Home Buyer's, "Achhe Din" Are Here!

"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort”…

Jane Austen.

Sure there must have been thousands of definitions of home but this one I felt like sharing here as this is why one should have his or her own home! Unlike any product we buy, a home is most unique as this is the only product which don’t come to us  across the counter but we go to it & for most of us its one time buy! That makes home most precious buy we ever does & each of us should give it a try for two reasons; one here is where you can have your very own private moments & they can be of joy or sorrow & second at the end of the day we all need to have a place which will welcome us with the people along which we call a family & what better place than a home can play that role!

As what we call home isn’t just four walls giving us safety & shelter but it’s the environment within these walls which makes those four walls a home or else even a jail too has walls & safety! And for having that environment which we call feel of the place we need a home of our own; yes we can buy the area with four walls & decorate them with plush interior but to make that place a home is in our hands only! And for that one needs to choose with open eyes as what makes a best home is a question I ask to myself often? It’s a perfect blend of planning, workmanship, location, relations & yes lastly the budget! Also a lot depends up on the entire process i.e. how the deal for the home is done. One more aspect is there, something I never like to mention yet it’s a fact is investment value of a home as by me home is not a investment because just the way I can’t call my own kids as investment, I refuse to consider a home as investment. It’s a feeling, an experience & we don’t count feelings in terms of appreciation! Why  a person should buy a home is a question that can be answered individually but by me nothing wrong in staying rental home yet can we really call rental home as our home, is a question I always have failed to understand. Though I myself have been lived major part of my life in hostel & rental room sharing basis in my college days as well in bachelor days & still feel nice whenever I travel from the road on which my hostel lies. Yet the rental homes lack that belongingness or feel of ownership is a fact as somewhere in the back of our mind we always know that one day we will not be returning to these four walls which we are living in when it’s a rental home! Though till the time we haven’t finalized our own home as well not decided where we will be working, till then rental home is definitely a good option.

Though we call real estate as industry & that makes a home as a product but this product always amazes me as it’s not comparable to any product. Most of the people buys home once in their life time & it has most sentimental value which makes a home a very special product unlike any other commodity! But at the same time people are very much confused about what will make their dream home as it has lots of parameters, right from its location to amenities to  convenience for work place to kids education & then finally budget as well which builder to choose; so many aspects are there. But good thing is no more it’s a seller’s market but of late real estate has become buyers market & that makes this as best time to buy a home & I am not saying this as a builder by myself, but look around with open eyes & you will see the options & offers in real estate which never has been there is a fact!

And when its home buying then first you have to understand the city & its development which we call growth of the city & then start looking for your home as that will avoid lots of confusion in choosing location. Pune has been now divided majorly in west & east side’s type classification when its real estate. Since long the cultural drift was there with eastern part more cosmopolitan & business class peoples delight where as western side was & is more jobs oriented & preferred by locals. In one writeup it’s difficult to cover the entire city, as no more it’s laid back pensioners delight but a Metro City in making so will analyze west part of the city first. Here I will share a quote by a renowned urban planner, Herb Cain, it will help us in understanding our city, “A city is not gauged by its length and width, but by the broadness of its vision and the height of its dreams”...

Agreed a man is natural wanderer but eventually every wanderer has to settle down some where & a settlement where you feel most to yourself is the best city; I think it’s the simplest definition of a city! I myself have been to many cities & feel lucky about it as unless you see numbers of places you can’t have your own scale to compare them. How you define a good city, is it the roads, townships or malls or the industries which makes a city great? I feel it’s the people who make a city great & on that account Pune beats many of even cities the Metros in the country! And now we are officially ranked as number two city on smartness index in the entire country. This will ensure many good things which will be in benefit of the city growth, one of them will be new employment coming here in the form of starts up companies.

