The flat buyers at the Commonwealth Games Village (CWG) in Delhi are planning to borrow ideas from the popular Bollywood film Lage Raho Munnabhai to launch their multi-layered protest against the authorities for non-delivery of houses.
This motley group of buyers, who have paid around Rs 1,500 crore for the 445 flats but are yet to get possession even a year after the Games, would showcase Gandhigiri in the coming days to express their displeasure. Black umbrella march, a letter a day to the authorities and roses to those who have not given them a hearing, are among the many steps the buyers are contemplating.
Not just that, a group of buyers is also exploring various legal options, including moving the consumer court as well as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and lodging a complaint with the Economic Offence Wing over the issue. Earlier, some buyers had moved the Delhi High Court on the matter, hearing for which is coming up on October 14.
One of the buyers, Rohit Gupta, a senior-level executive at an electronics company, told Business Standard that besides the Rs 1,500 crore paid for the 445-odd flats sold by Emaar MGF, an estimated Rs 2,500 crore was locked in the village. This is because in the same complex DDA has a quota of 743 flats, whose auction is stuck due to absence of a completion certificate. The market value of these flats has been estimated at around Rs 2,500 crore. In addition, there would be a loss of at least Rs 300 crore per annum as interest money.
Another buyer, Mukesh Mohan Gupta, who is a member of the MSME committee at both Ficci and Assocham, pointed out that dozens of RTI applications had been filed by them, asking DDA and Urban Development Ministry at least 150 pointed questions. But the replies have always been vague and partial, he said.
According to another buyer, who did not want to be named, no official wants to touch the files related to these flats now because of the CWG link, fearing allegations of scam. He pointed out that while some of the buyers are high-profile people, at least 50 per cent of the total have taken loans for buying this property. Making things worse, the borrowers are not getting income tax benefits because they are not living in these flats.
“We financed a large part of the Commonwealth Games as we paid for these flats,” he added.
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Among the known personalities who have bought flats at the CWG village are film actress Sharmila Tagore, former finance secretary Ashok Jha, cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, dancer Shobhana Narain, and former Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar.
One year after the Games were held in Delhi (October 3 to 14, 2010), there’s no sign of any solution on how or when the 445 flats sold by Emaar MGF will be handed over to the buyers. Also, the authorities are quiet on the proposed auction of the remaining 743 flats in the same complex, which form the DDA quota.
A senior official in the Urban Development Ministry told Business Standard last week that the ministry was not in a position to give any timeline as things had to be decided by various agencies.
The DDA spokesperson said the FAR (floor area ratio) issues have to be sorted out by the competent authorities within permissible rules.
The main problem over which the matter is stuck now is refusal by the Urban Art Commission, an autonomous body under the Urban Development Ministry, to approve the clearance certificate for the CWG village residential project.
A senior official at the Urban Art Commission told this newspaper that the “builders/developers have constructed extra area beyond what was stipulated”, and that is where the clearance is stuck.