52% of citys 40-odd malls struggling 

 
The deserted Dreams mall at Bhandup 

OPENED IN 2010 
Ayanavaram hawkers complex remains empty 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 


As roadside vendors in Pondy Bazaar begin trickling into the complex constructed for them,in Ayanavaram,a hawkers complex built by the city corporation three years ago remains vacant.
The two-storey complex of 356 shops was built at an estimated 1.19 crore in 2010 by the previous corporation council at the Palavayal market to reduce traffic congestion.But,the chaotic conditions on the narrow road persist as the vendors stay put on the pavement.K Ramadoss of North Chennai District Exnora says no action has been taken to shift hawkers to the complex.They have forced pedestrians to use the middle of the road and dirty water from shops selling fish and meat on the pavement poses severe health hazards, he said.
The complex,inaugurated three years ago along with the one in Pondy Bazaar,does not even have basic facilities,he added.
The hawkers,too,are complaining about the inadequate facilities.Sushila,who has been selling flowers at the Palavayal market for the last 40 years,said: Do you think we will get any business if we go inside the complex The livelihood of many families will be affected if we shift from here. 
Some residents say the encroachments are a serious problem.We cant walk or cycle here because of this.We are forced to wade through waste water and refuse dumped on the street by the vendors, said a resident of United India Nagar 3rd Main Road.
The vendors,on their part,say they wont go inside the complex until basic facilities are provided.There is no drinking water,electricity connection or toilets.There is no drainage system either, said Federation of Small Traders Associations general secretary B Karunanidhi.
The complex was constructed on the recommendations of Madras high courtappointed hawking committee.A Ramamurthi,chairman of the committee,said: Corporation officials should take appropriate action on the direction given by the committee.If there is no action,we will send a report to the high court.
A corporation official said steps would be taken to shift the hawkers into the complex in 10 days. 

Corpns dismal track record worries vendors 

Pratiksha Ramkumar | TNN 


In many cases,the evicted hawkers return.In 2012,the civic body evicted 80 hawkers from NSC Bose Road.They returned in a week.In 2009,the civic body tried evicting around 150 hawkers from Usman Road and moving them to Corporation Lane nearby.The hawkers returned a week later.
The hawkers are also perturbed by the corporations dismal track record.We agreed to comply with the court order and move inside the building,but in return the corporation should ensure that others dont set up stalls here, said Sait Sayed Ibrahim,secretary of Pondy Bazaar Hawkers Federation.They said customers will be forced to 
Even as many shop owners and commuters welcomed Pondy Bazaars new look,there was an air of scepticism.Going by the Chennai Corporations success rate with evictions,the question on everyones mind was,For how long 
In the past,the civic body evicted vendors from E V R Periyar Salai,Central Station,Park Station,Egmore Railway Station and Purusawalkam High Road.The vendors were allotted shops in the new Moore Market complex.New hawkers have taken their places on the same streets.enter the complex to shop only if they dont have other options on the streets.
Owners of shops in buildings are scared of cheering too soon.The number of shops grew through bribes.They may bribe officials again and return in a month, said A Mohammed,who runs a clothes store.
The doubting Thomases could take comfort from one of the corporations most successful eviction drives in 2008.The civic body cleared 100 fisherwomen from the pavements of Seventh Avenue in Besant Nagar.They closed the market that had been there for more than two decades and moved them to places near Odiamanagar Kuppam.

Builder told to pay NRI 50K for cancelling plot 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Chennai: A real estate company which changed residential plot allotment to a buyer twice before finally cancelling it,despite being paid 1 lakh as advance,has been directed to pay the buyer 50,000 as compensation for deficiency in service.
A bench of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission comprising its president Justice R Reghupati and judicial member J Jayaram,passed the order directing Macro Marvel Projects Ltd to pay 50,000 to to Singaporebased NRI V Vijayanarayanan.
In March 2006,Vijayanarayanan paid an advance of 1 lakh to M M Projects for a residential plot.Without his permission,the plot allotted to him was changed twice and nine months later his advance payment was returned.He then filed a case in District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.
M M Projects denied deficiency in service and said that since Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) had reduced the number of plots,the plot tentatively booked by Vijayanarayanan was changed.Later,he was allotted a different plot but he failed to inform the company in writing he was willing to take the plot. He was offered a different plot and he did not bother to inform them of his willingness. Meanwhile,M M Projects got involved in litigation with the land owners and moved court.As a result,his booking advance was returned,it argued.
In 2007,the district forum ordered the company to pay Vijayanarayanan compensation of 2 lakh for mental agony,and ordered that it refund the advance amount with 18% interest.M M Projects then filed the appeal in the state commission.
Rejecting its appeal,the bench said the company was guilty of deficiency in service,as it could not finish the project.The consumer was not at fault,because the project failed to materialise because the CMDA had reduced the number of plots and the land owners entered into litigation.Holding that deficiency in service was established,the bench awarded a compensation of 50,000.