The most important backbone of the city is culture it carries & it comes only with the education base the city provides; proudly called as Oxford of the East, here are countless educational institutes grooming future of our society & obviously it does make a good impact on entire city’s culture! And it’s at education, west part of Pune is at its best i.e. if we look at west side of the city then in the stretch of some 20 km i.e. from chandani chowk to kiwle, along the entire Bangluru-Mubai bypass there must be more than seventy education institutes & some of them are Symbiosis, Indira, DY Patil, JSPMS Engg & many such! After all any industry needs skill man power to grow & Pune has it maximum in the country.  This very same locality is famous for IT hub with Hinjawadi IT Prk which nests some of the biggest IT companies in country & nearly three lacs people work in the same! And then the Pimpri Chinchwad Industrial estate as well Talegaon & Chakan belt which has some of the world level industries like Mercedes & Ford are in the closes vicinity! And then in this stretch of highway only every automobile brand’s service station as well show rooms are located, again making west as most sought after locality. Real estate of Pune always has been dependent on either IT industry or Auto sector & of late Education also has been a prominent factor making Pune as real estate delight & west of Pune is lucky to have all of these three segments prominent presence. Another significant yet hidden aspect of west side is minimum percentage of slums or say illegal structures & availability of lots of green & open spaces which helps in keeping clean environment! And then west side’s connectivity to Mumbai plays vital role in the growth of this locality! Rather by expressway New Mumbai is hardly one & half hour’s drive from many of the western suburbs i.e. baner or wakad, which is very much time saving may it be reaching to job or attending a business meet & coming back to your home here.

I think outcome of all these facts is now even many real estate exhibitions also are organized focusing west part only, so the buyers can choose from options available in west side of the city. Its start of New Year & first month is already over. Last year was very much shaky for real estate; not just for builders but for home buyers too, as nobody was sure whether to buy or not, will the prices further fall & if you get a good deal the whether the possession is assured & many such! This year everyone related to the real estate is hoping for more steady waters & it’s not just about prices stabilizing but policies related to real estate, infrastructure as well main thing i.e. job security around seems to be in place.  

Yes there are many lucrative offers on the homes but it’s always better to stick to basics; buy with open eyes, compare the market rates around, look for hidden details such as carpet salable ration & then compare rates. Remember location & rate of a home is important but equally important is assurance of timely delivery & after sales service & so its wisdom to deal with a name which has a track record & people who are available to you all the time! Check finally at what amount you are buying a home, may it be down payment or loan or no EMI or take possession now & pay in eight years types schemes; one thing is sure no developer is in business for charity & should not be! Market conditions are best & like automobile market is back on track of gaining momentum so is real estate. Personally I don’t like ever increasing property rates at high speed as it don’t last long, instead a steady & slow pace is always better which can be felt now in real estate. Remember one thing, land is limited & population is ever increasing, that does makes real estate or home making whatever we call it, always in demand industry. Finally it’s up to us only when  & where to conclude that own home of ours, so go ahead & make out best of the good times in real estate which are in favor of the buyer, a rare phenomenon indeed!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.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

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Smart City Game Level 3 !

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” … Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs was an American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist best known for her influence on urban studies. Her above quote is from Death & Life of Great American Cities & this book is like Bible for any urban planner & I have used quotes from the book yet each time it provides me with new dimension especially when the subject is our beloved Pune city. Now the city has been ranked second in the competition of Smart City’s in all the country, surely a moment of pride for every citizen & special mention of the civic body chief i.e. PMC Commissioner, who if not single handedly but contributed most to make this happen. It’s not an easy task to work in this city, to make the age old administration shake up & wake up from their “kahi badalnar nahi” (nothing will change) attitude. Not that all are that bad but ask any citizen about his or her exposure with PMC & you will know the way it works. Yet the Commissioner made everyone works round the clock & gathered as much data he can. In doing so the PMC does have come up with many unique ways to reach out the citizens as well to get them involved in Smart City Mission. By virtue of e-mailer, print forms to mobile apps & contact numbers, millions of citizens expressed their views about smart city as well their needs & necessesitis. All this data is going to play a very important role in future for the city as the same time it was indeed a mammoth job to collect such huge information, compile it & process it in the form of presentation. Many NGO’s, professional companies, associations like CREDAI as well MCHI i.e. real estate as well industries associations to Media, everyone has contributed & make it possible for the PMC to submit their proposal for the Smart City to Central Govt.

