism also there will be some factors where money is bound to get generated may it be resort owners or tour operators! If there is no proper infrastructure there won’t be tourist is a truth! I am from area close to Melghat, i.e. Northern Vidrbha forest which lays in Amraoti/ Akola districts of Maharashtra. Undoubtedly the best forest we have of Sag (teak) & land of tigers & many other species with vast area under the belt joining two states i.e. Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh. Yet its with zero infrastructure except some resorts in Chikhaldara (a central place), with no Gypsy’s or fixed routes of travel within the forest, there isn’t any means of income available to local tribal i.e. Korku's & result is in last20 years immense forest cutting has happened as well once the tigers used to be roams freely all over nearly 2000 sq km, now you have to search for them or even sighting of chitals is getting rare! Very high rate of malnutrition amongst the tribal infants & poverty & illiteracy is all over the place. Still in this era the local weekly bazaars operates on bar-trading as money is scarce so people believe in commodity exchange. There isn't a petrol pump in hundreds of km leave apart good medical or educational infrastructure. Neither good doctors nor good teachers are ready to come here & work, spare a few NGO's! All this I don’t say because of lack of eco tourism but some where the facts remains as no one comes there, no one is interested in improving the area.

Eco tourism is never meant to harm the environment in any way but its in fact has to be developing an infrastructural support to the environment as well its conservation. The examples which the writer has given about the road construction in Gujrat, is the faulty execution of the wrong plan. Even in USA highways have been planned & executed through the famous Redwood forest where trees are over thousand years old & yet conserved properly. At one place they have cut the road through the huge steam of a redwood tree named “General Sherman" & it has become the center of attraction of all tourists. And yet no NGO or any conservationists have taken any objection, because it’s the way they have executed the entire activity. In USA week-end hiking or traveling in natural habitats is most common but the restrictions during such touring are extreme & the punishments are even more extreme if you fail to follow them! There are wardens not just in forests but even at natural habitats like water falls or mountains, who regularly rounds the terrain & they are them selves well trained as well armed to face any emergency or control the miss behavior of the tourists. In many States they have authority to arrest as well fine the tourists if found misbehaving with the nature & there is no body above the law, may it me some ministers family or any VIP traveling as a tourist, law is same for all & executed accordingly.

Even eastern countries like Malaysia have made great marketing of rain forests & converted them in a world wide popular tourism spot without harming the core of rain forest. And the money generated is being utilized for conservation of rain forests as well the tribes residing in that zone. We need to study the Eco tourism in other developed countries & how they control the ill effects of the same. In underdeveloped African countries also you are allowed to buy a piece of forest & convert them in ranches & resorts without touching a single tree & yet they have five star luxuries over there at such resorts. Such facilities which have made millions of foreigners to visit African forests which once considered as impossible to explore by any human being, leave apart outsiders of sophisticated world!

Most of us know the Do's & Don’ts while traveling in Eco sensitive areas but we all know that in our country there is no one to act firmly to stop us if we keep on doing even the “Don’ts " & can get away with such acts! It’s obvious that if we want more people to get exposed to such places we need infrastructure like roads & vehicles for the same. And there is always a balancing way to do it. The fact though are different, we have build High-ways & Rail-ways through the forests without keeping proper crossings for the animals living in surrounding forests. We didn't study the natural passes which the animals were using for years & cut through them causing equal or may be more deaths occurring of wild animals in road / rail way crossing than by the poachers! We don’t have proper signage for such spots to avoid accidents & a team backing to control these signage are being followed by the tourists. We allow building the resorts amidst the buffer areas of reserved forests or right in heart of some river bed & don't take any cognizance of the damage it makes on surroundings. Our norms of garbage as well waste water generation & treatment we can’t even follow & control in Metros so to follow the same in remote places is impossible. Though it’s very easy to lay a policy for the same & see that it’s strictly or else shut down the concerned resort. Any business generating money in Eco Tourism has to ensure employment of local peoples to lift their life style & contribute some part of their earnings in building social infrastructure in surrounding area. Taxation should be made accordingly for such business activities. Like in forests like Kanha spread over 1600 sq km, you don’t find a single plastic waste of water bottle such is the sensitiveness of the entire system towards the forest! Why this can’t be replicated all such tourism places & if Kanha can maintain it within the forest why can’t they have proper control on growth of resorts in buffer area? Our Tourism Development Corporations are interested mostly in acquiring the best places at such location & then lease it to private agencies & make money out of it. They can easily give the responsibility of controlling any activity which will hamper the nature. There should be single authority which will control any such development & for that first mark all such spots in the country may it be Forests or natural habitat like Kas platue at Satara or Valley of Flowers! Also efforts should be made to make affordable accommodations like youth hostels at such places. This will make Eco Tourism viable for even a common man which right now is restricted to mostly upper class only!