The Campa Cola case: Separating truth from fiction by Ivor Soans Nov 14, 2013

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/the-campa-cola-case-separating-truth-from-fiction-1228015.html?utm_source=ref_article

 It’s a stark battle that was played out on live TV — on one hand you had the men in khakhi, who usually rank just below politicians in the list of professions Indians distrust, and teams from the BMC, Mumbai’s civic corporation and a fount of inefficiency of well-deserved disrepute. On the other side you had middle class Indians who spend a lifetime paying EMIs to own a few hundred square feet of space they can call their own. Clearly, public opinion was on the side of the common man and politicians of every hue, knowing which way the wind was blowing (and with one eye on upcoming elections) were supporting the flat owners at Mumbai’s Campa Cola Compound. And which is why those bytes of senior citizens blocking entry of the BMC demolition squad, with kids atop bonnets of cars parked to obstruct entry got us all boiling. Residents of Campa Cola rejoice as Supreme Court extends stay on building demolition till may 2014. Firstpost The BMC didn’t fail to add fuel to the fire raging within the middle class. Putting both his feet into his mouth, Additional BMC Commissioner Mohan Adtani said that in the last Supreme Court order which ordered the demolition of the illegal floors there was nothing about taking action against the builder. And there’s that matter of the BMC collecting property tax from the owners of the illegal flats all these years. But before we start foaming at the mouth and scream about how the BMC could collect property tax and yet say the flats were illegal or point to Adtani’s unwisely chosen words as proof of a nexus between corrupt government officials and greedy builders with the common man stuck in between, let’s take a breath. First, let’s deal with property tax. The BMC provides services to citizens in Mumbai–however invisible those services may seem–and has to pay its bills. Property tax is one source of income for the BMC. And that is why the Campa Cola compound residents didn’t have to pool their garbage everyday and arrange for a private truck to lug it to faraway garbage dumps but simply depend on the BMC to do the job. Or take street lighting on the roads leading to the Campa Cola Compound. Or the roads itself. And neither is a BMC water connection proof of legitimacy of a property. The BMC provides connections to buildings in Mumbai without an Occupation Certificate on a humanitarian basis and charges nearly double for such water supply. Let’s just put it this way—according to provisional figures from the last Census, more than 62 percent of Mumbai lived in slums. Many of which are illegal. If the BMC and utilities were to refuse to provide water, power, healthcare and garbage collection facilities to such slums, we’d have anarchy on our hands. If the BMC did nothing, the dengue problem–currently a major local healthcare issue–would be far, far worse. If we look at facts, we can also figure out whether the Campa Cola residents really are innocents who have been taken for a ride, or people who knew the flats were illegal, but brought them at rates as low as one-third of market prices in the hope of making a killing later once things were regularised. The architect of the buildings in question certainly suggests the latter but before you take his claims at face value, keep in mind that he resigned last month after residents appointed another architect to get the required approvals from the BMC. If you go by what the residents claim, they are innocent lambs who were taken for a ride by everyone are now being slaughtered at the altar of justice. In the DNA article quoted above, resident Vidya Srinivas says that leave alone original buyers, even new buyers got their documents checked by lawyers and found title deeds, commencement certificate and the sanctioned plans in order. She adds that the banks too after doing due diligence were satisfied with the documents and loans were sanctioned by nationalised banks like Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, and private ones, including Citibank, ICICI, and HDFC Bank. If this is true, we have a far bigger problem on our hands than the mere matter of illegal flats. As with all things business in India, the process of approvals for building a structure in Mumbai is wrapped over and over in red tape with not an inch to spare. And if builders were a species, the Mumbai builder would be recognised as the hardiest one of all, going by the red tape they successfully negotiate. If you’re interested, you can find the entire process in all its gory details here but to summarise there are a few basic documents that come before construction and a few after. The first is the Intimation of Disapproval (IoD), which is issued by the BMC and includes a list of ‘no-objection certificates’ (NOCs) which the applicant must obtain separately from various departments and government authorities. Once this is done, a Commencement Certificate (CC) is issued in stages, usually first for the plinth level, then for a few floors at a time (say for up to third floor, then seventh floor, and so on). Once the building is complete, the architect applies for an Occupation Certificate (OC) after obtaining a set of ‘no-objection certificates’ (NOCs) from various departments and after that a Building Completion Certificate (BCC) is issued. What does this have to do with the Campa Cola residents? They certainly don’t have an Occupation Certificate (OC) or Building Completion Certificate (BCC), but it’s also clear that the BMC would not have issued a Commencement Certificate (CC) above the permitted floor levels. If so, they were either conned by the builder who showed them a fraudulent Commencement Certificate, which was then included in their sale agreements, or were in the know, as their architect now claims. And while the former is certainly possible, how did banks and lawyers get it so wrong as Vidya Srinivas claims? If banks gave loans to resale properties, they would ask for an Occupation Certificate. However, banks do provide loans to buildings without Occupation Certificates because the home finance market in Mumbai would be drastically slashed if they didn’t do so–40 percent of buildings in Mumbai don’t have an Occupation Certificate, says Moneylife.in. Ramesh Prabhu, chairman of the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA) is quoted by Moneylife as saying that 6,000 buildings in Mumbai fall into this category. And as for Building Completion Certificate (BCC), the figure is even scarier. In another article, Moneylife claims that 90 percent of structures in Mumbai don’t have this vital certification. So, while banks give loans to buildings without occupation certificates, they will dig deeper in cases where there is no OC. And in this case, where were the commencement certificates for the illegal floors? Even if fake certificates were provided, surely banks and lawyers do the necessary due-diligence and cross-checks where the truth would emerge? We checked with HDFC, the pioneer and one of the largest home loan providers in India and they claimed that they have no exposure to illegal flats in the Campa Cola Compound. How about prices at which these flats were resold? Did flats on the legal floors command far higher prices than flats on the illegal floors? Some sources allege this has been happening for years and that the black money component, an integral part of resale in Mumbai’s property market was very high for the illegal flats. Whether you sympathise with the residents or believe they got their comeuppance for making a risky bet that’s now gone bad, it’s clear that what has been written about and said on the Campa Cola case is not much deeper than the surface. Clearly, more can be done and needs to be done to get the truth out. Hopefully, we will do more than get sound bites from residents, BMC officials and politicians, and help us make informed choices rather than just blame the Campa Cola compound saga as yet another example of injustice in India. With inputs from Bindisha Sarang