Most importantly the real hurdle in making the proposal or presentation of Smart City was not from outside but from within! As it was required to get cleared by General Body of PMC i.e. body of all elected members which we call corporators & dearly mentioned as “Mananiya”! There was last minute drama of sabotaging the entire concept of smart city by suggesting irrelevant suggestions & prolonging the proposal so as it won’t reach in time to central govt & automatically the city would have been out of the competition. But again thanks to media & now awakened public as well again few good officers, the matter went to CM level who is urban development chief, who intruded & saw that it went through & finally we were on track to race among some hundred other cities in the country for becoming smart!

The last line is very much important as we are not smart yet; while all around sentiments are like we are now smart number 2 in whole country, as Bhubaneswar is the only city which has got more marks than us. To all those who are living in dream of smartness, lets understand Pune has come second in the race of presenting its concepts about being smart & ways it has planned for the same & not on implementing smartness index yet. This is like just second level of a video game where the tasks the player has to perform keeps getting tougher at each level. This ranking was given on the basis of whatever efforts civic body of the individual city has made to reach out its citizen to understand their issues & definition of comfort as well smartness. Then make a documentation of the systems the civic body will be establishing & means for the same so that whatever expectations has been shared from the citizens to make the city smart will be achieved & these means are supposed to be practical & not like “Mungerilal ke Hasin Sapne”! And surely PMC Commissioner & his team left no stone unturned to see that their presentation along with solid data collection will see through the top twenty though not surprisingly the majority of the people’s representives has kept away from this campaign! On all above factors top twenty cities from the country out of the hundred cities has been chosen by the central govt which will be funded in first stage i.e. from this year. Actually it’s not just funding as for PMC whose budget is some five thousand crores rupees, hundred crores per year is peanuts but it’s the concept & the direction in which the future journey will be of the city is what more important.

The concept is the city should create an environment such that it’s the people only who will fund various projects within the city which includes infrastructure i.e. revenue should get increased by virtue of attracting more companies to start their business here. Whatever money central govt will be giving will be utilized to make such schemes is what intention in the smart city mission is; and for that we should be ready to shell out money from our pockets too. This can be in form of increased water tax or property tax & many such avenues. And here is where many not so enthusiastic souls are trying to create obstacles for the Smart City, making hype that Smart City tag will add burden of citizens pocket. As next day of getting Pune’s name announced in Smart City list, Hon Urban Development Minister of Country was in city & there were agitations in-front of him by various political parties against any hike in taxes under the name of smart city mission. Reason is obvious as PMC elections are round the corner & no political party wants to face the election by giving any burden to the citizens in terms of the taxes but then it’s high time to think about entire city as whole than just elections. If all political parties together support the hike in taxes, then I don’t think anybody will object & even they object they need to vote someone is a fact. Agreed the hike in taxes should be justified & more than that must get reflected in the services which civic body provides to the citizen! 

Though the Central UD Minster has strongly backed up any necessary hike in taxes saying if any city doesn’t want to compete in Smart City Mission it can quit; so the message from central is clear. It’s we as city should look at the process making our own self smart & not as a party or a particular segment! Here I will like to mention an advertise of a washing powder saying “desh me faili gandagi saff karte wakt kapde to maile honge hi” i.e. while cleaning the dirt around your clothes are bound to get dirty but are we going to leave the cleaning process itself in worrying for our clothes, is the question we should ask ourselves. As no matter how much money is poured from central govt or from other country like Japan; it’s not the money or funding for the prjects which will make us smart but our attitude & the systems which we will set is what going to make us smart. And if we succeed in achieving smartness at city level then more & more people as well business houses will be coming here which in a way going to generate more jobs & revenues for the city only, making our own life better!

