Death of a Builder or Death of the Real Estate Industry!

Frds, sharing what I felt after going through the news of builder suraj parmar's suicide!..Do share this link with as many u can...

Sanjay

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"One of the best lessons I learned early is that not everything in life is about you. It is about service. If you want trips and excessive gifts, then don't get into public service"...Sean Hannity.

Sean Patrick Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States. Well I think what Sean is referring to is govt service as in USA public service means a govt job. I choose this quote as one news in yesterday’s paper made head line, Mr. Suraj Parmar, a middle aged builder from Thane shot himself i.e. suicide, an incidence which has shaken entire real estate industry. Many will say what’s big deal in it as in this country or more specifically State, hundreds of people make suicide every day so what’s special about it? Well it wasn’t any financial burden caused suicide nor any family affair; he shot himself leaving behind a eighteen page detailed letter describing reasons for his such drastic decision & its content of this letter is what makes the suicide special.  Again people do commit suicide with lengthy notes, entire rural part of the State is witnessing this in form of farmers suicides, in one recent case a farmer has wrote a suicide note in name of Hon CM itself, so this also isn’t something which we haven’t seen!

Then what’s special about Suraj’s suicide; it’s the reasons which he mentioned in his last note & it says he is frustrated or tiered fighting the system which governs real estate. Some may call it Govt or Politicians or Municipal Corporation or Urban Development or Revenue, the name “System” has many faces & like the infamous Medusa in Greek mythology, each this face is so deadly that one who looks in the eyes of the face gets dead that too slow & painful death! And trust me I am not dramatizing the scene; not long ago I have wrote an open letter to Hon Cm of State trying to explain realty of real estate & have specifically mentioned either people will have to quit the business or they will end up doing suicides; well I never thought my words would become a realty so early! Suraj was just 46 years old, same as my age & with business in good shape rather debt free as per his family claims which is a remarkable thing in this market. Usually when a person commits suicide in business then most common reason is financial losses which aren’t the case here, then what made a comparatively young builder to reach at such a tragic end? To understand this we will have to take a review of the situation currently real estate is in; that way right from farmers to many industries are in financial trouble & when we say any business or profession rather anything other than govt service which assures life long salary, this aspect is part of the game. And every entrepreneur knows risk factor in his profession rather failure here means loss in terms of money. So this aspect is not new to real estate & there had been many failure stories in past in real estate. Starting somewhere from seventies in Mumbai & Pune the real estate grew as one of the most money earning or spinning whatever you call industry in every major town & city of the State. Like jokingly its said city like Pune or Thane, every alternate person is either builder or related by some way or other with real estate such is the magnate of this industry in urban Maharashtra. Lands turned out to be gold mine & like the Chaplin’s famous Gold Rush movie every person wanted to become a builder or run for the piece of cake these gold mines were producing! Then there were others also who were in form of the system which in fact was supposed to govern the real estate. Earlier everything was going fine people were busing lands, building buildings by applying labors &  getting materials from the open market, plans were getting sanctioned duly & so were other NOC’s which were few, the policies regarding real estate were simple, terms like TDR were unheard of & the caste named politician was nowhere in picture.  Yet like the Einstein’s law, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can just change form; same is applicable to land, it can’t be created nor destroyed ( well it can but that another topic) but it just changes form. Means a land being used for forest of lake or hill can be converted in to residential, this need was arrived when the existing land started getting insufficient for the ever increasing demand of homes, thanks to policies of State govt which make more & more people leave their homes in villages & towns & rush towards cities for day to day survival. Obviously to accommodate this demand of homes the cities required to have more lands for building so called homes which are in demand.

It’s this need of more land is what start of degradation of real estate as this need got reflected in tremendous increase in land prices which in end reflected in the prices of the homes which we call flats! No more one could get a flat in terms of five digits but in cities like Mumbai & Thane it went in to eight digits i.e. crores. The builders’ community which ruled the real estate was new millionaires of the society & soon it was being seen in their life style; right from posh cars to diamond rings to swanky watches, richness was on display & could be seen by all. This obviously was not going to be unnoticed by the system which as I mentioned above has many faces in form of various departments of sanctioning as well policy making for real estate & of which elected members too are part of. Even in official capacity the govt also started looking at real estate as money cow & thought of squeezing it to the best by applying every known tax in form of premiums, levy, ses whatever you call it. And there is no rational thinking for applying these taxes as those who makes the policies or rules have never ever built a single home of four rooms by themselves. So each new day there comes a new policy making it impossible to work out what is exactly to be build on a land which one has acquired by going through hell!

