Thousands of residents of South City protested at the Freedom Park

Residents of L & T South City Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore protested at the Freedom Park, Gandhinagar against Messrs L&T and Dinesh Ranka for cheating South City apartment owners and deficiency in their project. Though originally L&T South City project scheduled to be completed by 2005, the project has dragged on for about 12 years and still incomplete. L&T refuses to transfer to SUGRUHA the maintenance corpus, deposits collected for reserved parking space and balances from money collected for user deposits and fees to civic authorities like BWSSB, BESCOM etc.

South City residents staged a protest, under the banner of South City Housing Apartment Owners Association (Sugruha) at Freedom Park.  Sriram S, Abraham Kuruvilla-President of SUGRUHA, R. Rajagopalan Vice-President, T.V. Suneeth Kumar Vice-President and  over 1000 residents of L&T South City assembled at Freedom Park and peacefully protested against L&T and Dinesh Ranka. They demanded L&T to fulfill their promises and not act against the interests of the residents.

All sale deeds had mentioned both the park and the road as part of South City. But today, more than 700 children living in L&T South City don’t have a safe place or playground for playing. They clearly promised a 60-ft road connectivity to the JP Nagar 24th Main but until now the road is not yet constructed or opened for South City residents.

L&T and Dinesh Ranka Cheated Apartment owners

L&T South City apartment is located in Kothanur Village off Bannerghatta Road. According to residents, the project originally scheduled to be completed by 2005, the project has dragged on for about 12 years and still incomplete. Their developer and landowner, Messrs. L&T and Mr. Dinesh Ranka promised a 60-ft road connectivity to the JP Nagar 24th Main and a 5.5 acre park.

Messrs. L&T and Ranka told the prospective buyers that they would have exclusive use of the park in the complex. After selling thousands of apartments, they told the residents that as much as 12 acres out of the 34 acres sold to them, including the USP of  South City – the park and the main  internal road,  have been relinquished earlier itself to BDA. The park is the main attraction of the property. South City Apartment owners say that they would not have purchased flats in South City if the 5.5 acre park had not been part of the deal.

Residents Voice

“The developer and landowner had promised children’s play area as part of L&T South City amenities. But, there is no play area for more than 700 children living in L&T South City. L&T had failed to keep their promise of developing a play area for children. When we contacted project manager for the same, he said let children play on road. In a desperate bid to provide a playground, residents of the apartment complex hired a bulldozer to level a part of the 5.5 acre land that was meant to be developed as a playground. This move aggravated L&T, Hulimavu police, BDA officials and officials from BBMP were they reached at the site within half an hour and halted the operation.” said Suneeth Kumar Vice President-SUGRUHA.

“Our main issues in L&T South City are no maintenance of amenities and no security services to the apartment complex, developer promised 60-ft road connectivity to the JP Nagar 24th Main but not yet opened for residents and there are more than 700 children in South City but they don’t have a play area. Another main issue of South City is L&T refusing to transfer management of the complex to SUGRUHA and not ready to give audited statement of accounts. We seek help from media and other concerned communities to fight this evil” said a resident of L&T South City.

“L&T South City apartment is located in Kothanur Village off Bannerghatta Road. As the developer has not provided us 60-ft road connectivity to the JP Nagar 24th Main, more than 3000 cars of South City residents are using Arekere Layout road to reach the city. The road is narrow and residents using this road has affected neighborhood of Arekare. They often complaint about the traffic problem in Arekare and residents of South City are hapless as they have only this road to reach city or their workplace. Residents are unhappy with breach of the terms mentioned in the sale deed and residents moved court. They simply refuse to respond to us every time we contact them.Today we are here in Freedom Park for awareness rally and we will never give up” said Suneeth.

“According to source, The sanction from BDA was obtained in a devious manner through an agreement rather than under Sec 32 of the law governing housing development. SUGRUHA’s conservative estimates indicate a loot of at least Rs.150 Crores. For L&T and Dinesh Ranka 34-12=34 ie., 34 acre site minus 12 acres is 34 acre site. After selling thousands of apartments, they told the residents that as much as 12 acres out of the 34 acres sold to them, including the USP of  South City – the park and the main  internal road,  have been relinquished earlier itself to BDA. Mr. Dinesh Ranka attempted to misuse his villa within South City for commercial purposes. They are still to provide a host of amenities promised, including playgrounds and walking tracks for the thousands of children and elders living in this 2000 apartment, 10000 resident strong mini-town of sorts.” said another resident of South City.

Main Issues in L&T South City

• L&T South City is landlocked with more than 3000 cars of residents disturbing the neighboring communities with only narrow roads leading to Bannerghatta Road.

• L&T promised 60-ft road connectivity to the JP Nagar 24th Main but until now no such road is available for residents.

• The L&T South City residents were promised 34 acres where 5.5 acre is park which is the main attraction of the property. After selling thousands of apartments, they told the residents that as much as 12 acres out of the 34 acres sold to them, including the USP of  South City – the park and the main  internal road,  have been relinquished earlier itself to BDA.

• In 2010, Mr. Dinesh Ranka attempted to misuse his villa within South City for commercial purposes. Though BDA said the structure is illegal, until now the structure is not demolished.

• Though originally scheduled to be completed by 2005, the project has dragged on for about 12 years and still incomplete. They did not form the apartment owners’ association as required by law. Residents formed apartment owners association SUGRUHA – The South City Group Housing Apartment Owners’ Association under the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972. But the L&T and Ranka is not ready to confirm they are approved association.

• L&T refuses to transfer management of the complex to SUGRUHA and give audited statement of accounts. They refuse to transfer to SUGRUHA the maintenance corpus, deposits collected for reserved parking space and balances from money collected for user deposits and fees to civic authorities like BWSSB, BESCOM etc.

• There are no indications of meeting statutory requirements like rain water harvesting and solid waste disposal systems.

SUGRUHA has been actively fighting for the rights of the residents of South City through all possible legitimate ways- repeated discussions with L&T management, suits in city civil courts, high court writ petitions and consumer court, RTI act, appeals and petitions to civic authorities and elected representatives, peaceful protests and by writing to the independent Directors on the Board of L&T. Still, L&T is lying like a dead snake in grass hoping to tire out SUGRUHA. Residents of South City and representatives of SUGRUHA say we will never give up. The protest at the Freedom Park is awareness rally and we seek help from media and other concerned communities to fight this evil.  Join hands with us to expose these corrupt elements.

Click here for Photos of residents of South City protesting at the Freedom Park