Sahara submits ownership papers of lands to Sebi
By Partha Sinha, TNN | 19 Nov, 2013, 11.16AM IST

MUMBAI: The Sahara group has submitted original documents of two land parcels in and around Mumbai to market 
regulator Sebi as part of a Supreme Court order to provide collateral to settle a long-drawn case of returning 
Rs 20,500 crore of investors money. 

Sahara sources said that one of the two land parcels is a 106-acre land in Versova, a western suburb, worth nearly 
Rs 19,300 crore at current market prices. The other is a 200-acre land parcel in Vasai, which is worth about Rs 1,200
 crore. "T ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/26026797.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Sahara hands Sebi two land ownership papers

20 November 2013, New Delhi, Agencies

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The Sahara group has submitted original documents of two land parcels in and around Mumbai to market regulator Sebi as part of a Supreme Court order to provide collateral to settle a long-drawn case of returning Rs 20,500 crore of investors money.

Sources close to the development said that one of the two land parcels is a 106-acre land in Versova, a western suburb, worth nearly Rs 19,300 crore at current market prices. The other is a 200-acre land parcel in Vasai, which is worth about Rs 1,200 crore.

‘Together, they add up to Rs 20,500 crore, the amount that the Supreme Court had asked Sahara to deposit with Sebi,’ one source said. This puts to rest speculation on which properties the Lucknow-based group would hand over as security. A Sahara group spokesperson declined to comment on the development. According to sources, the valuation for the Versova land parcel was done by global real estate consultancy major Knight Frank. It has a floorspace index (FSI)  of 1.5.

If this land is converted to saleable space, it would translate to about 1 crore square feet. The valuation for the Vasai land parcel has been done by an Indian firm.

The Sahara group handed over the title deeds and other relevant documents to Sebi on November 14, a source said. The court is set to take up the case for hearing again on Wednesday.