Classic example is the day Suraj’s committed suicide, State govt come up with a policy which allowed every Municipality of the cities in State to charge 100% more premiums for new constructions & immediately implemented by all municipal corporations! Well the reason given was large quantity of infrastructure works which these cities needs will need huge funds! But then why 100% increase from new constructions only; why not increasing property tax of existing citizens as they are the one who also will be benefitting by this infrastructure; rather what about the lands which have been bought keeping in mind some budget of making the home on them? And we all know this game; even the revision in plans of existing building will also attract this provision making all the budgets go haywire of a project!  It’s such policies is what Suraj was referring in his last note & believe me it’s just one small example of reckless policy making of so called public servants, like Ice Glacier, the one seventh part is above surface , what lays below water is unfathomable!

Then comes the issue of corruption which Suraj has highlighted; this particular aspect is worst cancer to entire society & not just real estate but like there are types of cancers & blood cancer is considered as worst type, whatever has happened to real estate is blood cancer. Such is the depth of corruption here that you can’t do a single room construction without escaping from it, however legal it may be! First the rules & policies are made such that no one can make it remaining in rules & once you break the rule then your neck is in hands of the so called system which sucks your blood till you gets dry! Here I will give another killing example; all the buildings which are in progress needs a certificate named “plinth checking” in due course of construction. It means to check whether the work is going as per sanctioned plan before casting of the slab, the margins or distances from the adjoing plot boundaries have to be verified whether they are as per sanctioned plan. Once the concerned office from Municipal Corporation certifies this then the further work is allowed or else it’s supposed to be illegal & heavy fines are applied even if the plans are sanctioned till top floors & work is in tune with them. Now in first place this certificate can be given by the architect or in worst case if this called system wants it they can come any time & confirm the margins & certify the same. If the margins are not as per sanctioned drawing then they can ask to demolish the construction, it can be as simple as that! But no, as if it’s so simple then how they can suck the blood! The concerned officer gives n numbers of reasons not to come to site which includes he is on election duty to demolition duty to he is sick & as by the law the builder has either to wait & keep the entire work of site at hold or just ignore it & keep working & then pay whatever the officer demands, which can be anything even a flat in the project as now your neck is in his hands. And the wait isn’t of a week or two it can be months which the builder can’t afford as fund flow depends of construction speed as well he is committed to give possession in some prescribed time or else there again is breach of contract which may lead him behind the bar as per new housing law which this very system has made! And even if you mange one officer then comes the local politician or elected ward members whose karyakartas are keeping keen eye on every ongoing construction in their wars jurisdiction, just to check who is defaulting where. So their demands also comes in & then the officers above as to ignore what the junior officer has falsely certified about progress of work at site without obtaining plinth checking certificate! This is just one case right from loading of TDR to handing over of road widening area & getting its fsi, so many stages the work gets stuck that if one decides to go & play by rules as well the people who are supposed to follow those rules even a four storied building will take five to six years to get complete! It’s this system & corruption avenues Suraj must have got fade up & I don’t blame him as even I myself face it each day but yet my patience level isn’t reached to extreme or I am not as dare devil as Suraj to shoot myself!

It’s these so called systems which even US business bosses also warned about to our Hon PM in his recent trip to USA to promoting business in India. India is most difficult country to start any new business & problem is, here everybody wants money but without earning it. Being successful & to earn money in this country is a curse as now the so called keepers of the system have become so shameless or arrogant or greedy that they openly says while demanding money for their duty, saying, “so what, are you not going to make money out of this? These is price of my sign take it or leave it!”; it’s like robbing someone just because he has money & you don’t have it, as simple philosophy as it can be.

The coin has other side also & the sad part is there are businessmen who want this system the way it is as they don’t care a damn about the product or the end user but just make money out of it. And then an argument is always there that public servants are poorly paid so they tend to demand money in the line of duty. Agreed there has to be even pay system depending on the work load involved yet this argument is  baseless because when you join a govt service you know exactly at what salary & perks you will be working for & nobody force you to join a govt service. Rather it’s the security & protection the service offers which makes the people in the system to dare such acts of demanding ransom for just signing the papers which is part of their duty. And on top of it the nexus with the rulers makes the things worst for not just the businessmen but even for common man. As per the statistics by ACB i.e. anti corruption department, they have caught some six hundred odd officers at different levels in last year & out of that only some, one fifty got suspended & rest all are still very much part of the system & who is paying for their deeds but each of us!

