Panvel builder arrested for cheating buyers

A panvel builder, Narendra Mehta (alias Raj Mehta) and his son, Raunak Mehta 23 yrs old, have been arrested and remanded in police custody till february 27.Narendra Mehta is accused of cheating 200 investors of 5 crores by promising them plots in Panvel. The builder allegedly took buyers to the site and told them that he was the owner of the plot. It turned out that the farmer had only received 60 lakhs and that the plot was still under his ownership.
Despite recent scams, buyers continue to trust builders blindly and lose their hard earned  money in the process.

2200 builders refuse to pay VAT

Many builders have ignored the Govt deadline to register and pay VAT before the October 31,2012 deadline despite Supreme Court rap.About 5257 builders registered themselves to pay VAT for the sales between June 20,2006 to March 31,2010 with the Sales Tax Dept.However,approx 2200 builders from Pune have not paid VAT.Most have showed nil returns.Most builders ask buyers to pay up for their VAT liabilities but social activists say that VAT payment is the responsibility of the person registered with the sales tax dept.A public interest litigation has been filed to prevent builders from extorting VAT from buyers.It will come up for admission on March 8.Builders say that they are entitled to collect VAT from buyers as the sales tax dept has supported their stand of issuing a debit note to flat buyers for the same.

This will be the second time that the dept will raid builders to recover VAT.Many thought that govt will reduce their tax liability hence they did not pay it,though they may have collected it from flat buyers.

It is amazing,that after months of confusion and court battles the govt is yet to specify whether flat buyers are liable for VAT or not.Just one more proof of how the flat buyer is left to fend for himself while builders display their normal high handedness.

Navi Mumbai real estate market collapses

Dire economic situation and rising inflation has taken a heavy toll on the Navi Mumbai real estate market in the past 2 months.The proof of this collapse has come from the registration figures in the registration dept and the amount of new proposals being subimtted in the NMMC and CIDCO town planning dept.Developers are struggling for cash and coming up with creative schemes like 80:20 scheme wherein the buyer pays only the 20% booking amount and the rest only after the project is completed,hence the buyers avoid paying the pre-emi interest to the bank.Most of the builders only make inquiries and only submit proposals but do not make further payments to obtain approvals.Developers have no money to pay the fungible FSI fee.Fungible FSI is the additional money the developer has to pay for enclosed balconies,flower bed area etc.Earlier the builders used to get these areas free but after manipulation was detected by most of them,the BMC smartened up and started charging money for the same.
This slowdown is the most significant in the past 2 years.One only needs to visit the registration dept in Belapur to witness the complete collapse of the market.
The effect of this collapse is primarily in the newly developing areas like Ulwe,Kamothe,Khandeshwar,Panvel,Dronagiri,Kharghar etc.Premium locations in well developed areas like NRI complex,Sector 19 Nerul,etc are relatively less affected due to the scarcity of good flats in good societies in these localities.

Read more here

Petitioner against illegal buildings shot dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WGIACEMing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kwG4N3xCvE

Navi Mumbai police have arrested an ex-cop in connection with the murder of builder Sunil Kumar Lahoria. The ex-police officer, Samuel Amolik, had been dismissed from service for his alleged links with the underworld. He has been charged with murder and conspiracy and remanded to police custody till February 22..
Police say that scrutiny of Mr Kumar\’s mobile call data record revealed that he had received several calls from those who attacked Mr Lahoria before the murder.
Mr Lahoria was shot dead in front of his office on Saturday morning in the satellite town of Navi Mumbai. The entire murder was caught on the CCTV camera installed at the entrance of the office.
At around 8 am, as soon as Mr Lahoria, owner of SK Brothers, stepped out of his white BMW in front of his office in Vashi, a man in a security guard\’s uniform shot him six times from a point-blank range. Another man then attacked Mr Lahoria with a chopper when he fell on the ground. As they were trying to escape, one of them was caught by locals.
Mr Lahoria, 52, was rushed to the Fortis Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

Latest Update (21st Feb 2013)