Just to make people know how difficult the next level is, here are few live examples, on the very day name of Pune was announced as second ranking in Top twenty Smart City list I saw few scenes around which I will share here to make the PMC Commissioner & his team aware about the challenges ahead. In scene one I was walking from karve road & right on footpath there was as usual a cutout cum hoarding blocking the footpath & joke is the hoarding was by local leader saying congratulations for Smart City ranking! Then in scene two on Rajaram bridge a posh car stopped in mid way & a lady in jeans who was talking on her cell phone while driving also got down, opened her car dickey, pull out a carry bag of some waste & threw it in river, right under the board saying “Please Keep Your River Clean” & drove away, all the way talking in cell!  Third scene was the road work of DP road from Mhatre Bridge & Rajaram Bridge has been left half done by PMC road department & its laying abandoned for at least more than five months now, causing all the traffic to be left with only half portion of the road! And fourth scene was news in a leading newspaper with photographs about dirty state of canal flowing right through the city & its this canal which supplies water not only to the city but entire villages as well towns downstream of Pune! We all have similar experiences around every day & each of us, may it be a govt servant or a common rikshawala, we all think this is normal & life moves on; this attitude of ours is the biggest hurdle for the smart city.

All above scenes are just a trailer of a mega movie named Pune City, which isn’t Smart a bit is a fact. What we have achieved as second rank indeed is a success but it’s just a mile stone on a long journey & not the destination. However money or funding we may get if we as a govt as well as a citizen won’t change our mind set towards our own city then we won’t be able to ever make it smart. Each time like the kid gets happy after completing first one or two levels of the video game & fails as the game gets fast at third level with the pop up sign on screen “Game Over”’; that’s what our situation will be! As right now we have been successful in laying down the plans to make the city smart now it’s time for action on those plans. So let’s understand the game & gear up for the hard task ahead in making the city smart is what need of the time & this is for everyone who lives in this city. For years the city has given each us fame, money, education, health, peace, joy & many such things in some or other form. And now it’s our time to give this city back something & if we don’t do it now then there will be no city left leave apart Smart City tag, mind it!

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.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

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Where I should Buy My Dream Home?

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution”...

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson, often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755. It had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". These words of Samuel about home I recalled when I came across a recent blog by Ravi Karandikar, my friend & real estate blogger rather critic is the proper word & many of my sharing’s' has been motivated by his blog articles. This time when I called regarding his blog we had nearly a verbal fight in discussion as he has mentioned rather advised his readers not to buy flats in fringe area i.e. development along the border of municipal limits. At first intrigued by the words & as a developer by myself I tried to justify building in areas where infrastructure is less & typical logic of builder’s that whose job it is to create infrastructure & somehow we couldn’t meet the end of the topic so it remained in my mind. Ravi’s stand was builders should not build where there is no basic infrastructure like roads, water & drainage & the more I thought over it the logic however weird it may be but seems right & that is what disturbed me more!