Joke is right now all the departments are making money out of Eco tourism yet no one is ready to take or has been given the sole responsibility of looking after the damage these activities are doing on the environment in itself! This is the defeat of Eco Tourism!

Actually the term includes not just promoting the tourists & make money but to utilize this money generated for the conservation of local people, trees, animals & entire surrounding by way of various activities which may be social, cultural as well infrastructural! This is how we should look at the term instead just blaming some people who may not be actually responsible for the damage directly it may appear but it’s the indirect fronts which are more important than the on face agencies!


--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

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Expanding Bounderies of a City!

A plan is a list of actions arranged in whatever sequence is thought likely to achieve an objective… John Argenti

I wish this our city rulers understand & grasp is what come to my mind when I read the news making head lines about a subject as important as merging of adjoining villages in Municipal Corporation! First of all here one needs to understand the scenario on the horizon as a common man does get fooled up by controversial statements by all parties on the topic. Many will say what it has to take with real estate, what difference it makes whether any area lies in PMC or out of it?  As we keep on hearing that it will be advantageous to some political party & dissadventageous to other, have we thought what’s in benefit of the city as well the residents we are talking about? Well for that we need to understand the administrative structure of the system which controls development of the city & area adjoining to it. In 1995 the decision was taken to merge nearly 23 adjoining villages in PMC & then at end only 15 villages were taken making the present area of PMC as 243 sq km. And now the proposal has been put to acquire these villages again which has been demerged in 2001 with which the area of PMC will become more than 400 sq km, which will be at par with the cities of its size i.e. Ahmadabad or Bangalore, even Mumbai is 425 sq km. Its not just the area we are speaking about its the way we will be serving the area which we are acquiring. Here is where the administration controls come in the picture. Presently the area which we call PMC or Pune Municipal Corporation, here the governing body is PMC which has a structured system of administration & a budget to back up the basic infrastructure works which are essential to make the living of citizen comfortable. It includes basic things like water, drainage, roads, education etc. Here again many a will say is the PMC really giving it to the citizens? Well, there always will be some unsatisfied souls but those who want the answer they should visit adjoing areas of PMC & the visit will itself answer their question. Nothing wrong, it’s just the villages just don’t have a system to provide them the infrastructure. Grampanchayt’s who are supposed to take care of these basic infrastructure don’t have any such system. They are dependent on Zillah Parishads where funding is a constant problem & they too don’t have any engineering or planning department as in turn they are dependent on PWD i.e. Public Works Department, water supply & drainage is supposed to be done via Jeewan Pradhikarn & the overall control is with Collector for revenue matters & planning authority for these areas is Town Planning Department! Hussh, such is the maze of departments tangeled in each other workings in the system! Now you will understand the hurdles in development of the Villages in comparison to Municipal Corporation.

Since long the villages adjoining to the city were existing, not having any of such problems but in last decade the city lands started getting filled up with the buildings & slowly the boundaries between the main city & these villages started melting on site physically if not on record or on papers. For record purpose some land may be in village but on site it’s difficult to differentiate it away from the adjoining city. Gone are the days when you could identify the clear visual difference between city & village area. Now Baner & Balewadi & Sus have become look one single suburb, whereas record wise Baner & Balewadi are in PMC limit & Sus is in Collector limit & is a separate village ruled by Grampanchayat. Similar things have been happening on all the sides of Pune. And this phenomenon is common around all Municipal Corporations across the State. Basically the system of Grampanchayt has not been designed to take load of this urban growth. Things like Regional Plan are there covering basic road net work etc but like Development Plan in Municipal Corporations they are not done at micro level & there isn't any target to implement the same. So on one hand there are numbers of buildings coming up in village areas adjoining to the city limit yet there are not even very primary facilities like good widened roads or drainage lines or water storage tanks; leave apart recreational facilities or gardens! Nothing wrong in the Grampanchayat functioning, after all this system is there since British Raj & was running fine till 90’s & still running in areas away from Metro’s all over the country. It was fine till the villages were small settlements where land wasn’t a problem,  population was limited & most citizen were depending on farming for their live-hood this system was comfortable to take their daily need. But as the villages started getting merged physically with the cities & got development like a town even a Metro like in Pune the limitations of the system started getting exposed.

