Forest Land Flat Owners asked to pay “Additional” NPV
Residents of forest land in Mulund received a setback this weekend when they were asked by the state forest department to pay “additional” money as net present value (NPV) of their flats.
“Why is the forest department asking us to pay extra money? It has already collected the NPV as per Supreme Court directives about a year ago,” said Prakash Padikkal, key petitioner in the forest land case. He alleged that this was gross violation of the court orders and threatened to file a contempt petition against the state by July 15. He has also sought an appointment with chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on the matter.
Deputy conservator of forests G T Chavan whose signature appears on notices issued to residents, said, “It is not contempt of court. We had earlier calculated NPV based on forest density of 0.4 (which is a less dense forest). This was a wrong calculation as forests in the Mulund/Borivli belt in 1975 was a dense one. A committee appointed by the government subsequently concluded that we should charge NPV based on density of the adjoining Sanjay Gandhi National Park, whose density is between 0.4 to 0.7. As a result, the rate structure has changed and we are now collecting additional money from the residents.” He said the residents had earlier paid about Rs 7.3 lakh per hectare and the government had revised it to Rs 9.3 lakh per hectare . “It is legal to collect the revised money,” he said.
“The state is demanding close to 50% more NPV from residents,” he said. The housing societies in Mulund had paid Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh per hectare to the forest department as NPV for getting their flats regularized. A list of all such residents along with the money collected was submitted to the apex ourt. “The state had also filed two affidavits before the court and sworn on oath that they had collected the NPV from all residents . After providing facts to the court, it has no business asking for additional money,” Padikkal said.
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great content i have ever read,thanks alot
Facts are usually analyzed in conditions of the prejudices of the investigator.’ Sir Fred Hoyle, Highlights in Astronomy, W.H. Freeman and Business, San Francisco, 1975.
The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that Building construction could resume after payment of NPV and the builders obligingly did so but now the greedy Deputy conservator of forests, G T Chavan, has openly asked flat owners to pay additional NPV. The SC verdict no longer seems to have any value or crediability with thugs like GT Chavan, blatantly robbing innocent home-buyers. On top of this, the MOEF, CEC, BMC and state Govt are cahoots in this game of robbing people in the name of “Forest Land”. What a shame!!!
Forest Land Issue, Mulund, Mumbai.
This letter represents grievance of lacs of people who booked apartments in residential projects called “Blue Diamond” and “Runwal Infinity” which are projects of leading Mumbai developers ‘Nirmal Lifestyles’ & Runwal Group in Mulund, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The projects were flagged off in the year 2003 (Blue Diamond) and 2006 (Runwal Infinity) and the delivery of this project was scheduled for end of 2006 (Blue Diamond) and 2008 (Runwal Infinity). It is now 2011 and we are nowhere near in getting possession of our cherished homes. Various permits and clearances as required for the construction of the apartment were approved and registered by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and subsequently housing loans were approved and disbursed by the banks (public as well as private).
The construction was progressing and the builder’s demand for payments based on slab was met by us regularly. Some of us have taken housing loans to make these payments. A few unfortunate amongst us started living in rented homes having sold their existing homes to make these payments. Some of us made full down payment to the builder.
We were shown all the clearance paper approved by BMC, also all the loans were sanctioned by the nationalized banks and project was going on smoothly, as per the agreement we were paying loans in installment based on casting of each floor builder, until around August 2007 by which time close to 50% of the construction of the building was completed.
Then suddenly there was a bolt from the blue. One NGO Bombay Environmental Action Group” filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Mumbai High courts claiming that these tracts of land on which these housing projects was constructed was forest land prior to 1955. Mumbai High Court stayed any further construction on these lands in June 2005 which subsequently halted the construction.
Five years has passed. We are running from pillar to post, we have tried all possible avenues but so far nothing has happened. Case is swinging in between High court to Supreme Court. Different committees have looked into matter with no result. While the law is taking its own time, hundreds of us are paying rent to have a roof over our head and making hefty bank payments towards the loans we took to purchase the flat.
We have put our plight on internet.
http://www.petitiononline.com/bdri1234/petition.html
1) The SC needs to provide a quick and fair justice on the Forest Land Issue.
2) The State Govt, MOEF and BMC should work in tandem on granting clearance & approval of building constructions and not suddenly declare areas to be forest area.
forest land in mulund , how to tranfer a flate in society if registration is not possible ? do society trafer a flate without registration..