Before going in to the detail let’s see what’s scenario on front of infrastructure i.e. civic infrastructure in & around the city. Civic infrastructure means basic necessity fulfilling activities or amenities provided by the local body to its citizens. For e.g. roads, water lines, drainage lines, electric power cable etc makes amenities in form of infrastructure & to run these things like public transport operation becomes activities in form of civic infrastructure.  Leave apart social infrastructure like sports complexes’ or schools as well hospitals, shopping malls & theaters; they too are equally important but a man can survive without them is a fact. Not long back before year 2000, Pune was considered as best city with its infrastructure especially for water & environment it used to provide its citizens. Public transport was adequate though not perfect but then the spread of the city was small so it was sufficient. Same was the case with roads & drainage like needs. On the front of water city was number one in State such was the water supply in abundance! One Bal- Ggandharva auditorium was enough to take care of cultural needs of the city. But after year 2000 suddenly with the employment generation in & around the city, thanks to IT as well automobiles sector here, suddenly Pune become hot spot for jobs all over the country & tremendous flow of migrants started flowing this city. At the same time the generation which has purchased flats in 80’s, their second generation also got jobs here & they started finding their existing living space inadequate. And then there were hundreds of education facilities providing skilled man power to the industries here, which in a way was infrastructure for them. All this growth of the city saw rise in population in multifold & suddenly the very same infrastructure for which the city was admired started getting crack down under the pressure of population growth. On one hand all these new population needed homes which gave birth to specie named builders & real estate industry was in full blossom. The sky line of the city started changing fast & so does the boundaries of the city. The adjoining villages were merged in the respective Municipal Corporations i.e. PMC & PCMC. Now no more the farms as well plantations of fruit bearing trees was to be seen around the city but every sq inch of land started getting converted in apartments. Agreed this was needed as if you want to create jobs then you need to create living spaces for those job personals is a fact. Even the expanded boundaries of the PMC & PCMC were not enough, the concrete structures started encroaching on villages which are on fringe of the municipal limits & before any govt organization realized the cool & cozy Pune was no more a big town, it’s now Pune Metropolitan Region. Govt recognizing the need to monitor this cancer like growth around & within the city formed a much hyped PMRDA i.e. Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority! Though the actual functioning has started hardly five months back, like  its being shown in a popular Marathi channel (those who know Marathi, its Janhvi & Shree’ awaited baby), the wait for the delivery of this PMRDA baby was real long, nearly ten years the concept PMRDA was in talks but finally it came in existence in year 2015! Job of PMRDA is to control the concrete jungle growth as well give a finite infrastructure to the areas which are out of jurisdiction of both the municipal corporations.

Here is where Ravi is concerned as in many buildings especially in the fringe areas, which have been handed over to the clients (finally); the residents are having many basic issues causing day to day conflicts between the builders & clients! Like there is no roads network at many places, either the roads has been encroached or in very bad shape. Then there are no road safety things like dividers or street lights, making the travel on these roads especially at night by women, unsafe. Water supply is either very poor or nonexistent & there are no storm water or drainage lines.  Even in the CREDAI’s (apex body of the developers) property exhibition the Hon Guardian Minister who is Chief of PMRDA too also blamed builders only, for residents not getting the basic things like roads, & the very same residents complaining to him about such issues! Well, I want to ask Hon Minister Sir that is it job of builders to provide roads, water & drainage like things? As a builder can provide or hand over or make the road which is adjoin to his project, how he can make the road which isn’t in his jurisdiction? And firstly if govt isn’t going to provide civic infrastructure then why not declare any area where such infrastructure isn’t there as non-buildable, so no one will buy lands here in first place leave apart building over it! And second issue is then why PMRDA & PMC & PCMC is charging nearly Rs 400per sq ft area (this figure varies location & use as well design wise) as development charges & premiums for plan passing? Also if developers are supposed to provide the entire infrastructure then why municipal corporations & gram panchayats are collection property taxes from the residents, why not builders are allowed to collect the same. As if govt or local bodies are not going to provide any civic infrastructure neither taking any responsibility for the same then they have no legal or moral right of asking for a single rupee from developer nor the citizens! The truth is all these govt bodies are used just to collect money from citizens but not to give anything in lieu of the same.

Will share a classic example here of my own. Our dearest MSEDCL ie formerly MSEB, asks developer to lay the entire network & infrastructure including HT power cables to transformer & takes undertaking of maintenance of the same for five years from handing over this infrastructure to MSDCL. Joke is the developer has to pay supervision charges to MSDCL for all this works as well buy every material from the specified suppliers given by MSEDCL & yet to give personal warranty of this material. On top of it if any other govt agency while carrying their work outside of the project area, for e.g. power cables which are laid underground on road got damaged by drainage dept of PMC, this also the developer has to rectify! In my case when clearly the cable got cut by the local gram panchyat road contractor & supply to the complex where people are living got shut off; the concerned MSEDCL officer said its builder’s job as he has agreed to maintain the infrastructure! But I can understand if the cable fault has occurred because of poor workmanship of low grade material, how I can protect it from another govt agency who is carelessly damaging the cable! And again if it’s so, then why MSEDCL is collecting electric bills; as the bills are not just for the power use but maintenance of the  infrastructure also! Its same logic what our Hon Guardian Minister shared on CREDAI platform, that you are selling the flats then you take care of your clients, as a govt, we will only take all the money, that’s it! But then this is how our country runs & we speak about “Ease of Doing Business!”