Yesterday it were farmers, today its one Suraj Parmar & tomorrow it may be even Tatas & Ambanis who will commit suicides; though the path Suraj has chosen can be debated as no logic can justify a suicide yet some where you push an individual to such a extent that for him to get rid of all the troubles is to end himself. Because here a sane person has killed himself by writing an eighteen page note mentioning exact reasons for killing self! 
I am not an expert or authority on subject of corruption but issue is not corruption in first place, it’s the policies which opens up avenues for corruption as being corrupt is an attitude of an individual & that is seen in private sector also; take above example of plinth checking where concern officer don't visit site & waits for builders patience to end so he succumb to his demands!! We need a system which won’t give room to an individual to be corrupt; I think our demands & actions should be making that how that system comes in place!! And even after that someone gets corrupt then d same system should fix him up n punish till end!

What the Govt (if it feels it really wants to curb corruption then only) should do is first make a core committee for each front of real estate like PMC dc rules, Regional Plan, PMRDA, PCMC, MSEB & Revenue; then make a detailed study of pointing loop holes in every such authority, make suggestions to improve it so no one can use it for corruption & then put that report along with possibilities n cases of corruption due to such rules/ policies. And most important involve professions of respective fields in the said such committees. Let’s not forget we are fighting a war against deep rooted cancer & treatment is in form of the solution which isn't going to come by emotions! Then only we can say Suraj's suicide hasn’t gone in vain or else he may be first but sure won’t be last!

Suraj like a doctor has left a diagnosis of the disease named corruption to not just real estate but entire society, it’s up to us whether to get awake & start the treatment is one way & to turn a blind eye is other way. It’s high time that to make a system which will seal avenues of corruption & kill the attitude of corruption or else there will be no business left but who cares if not you & me!

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) 
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For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
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"Police Kaka Jay Hind"..Sharing with Hon Police DG!

“My heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect our world and make it a better place - police, firefighters and members of our armed forces”....Sidney Sheldon. 

No need to introduce the famous fiction writer & no wonder about his above words as many of his characters come from those categories that end up saving lives of millions through their heroics in Sheldon’s novels. Why I recalled this quote is today when I opened the news paper, two news catch my eyes, one no doubt has been covered by most newspapers on front page & another has been got hidden on some inner page that too just one news paper. First news was about our State’s new police chief is Mr. Pravin Dixit who took over as Director General i.e. the top post in police force & it’s the another news which made me to write or share my views with our new Hon. DG…

Dear Pravin sir my all wishes & not a single word in media by anybody against your posting as DG itself speaks that how truly you deserve this chair! Sir, while you were taking the oath as top cop there was a news was about a middle age father who was brutally murdered in front of his kids & wife; & his only fault was he asked few drunk goons to keep quite as his kids studies was getting disturbed due to their voices. This happened in Nagpur, where you had been Police Commissioner in past, though not presently. Poor fellow, I think Mr. Ramteke was the name of accused, in requesting those thugs keep quite he himself got quite forever! I just can’t imagine the scene, a middle aged father got murdered brutally by three drunk goons, in front of his own kids & wife in a big city like Nagpur, What it must be situation for them & wonder is no one come for rescue not even police! I think this single news which went unnoticed by most is enough to show the situation of law & enforcement in State. Here many will say what’s big deal, every day thousands of crimes happens here, even murders, how can one single murder can decide the situation? The State population is above ninety millions & obviously you can’t have a police behind every person! (Btw this is statement by one of our Pune city’s police commissioner) Agreed & point taken but it’s not just crime but it’s the mentality of the people especially those whom we call criminals is the reason of worry! 

Sir here I will share few experiences of my very own (as again people shares experiences what they have heard or got on whatsapp without confirming them), but these are my own interface with police force & trust me I have very good friends in force & at most levels & I am proud of them as a cop friend.