Two accused in the murder of Mr.Sunil Kumar Lahoria, namely, Mr.Anurag Garg (Dimensions architect) and Mr.Suresh Bijlani are absconding and the police is on the lookout for them. They had filed for anticipatory bail in the Thane court but it was rejected. It has come to light that the threat calls made to the relatives of Sunil Kumar were indeed made from Suresh Bijlani\’s number. Six other builders were also interrogated and their passports confiscated. Bijlani did not submit his passport saying that it was in the renewal process.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/aug/070811-Navi-Mumbai-Chief-Minister-Prithviraj-Chavan-illegal-construction.htm

Navi Mumbai airport decision today

The State Board for Wildlife (Maharashtra) will decide the fate of the Navi Mumbai airport today, 24 Jan 2013.As stated in an earlier article, the airport land falls within 10 kms of the protected Karnala Bird sanctuary.

In early March 2012,Debi Goenka, of the Environment Action Trust, filed a complaint with the Chief conservator of Forests (Thane region) and he complained about it to Union environment secretary Tishya Chatterjee, asking the ministry to revoke the green clearance.

Goenka alleged that CIDCO officials had hidden the fact that:-

1. The Land earmarked for the airport contained 321 acres of reserved forest area.(Reserved forest land cannot be destroyed to develop the land in any way).
2. The Airport boundary wall is less than 10 kilometers from the Karnala bird sanctuary.(According to the Environment protection act,an airport cannot come up less than 10 kilometers from a wildlife sanctuary).

This was verified personally by Debi Goenka along with CIDCO officials. Later,the Chief conservator of forests conducted his own survey and found the allegations true. The distance was found to be less than 10 kms and the land revenue records showed that 321 acres were indeed Reserved forest Land.
Subsequently, the Chief conservator of forests, Mr.Pol, withdrew the permission saying “We have conveyed our objections to the principal secretary and the Navi Mumbai authority (CIDCO) will have to seek fresh permission from both the state wildlife advisory board and the central wildlife advisory board,” said Pol.

False Claims by CIDCO
Cidco claims that only 70 hectares of land falls under the eco sensitive zone (10 kms radius of Karnala bird sanctuary) and that Supreme court in its 2000 order had directed all state govts to mark eco sensitive zones coming under its jurisdiction and that State board of Wildlife had not yet earmarked the eco sensitive zone around Karnala bird sanctuary. However, interestingly, CIDCO officials cleverly avoid mentioning that the airport contains 321 acres of Reserved Forest area. Reserved forest areas cannot be developed under any circumstances. CIDCO had deliberately hidden this fact during the planning stages and later on.
The state board of wildlife will submit a report to the National board for Wildlife which will take a call on whether to give CIDCO the clearance or not.
The decision will be eagerly awaited.
Apart from these major hurdles, the proposed airport is also facing a land acquisition problem. It requires 2,042 hectares of land from which 1,405 hectares is already with CIDCO, but 485 hectares of land is privately-owned.
These private parties are demanding much larger compensation packages, thereby forcing infrastructure companies, including Larsen & Toubro, to question the viability of the entire project. Environmentalists are also putting pressure on the MoEF highlighting the ecological havoc the project will cause since it involves the diversion of two rivers, the Gadhi and Ulwe and the decimating of 400 acres of mangrove forests.
In the light of these ‘new’ developments, the actual construction work is unlikely to start before 2014,provided the green signal comes from the Ministry of Environment and forests as early as possible.
The tendering process is yet to begin and once the winning bidder bags the project, it will take another six to eight months for the feasibility studies. CIDCO, which was to commence the levelling and filling of the land before construction, now has to wait for these clearances from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF)
In light of these developments, it is anybody’s guess when or if the airport will ever come up here.
In the meanwhile, investors and flat purchasers wait with baited breath for the final decision of the ministry.

More information…..

http://business-standard.com/india/news/navi-mumbai-airport-bombay-hc-rejects-cidcos-plea-for-fca-exemption/499610/