‘In terms of value, these two Mumbai properties were enough to cover Rs 20,500 crore worth of security that the court had asked the group to arrange,’ one of the sources said. The case dates back to 2008 when Sahara filed for an initial public offering (IPO) for one of its real estate arms.

வைப்பு நிதியை திருப்பிதராத வங்கி : நஷ்ட ஈடு வழங்க நீதிமன்றம் உத்தரவு

ஐதராபாத், மே 22 (டி.என்.எஸ்) வைப்பு நிதி தொகையை வாடிக்கையாளருக்கு திருப்பி தராதா வங்கி, சம்மந்தப்பட்ட வாடிக்கையாளருக்கு நஷ்ட ஈடு கொடுக்க வேண்டும் என்று நீதிமன்றம் உத்தரவிட்டது.

ஐதராபாத்  பகுதியில் உள்ள பஷீர்பாக் என்ற இடத்தைச் சேர்ந்த அப்துல் மொஹி மோசிக்(60 ) என்பவர் ஐதராபாத் ஸ்டேட் வங்கியில், கடந்த 1998ஆம் ஆண்டு 22,189 ரூபாயை வைப்பு நிதியாக செலுத்தியுள்ளார். 15 மாத காலத்தில் திரும்பப்பெறும் விதமாக இந்தத் தொகை, ஆகபுரா தெருவில் இயங்கும் வங்கியின் தருசலம் பிரிவில் செலுத்தப்பட்டது.
 
பின்னர், கெடு முடிந்தவுடன் அதனை மீண்டும் 84 மாதங்களுக்குப் புதுப்பித்துள்ளார். 2006 ஆம் ஆண்டில் முடிவுறும் இந்த வைப்பு நிதியில் அவருக்கு 53,660 ரூபாய் திரும்பக் கிடைக்கும் வண்ணம் ஏற்பாடு செய்யப்பட்டது. இதனிடையில் குடும்பத்தினருடன் வேலை நிமித்தமாக சவூதி அரேபியா சென்ற மோசிக், 2009ஆம் ஆண்டுதான் இந்தியா திரும்பினார்.
 
வங்கியில் தொடர்பு கொண்டு, 2006ல் முடிவுற்ற வைப்புநிதியின் தொகையினைத் தருமாறு கேட்டபோது, அவருக்கு வங்கி நிர்வாகம் பதில் எதுவும் அளிக்கவில்லை. மார்ச் மாதம் தொடர்பு கொண்டபோது பதில் வராததால், மோசிக் மீண்டும் மே மாதமும் வங்கியினைத் தொடர்பு கொண்டார்.
 
உடல்நலம் பாதிக்கப்பட்டிருந்த தனக்கு மருத்துவ செலவுகளுக்காக அந்தப் பணம் தேவைப்படுகின்றது எனவும் வங்கி அதிகாரிகளுக்கு தெரிவித்துள்ளார். பலன் எதுவும் கிடைக்காத நிலையில் மோசிக், 2011ஆம் ஆண்டு மார்ச் மாதம் நுகர்வோர் நீதிமன்றத்தில் ஒரு வழக்கு பதிவு செய்தார்.
 
வழக்கு விசாரணை நடந்து கொண்டிருக்கும்போதே, மே மாதம் உடல்நலக்குறைவால் அவர் இறந்துபோனார். நீதிமன்றத்தின் விசாரணைகளின் போது, வங்கி நிர்வாகம் தொடர்ந்து ஆஜராகததால், வழக்கு மோசிக்குக்கு சாதகமாக முடிவடைந்துள்ளது.
 
முதிர்வடைந்த வைப்பு நிதியுடன், வட்டியும் சேர்த்து ரூ 78,765 ம், நஷ்ட ஈடாக ரூ 50,000ம், வங்கி சார்பில் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மோசிக்கின் குடும்பத்திற்கு அளிக்கப்பட வேண்டும் என்று நுகர்வோர் நீதிமன்றம் உத்தரவிட்டுள்ளது.  (டி.என்.எஸ்)

மோனோ ரயில் திட்டம்: வண்டலூரில் 26 ஏக்கர் இடம் தேர்வு

வண்டலூர் மோனோ ரயில் முனையத்துக்காக கிளாம்பாக்கத்தில் தேர்வு செய்யப்பட்டுள்ள இடம்.

InterContinental Hotels-Duet India open second hotel 

 
Pramod Mittal,former chairman of Ispat Profiles