Now issue is if such is the situation then why a builder buys a piece of land which has no infrastructure & why a common man buys his one time dream home is such project? Answer is simple, because of budget! As where the entire so called civic infrastructure is available there the land rates are so high that the end product i.e. home at such address is possible to only few of the buyers & they are very less. Also such lands are already developed so hardly any place left with all infrastructure in place. If we understand the demand of homes, the major demand is in budget homes & budget is limited for most people. Whatever home fits in their pocket, it’s possible only where the land rates are low & obviously land rates are low (I mean in comparison to the developed land’s rates), its only because of infrastructure unavailability. Here one more aspect has to be considered, a land whose value is very low as it don’t has any road or water or electricity, just govt does it so the landlord demands ransom for the same land without any of his contribution, isn’t it a crime? There has to be a ceiling on land rates where the rates are going up just because any public body has made the infrastructure or the developed lands will never come at affordable rate & so won’t ever the homes on such plots! Seriously it’s high time that the infrastructure works like road widening & laying drainage lines /water lines should be considered as National Need & any person obstruction to same should be acted upon with a law like TADA or MOCCA! Many will laugh or will think I have gone nuts but look around & you will understand importance of infrastructure & such law, as even a small land holder for his interest making thousands of citizens suffer just because govt isn’t able to acquire his piece of land for road making under the name of some ownership law! If the so called govt collects taxes from citizens & premiums from the industry then the very same govt should stand for every rupee it collects from us!

And then somewhere Ravi’s suggestion however anti builders or weird of not buying the flats in areas where no infrastructure is there, seems right thing to do! Because who allows Govt’s to posses such careless attitude towards its responsibility of providing simple things like roads but we the builders & the customers! As a builder we are buying lands without any infrastructure, we are paying the govt all the taxes/ premiums it asks for & yet we don’t mind not getting roads or water for our projects. On the top of it we are getting clients who does book flats in such projects & pays us & take possession & when they start living in such homes without water, drainage, power or roads, still they vote to the very same Corporators & MLA’s & MP”s! Unless the common man stops buying anything which don’t give him value for his hard earned money the scene of infrastructure won’t change as then the builders won’t buy such lands & then the land lords as well govt will feel the heat & then only there will be hope for some change to make common man’s living comfortable!

And then only Ravi will not have to advise his readers “not to buy flat here or there” but “to buy the flat where ever they wish”!

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.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

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Fighting Encroachment!

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today”… Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States & probably the wisest of all & is well known for his wittiness too! His many quotes are proof that he can deliver a serious dosage, coating the same with humor. Yet here what he said is applicable to our very beloved PMC i.e. Pune Municipal Corporation, which usually adhere to later part of the quote means thinking to evade the responsibility, is best way to deal with it. I am referring about whatever has happened in very recent news about PMC’s anti encroachment squad; even the head of the squad itself has been beaten & injured seriously. Here many as usual will wonder what’s it to us, isn’t it a regular news or say drama as PMC keeps on doing such acts & again all is well scene is there immediately after the squad goes away from the spot! I think whatever has happened isn’t that simple as the person who was attacked is a very senior person in PMC & heads the entire anti encroachment division; attacking him means its attack on the entire system named PMC which is supposed to prevent every encroachment or say illegal structure in the city. And if in day light he is going to get beaten up by the citizen who are doing illegal things, one can imagine what will be situation on roads for the public!