Here the conflicts started as there was basic social as well cultural difference in the setting of the two development. Many of the villagers feel that they will loose their identity if their village gets merged in Municipal Corporation. A Municipal Corporation on other hand has a much defined set up where all the infrastructural activities are being carried out under one roof & public body governs it which has got representation from all the classes of the society or at least that's what is supposed to be! Not only this but is one major aspect i.e. revenue generation as all these infrastructural activities needs huge amount of money. And in Municipal Corporation this revenue is being generated in form of Octroy, various Development Charges as well the Property Taxes which are being collected at one central place & utilized via annual budget. Again there is new avenue of funding in form of JNNURM i.e. Jawaharlal Neharu National Urban Rehabbitation Mission by virtue of which Municipal Corporations get huge funding for building up infrastructure in their jurisdiction from central Union Govt. Then there are sources like World Bank finance & even Private Public partnership projects.

All above things makes development possible in Municipal Corporation area much faster in comparison to Grampanchyat ruled villages. Now what difference this will make to real estate of the city is the question? Well in simple words there will be more land available where infrastructure will be in place making more options available on home front for the needy ones. This may lower down the demand in particular areas within existing Municipal limits & lowering the prices which are going sky high with each passing day. Day by day lands with infrastructure backing are getting scarce & yet the city is growing so instead of having thousands of homes where no proper social or physical infrastructure is available there can be at least hope for having more good quality homes. This is possible only if the Municipal Corporation boundary gets increased covering more area under its jurisdiction. I am not an expert or authority to comment whether merging of adjoining villages is right or wrong, all I can do is analyze the scenario & put forward the facts. Then again many will ask why in first place the villages were demerged from PMC? Well this column isn’t for political views as such decisions are being taken in our country not just keeping in mind city or citizens but for the sake of having control in ruling the system is an unfortunate fact.

Urbanization is world-wide a fact, especially in developing country like ours its happening more fast & in such times the rulers need to provide a system which will take proper care of this urbanization. And as the quote says for that we have to plan & put a system in place in the form of a ruling body, call it Grampanchyat or Corporation; tag isn’t important but the purpose for which the body has been formed definitely is!

--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

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

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Illegal Constructions & the City!

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly...Abraham Lincoln

Each day when we read in news about some illegal construction has been noticed or demolished these words must be coming to the minds of a common man. Very recently there has been photographs of nearly ready to occupy buildings being demolished by Municipal Corporation squad & the ho-hallah it created amongst political circles as well in society. What I think is how the families who have booked flat in these buildings would have been feeling watching their home getting demolished. Many a may not be even knowing the reason for this action! Many will ask the questions like what authorities are doing till the construction is being done to this level & why not to prevent them before the work goes ahead at site? Well the answer isn’t that simple as it looks by the quote. First of all we have to understand what an illegal construction is & then we can ask why its happening & then we can use the preventive methods. Many a may not like my theory as it may sound like justifying the act but as I said it’s a multifold issue which needs to be examined from different directions. It’s like a cancer which shows up some where in body & the root cause is some where else.

An illegal construction is something which is build without taking proper clearances from the local governing authorities, is the very simple & clear definition. Unfortunate that most common people don’t understand the legalities of this permission process nor are very keen to get the knowledge about the same. City wise these governing authorities are different i.e. in Pune we have Municipal Corporation. Out of Corporation limits we have Collectorate & Town Planning & then there are Cantonments as well Municipalities at town level. Each these governing body have their own set of rules & regulation about the land use & construction on the same. Mostly at ever inch in our country we need to have take permission from such local authority before starting the construction & have periodical checking from them & obtain occupancy certificate before starting use of the construction we have done on the land. It’s a pretty standard & simple procedure I must say. All a customer has to ask for the developer is for sanctioned copies of the maps of his home & whether the home he is buying is as per these sanctioned maps or not! Though numbers of departments are involved in this process yet the sanctioning authority is single at every city or town & it’s their job to check the illegality involved if any before giving permission to any of the construction.