First experience is with my mother on 25th Dec 12, early morning my mother was traveling by train with her sister from Ratnagiri to Mumbai & after Panvel she realized her purse which was containing 35,000/- , her cell phone, keys & pan card has been stolen, which she has kept under her head while sleeping. When the train reached CST (VT) at Mumbai they went to rail police but the psi there one Mr. xxx, instead helping them refused to take the complaint & advised them to go to Panvel railway police to launch the complaint. When my mother protested & asked him to call Panvel police whether they can take complaint, which fortunately he did. And what Panvel police inspector said is, what is surety that the purse has been stolen at Panvel only? You launch the complaint at Thane railway police only! Hearing this my mother insisted again to take the complaint then the psi said you go to Pune & launch there with making some Zero zero number you can launch it anywhere in the State. My mother said then why you are not taking here only our complaint? On this he replied as all the train comes at halt at CST i.e. VT so most of the people launch complaint here only & it’s a big bothering to us. Finally at five am in morning my mother called me at Pune & gave the phone to the psi. That guy repeated the tape to me & even said they will have to unnecessarily wait 4-5 hours to lodge the complaint if I insist to launch one! Hearing this I called few of my high ranking officer friends in police at Mumbai & make them call this guy. Then immediately the scene changed, they even offered tea to my mother & get the complaint filed. Even after all this he didn’t give copy of complaint to them but said you can collect it tomorrow. My mother pleaded that how she can come from Pune & she need it for getting new pan card, but no effect! So I would have required going to Mumbai just to collect the complaint copy, which again with some phone calls, has been posted to my residence next day!

Second Experience is most recent; two months back my briefcase carrying cash of Rs five lacs got stolen from my vehicle on Ferguson College road, hardly hundred meters from Shivajinagar police station, in morning rush hours. My driver was there & agreed it’s his negligence for keeping doors unlocked yet you don’t expect someone will dare so much is human tendency but still a negligence on his part & he was standing besides vehicle but must be looking somewhere else. When I came back from meeting & came to know about theft I took it to first nearby police station which they said call 100 number & then guided me to JM road chowki & there again they told me to go to Shivajinagar police station. Agreed all officers there cooperated but expression on their faces were clearly saying, that is no use & how I can be so negligent! Sir its two months from now & no one has called me for any updating of the investigation. I even offered them my other vehicle to lay the trap & use it as bait & was ready to do it for one month on the same spot on the FC road but they have got all the reasons from less man power to the trap idea won’t work. They checked CC TV footage which as usual was not clear, so no way of getting my money back neither any feedback about the same.

This experience is very interesting, while I was filing my complaint in Shivajinagar station with a lady psi, two youngsters came & asked the psi where is head quarter? She with all unfriendliness in voice told rather barked on them it’s not head quarter, go & ask somewhere else. The boys sheepishly stood there & said they have come from a nearby village & their bike has been stolen a month back & two days before some police man had been to their residence keeping a message with the neighbor that their bike has been found & they have to collect it from head quarter. Hearing this, the lady psi again slammed them verbally & told them she don’t know & get off. I quietly get off from my chair ask the boys to come out of cabin & told them to meet one of my friend in Police Commissioner’s office & called him explaining the boys problem. Those boys said in last two days they have been to at least five to six police stations but no one guided them or even offered any help & they have given up hope. To their surprise with my friends help in next one hour they come to know that their bike is in Pimpri police station & they went there & got it is what I presume.

Sir, each day many of the common men came across thousands of such interface with police department & keeping due respect to all my police friends not many of them have good opinion about their interface with police; rather to the most they prefer to avoid going to police. The news of my bag got stolen have been in newspapers & not a single caller who called me for inquiry was of opinion that my stolen cash will be retrieved; not a single person said don’t worry you will get back your cash, such is the confidence of people in police! This is what my concern which make me to write you. Look at my mother’s case, at five am in morning in an unknown city, seventy year aged woman who was already in shock due to the theft, no mobile to contact anyone all she needed is not her stolen goods or money but just a word of support from the police at that time is all she needed which was missing! Or look at the case of those boys who were running from chowki to chowki, & the kind of treatment they must be getting, one such I myself witnessed! On one side they must be happy with the news of getting the bike back but just to get it back in actual so much pain they have to carry! Why can’t the cop put clear message at their residence with name & address to collect their bike, which would have avoided the boys all such running around & what image they must have got in their mind for the force with such treatment they got?