Before we go to the root cause of encroachments lets see what has happened, Mr. Jagtap who heads anti encroachment squad of PMC which went to demolish a hotel on a land which in DP has been reserved for purpose of police station. This hotel is running since years & when the squad went there to demolish the same the owner as well his collogues attacked the squad which caused serious injuries to     Mr. Jagtap. Joke is there was police enforcement along but seems the attackers outnumbered them & the police ran away; yes this is what has been printed in major news papers! Well well, where has gone the “Sadrakshnay Khalanigrhanay” motto of police force & oath which policeman took, to stand besides justice while joining the force, is any common man will ask! But that’s separate topic of sharing, so let’s focus on cause of this incidence. For that we will have to understand the term encroachment & as its spread all around the city.

Many a people mix-up encroachment & illegal construction, so let’s first know what the difference is! Like every square is a rectangle in geometry; same way every encroachment is illegal construction or illegal act but not necessary every illegal construction meant encroachment! Anywhere in the city or outside city we have some definite rules to construct any structure; these rules not only defines how much to build on a particular piece of land but on which land what can be build & which land to be kept vacant that also has been defined. Illegal construction is anything which is done without obtaining proper permissions of the governing authority which in Pune is PMC. Encroachment is extending limits of the space defined or sanctioned & it includes building something on a land which in ownership of somebody else. For e.g. building something inside margins or roof terraces of a structure i.e. a space which is supposed to be left open or vacant. Or it can be a stall of vegetables on footpath which is public property or like the case in news paper where the concerned person has started a hotel on a land which is under ownership of PMC. Encroachment can be on private property also but then in that case the matter goes to police & then to civil court & doesn’t come under jurisdiction of PMC or local body. So at large we can say that encroachment is trying to use piece of land or space for personal or commercial purpose, which is for public use only! PMC has two separate departments, one is building control department, which deals with permissions for building construction & another is encroachment department which deals with encroachments specifically. Though job of building control department is to curb the encroachment chances in the beginning itself but once the structure is complete with occupancy certificate then the building permission department has little to do. So it’s the job of encroachment department to keep check on any such act which will misuse the purpose defined by building permission department. Then PMC also has land & estate department which is supposed to take care of all the properties which are not public properties i.e. roads & gardens but are in form of vacant lands which are in possession of PMC & their final use is awaited to get developed. For e.g. a plot which has reservation of play ground or hospital on it but the construction is yet to be started for various reasons, one of which may be no budget provision! If somebody illegally takes possession of such plot & starts using the plot for hotel or garage then that’ comes under jurisdiction of encroachment department.

Main thing is why can’t we make a system which will ensure minimum chances of encroachment, for e.g. to start with why can’t we properly fence or say make a compound wall strong enough to protect it from any illegal entrant? Also mark every reservation plot with a sign board as well there has to be a system with help of software like Goggle Earth which can keep all such lands in possession of Govt under twenty four hours survivelence! The so called property cell has to be strengthened with enough staffer in form of security services with weapons as all such properties of PMC. Then all the roads as well public properties now are under survivelnece of the CC TV, so we can use them for checking encroachment especially footpath encroachments as well commercial establishments using their spaces reserved for parking for other purposes. This shouldn’t be a monthly drive but form a squad ward wise & daily check system of same. This squad will visit every day certain number of properties especially the commercial & check up for the uses of the same, the main focus should be disturbance values due to such encroachment to the public at large. Best examples are, a hotel in parking lot or go-down of materials in side margin of the building, making obstruction to parking as well movements of the citizens around & within the building. Upload photographs of all such findings on PMC web site & make it interactive so people also can add the photographs because many a time immediately after the action taken the said encroachers start fresh is what we all have experienced. Another issue is reliability of such squad as most of the time they ignore the encroachment when it’s just start & then it becomes a habit & then it’s too late, this is what has happened in the latest case of beating up of         Mr. Jagtap. So like cancer its best to remove or cure the encroachment when it’s just start as that time only it’s easier to remove it from roots. Also role of building permission department is very much important as while giving occupation certificate to assure the building is in the way which has been sanctioned nothing more than that. And building permission dept also can keep a routine watch on use of the buildings they have given completion certificate. There has to be joint periodic meetings of all these depts of PMC which can help to share information regarding encroachments. Another aspect is Police interference as they bother least when asked to help to curb encroachment, may it be on govt or private property. A separate State Level, Anti Encroachment Force like State Reserve Police must be formed as encroachments is more dangerous than riots or floods, damaging millions of rupees revenues which could have come from various taxes as well causing distress to entire society!