The illegality may be of two types on general basis, first is about the title of the land i.e. ownership & second is about the wrong use of the land for which it has been reserved. The first kind of illegality can be controlled right at the application level of the sanction as without proper ownership basis most of the authorities don’t entertain the application for the development of the land. Documents like 7/12 or property card, demarcation as well now many of them ask for search title report from advocate so as to avoid any future dispute about the ownership of the land. Yet the documentation of these things is a long & tedious process & there are many examples of litigation about the same. Any construction being done on a land of which ownership is in question is also an illegal construction. Adarsh scam which becomes head line of media can be called of this type of illegality i.e. ownership dispute between Military & Govt over the land on which the building has been built.

Another type is wrong use of the land other than for which it has been reserved for. Here again mostly all governing authorities has to have their master plan of land use within their jurisdiction like PMC has Development Plan or DP & Collectorate  /Town Planning have Regional Plan i.e. RP. In this plan all the lands coming under the area of jurisdiction is marked for different purposes by different color code. Usually yellow is for indicating residential zone & homes are allowed only in this zone. Majority of cases coming in lime light for illegality are in this category though usually a bit late. Reason is lacuna in the DP or RP as they are made of very small scale on drawings & at site the ground conditions may be different. For e.g. a river width marked on drawing may be less but at site it may be much bigger & vise versa. In such case any thing built at site when compared to the development plan may look like violation of the land use & which is true also in many cases. Here to stream line & simplify the sanctioning process of the projects & reduce the time involved in the same is also very much important. As the land is a costly affair each passing day making delay to the project is a pinch to the pocket of the developer & people do find short cuts to avoid such delays which in turns can lead to illegality is also a fact. All such things in turns make a legal home more costly in comparison to an illegal home. Also to take stringent & immediate action is equally important than to wait till the construction works gets completed at site causing major damage to life time savings of the people who have booked their homes in such project. Also the governing bodies can regularly publish list of constructions they have cleared; on their web site or in media to let the common man know whether the project where he has booked his home is properly sanctioned or not!

Now let’s see why some one tends to enter in to illegality & why it’s happening at first place? First again accept that all the city’s are growing & urbanization is the thing in. Majority of the village crowd is moving to the neighboring city’s & the change is very fast especially in last decade thus need of the homes grow at very high speed in city’s & when such need is there, its bound to attract all kinds of ill elements. We have observed in past about smuggling of gold & electronics goods in 80’s when these things were heavily taxed & out of reach of most commoners. Similarly the case is now about the home only unfortunate part is we cant import land neither can produce it in any factory here making the land as most sought after thing in Urban India. Land is basic raw product of housing industry & we have many departments as well laws governing use of the same. Categorily the land is being utilized for other uses also like Agriculture, Industrial, Recreation & many reservations from roads to water bodies & land is limited. A society can’t survive with just homes or buildings on it but it needs all above mentioned uses but considering the prime need utilizing the land for home making seems to generate maximum money as well it is in demand so most people wants to the land to be used for home making. Again the land which is supposed to be used for home making has certain requirements about the infrastructural facilities around as one can build a home in desert where land is in abundance but no one can go & live there. So there are some pieces of lands which are in more demand in comparison to other lands where the entire necessary infrastructure essential for living is available. Here is where we are total failure on creating the balanced infrastructure all around & within the city thus many people demanding the same location where all such things are available like shopping, schools & medical etc. The land is limited which has been reserved for building houses , yet demand is ever growing & its this demand which makes people start encroaching the adjoining lands which are reserved for other purposes or forge the documents of the ownership. I am not justifying the acts of people who usually are Builders; I am just stating the facts of illegality.

Unfortunate is this fight is between the people who wants to make money out of it & the governing bodies but the victim are innocent common men who got caught in between just to save few rupees, book their home in such constructions & ends up loosing that also. Only as they are a bit cheaper in compare to legal homes. The term affordable housing is just like a dream which will never gets fulfilled for these common men leaving them no option to opt for illegal construction to achieve their dream of having a home of their own is a fact. Though who don’t want to enter in such deals should keep their eyes open & deal with reputed names only & even then should get all the information of legalities involved & get the documentation part thoroughly checked by their own reliable sources. Even then some thing can go wrong & the Governing body can revoke their sanction itself like has happened in a case at infamous Prabhat road construction. But then that’s fate is all I can say; in most cases if we deal carefully then its always better to afford some delay in deciding than repenting later & curse the law & the system for what you suffered is the wise way to look at it! In all this what common man expects is some one should understand his needs & provide him just the four walls which he can call his legal home giving him his peace of mind.

--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

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

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

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com