I think the real challenge in front of you is not just to reduce crime & detection of crimes already happened; the real challenge is to make people trust in the Police force that yes if the criminals are there then police are also there to protect common man from the criminals. At the same time to lift the moral of the force which seems to have gone down in recent past. Reasons may be many but mainly interference of politicians & weak infrastructure as well age old technology. Any crime you refer recently the standard statement from the officer in charge is we are checking up with CC TV footage which usually is of no use. Does this mean when there was no CC TV at help the crimes were not used to get detected, is the question comes in common man’s mind & somewhere the trust in capabilities of the force itself gets damaged. You are known to be a man who makes use of technology, sure you will look in this aspect of detection but at the same time what is need of the time is updating regarding detection to the person who has suffered due to crime, which is totally missing at present. Why a person has to follow the system what happened to his stolen goods or murdered close one? I don’t say to open up all the details as I can understand it’s not in support of detection of crime but a word on sms or email or   a call from the concerned officer to the victim, periodically can surely make the difference. And this is easily possible by today’s communication technology as with help of various apps we can keep track of every complaint State wide. Like ours is a real estate company & whatever maintenance complain we get, we see that our flat holder never has to follow the complaint but we keep the track of the same for him & it’s not attending is the main issue especially creating an image in the eyes of the clients. Somewhere police department is for service of the society, this fact both sides seems have forgotten! Here to file the complaint in itself is such a tedious task for a common man that people let the crime go instead going to police.

At the same time coin has other side too, if you speak to any person of the department they are not happy is also a fact. Right from constable which is lowest rank to even very senior officers, all seems to be under tremendous stress & no wonder maximum health related problems like BP & Diabetes are most common in entire police force cutting across all the ranks. If you visit any police colony (I have visited Pune police’s colony at shivajinagar many times) then you will realize even slums are better & no person can be happy with the work by living in such situation. Man power is less is a common cry from every senior officer yet no one knows what is exact requirement of the force & thus the issue of fulfilling the required man power never gets solved! Agreed every person joining the Police force knows it’s not a 10am to 5pm job like all other jobs around, but then it has a pride which no other job has & which only comes along with that khaki wardi. But pride is not just a word, it’s a feeling, an emotion which needs to be conserved or else it evaporates with time.  One has to nurture that feeling of pride for the khaki the cop is wearing & continuous training is one such thing for it. 

What I feel from my exposure to the police force, on two fronts the department lacks & that is training that too human relations training & not just crime related, which too is important & second is latest technology & use of it for the work at hand. Here private participation of corporate companies as well individual professionals can be roped in & many will happily assist. We have done it for forest departments especially with guards where duty hours are erratic & a single mistake can cost you a life, so the tension is immense. Similarly in police force the salary of a patrolling constable is even less than clerk in bank yet he has to fight the street crime where chances of losing his own life are also involved & yet we expect him to be in his normal state of mind all the time! One needs special training for that which is missing right now.  There are many good people in force & individually doing many good things too but the collective effect isn’t enough to make the good cop image in the eyes of the society is a fact. Also we can take up many motivational initiative like “Cop of the Week’; the way ICC conduct player of the week scheme & at the year end they declair Player of the Year. This whole task can be outsourced & sure many corporate will be there to fund it, so no burden on Govt will be there of finance. Similarly, there used to be a magazine named “Dakshta”, which used to feature various crimes & its successful investigations, but in the course of time it went off. We need to have a monthly bulletin rather magazine of police force’s achievements & let it go to public as that was nice link between society & force!

Sure most of the top cops know all what I have shared yet to know & to understand & adopt are two different things, so shared. Sir, I am from a small town named Khamgoan from Vidarbha & I still remember my childhood days, when we used to see a police man in uniform we used to shout “Police kaka Jay Hind" & salute the guy, & the police man also used to smile back & returns our mock salute! Today people even avoid looking at police man when they see one on street leave apart saluting him or helping him when any problem arrives! I think the biggest challenge for you is get back those days for police force when the kids will smile & call the kahki wardi guy “Police Kaka” again; as that won’t be end of the crime around but that will be beginning of a new era which is of trust & that’s what Police force needs most as somebody’s trust in you is your biggest strength, is what our wise elder people says & sure you will agree with them! And it’s this strength of Police force which every criminal has to fear then.

My all good wishes for your responsibility & sure you will give justice to the same; sir, still there are many who believes in Police force & I am one of those many. All I will assure is though we are not wearing a khaki yet there lives a policeman in every common man, just acknowledge him & he will be at your service at first call, & then no Police force will ever be short of man power!

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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