Then there is another form of encroachment & that is usually neglected or conveniently ignored & its encroachment by the Govt or Govt bodies itself on public properties! We all have witnesses hundreds of PMT busses standing or parked right on the roads for whole night when they are of duty blocking most part of the road, those who travel by PMC main building road must have witnessed this! And then go to PMC ward offices or any Police Station, all the open space around the same is filled up by every possible junk from confiscated vehicles to debris, leaving no space for visitors. And then the gas pipe lines of Mahanagar Gas Nigam has been laid right on footpath of the bridges across the city just to save on costing to take it down from a tray & away from the footpath but in the process entire footpath of the bridge has become unusable, who cares! Recently there was a news in paper about a two wheeler rider bumped on the drainage pipes stacked right in the middle of the road & the poor fellow died in the accident; this was outcome of encroachment by PMC’s contractor for PMC drainage work on the public roads, as imagine what would have been reaction of PMC had any private person has stacked the pipes right in the middle of road?  Isn’t all such also becomes a type of encroachment on public areas by the govt itself; & what action concerned departments are taking about it? Every such encroachment needs to be curbed by the system & in time as well before anybody has to give his life for that!

Here there is one typical argument made by NGO’s as well so called political leaders that those who encroaches footpaths of public places, for e.g. pani-puriwala or vegetable vendor are poor people & if we refrain them from earning their daily meal they will turn towards crime, which will be a more negative thing; so let them do the business on road! Well good argument but with such logic every person in the country can break any law saying or else I will turn a criminal! Agreed everyone should have his right to earn his meal & sure doing business of any sort is good thing but we can make laws accordingly then. Fact is here if someone goes to ask permission for a stall then no govt body has any clear & easy to operate policy for hawkers or stalls for any business. This indeed is main reason of encroachment at rampant in the city as well all around. We need to form a very clear policy for any road side business & give instant clearance if the proposal is in proper form & for that we need to create spaces so that these people can make businesses which in a way are in support of the society in end. And at many places PMC has tried it but the so called encroachers are not ready to go to such places as they feel customers won’t come at such place, which are easy to lure on roads itself! And that why unless very strict action isn’t taken on the encroachments it will keep happening again & again is a naked truth.

Many will say considering the nexus of system & the encroachers, its impossible; well it’s possible & answer is right in Pune city! Those who have been to NDA road, they must be knowing there is entire NDA hill as well thousands of hectors of vacant land along Pashan lake & NDA road but do we see a single encroachment here? Because the land belongs to defense & no one mess up with those guys, such is the fear of law & enforcement! If the defense can keep their lands & roads free of encroachment why can’t other govt departments do it? The simple answer is lack of belongingness within the govt departments towards their own properties! It’s a naked truth that in our country, anything that belongs to govt is considered as public property so anyone is free to use it at his will as nobody will oppose it! Let’s understand encroachment is attitude & not just an act of impulse, it has to be cured with strict law enforcement but here the fear or respect whatever you call is missing from the mind of encroachers & that’s the biggest challenge in-front of PMC or any such governing system!

And then it’s not just PMC which is responsible for encroachment but every that person who buys or dine from an encroacher is equally part of it; so the cure of cancer named encroachment starts from us only. And it’s high time to start it or else today there is no room for a pedestrian on roads; tomorrow you won’t be able to enter in your own home as somebody may be having a stall right in-front of your entrance & you won’t dare to touch him, such will be the terror of encroachment. As where a PMC Anti Encroachment Squad Chief can get beaten up in day light on road, who cares for you & me! So wake up & act against encroachment is the only need of today if you don’t want to repent tomorrow!

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Sanjay Deshpande

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