By Dr. Sanjay Chaturvedi, LLB, PhD
One of my friend took a Penthouse at Santacruz West and spent 3 crore on interiors. One fine morning he discovered that he made a great blunder of his life by purchasing in Redeveloped society. The income level difference and variances on lifestyle have created havoc for him and his family. The standard of living did not match with the neighbors and a gap in middle class thinking and higher class attires have failed to zeal. Those who are the old members of the society got nothing to loose, neither the builder who gets the land as cheap as 18 month rent for its members. The fresh members who comes bears the cost of constructions, society booty by builders, gift money to its office bearers, NOCs, professional fees of PMC and so on and so forth, giving all the cost and margins to leave with people who do not understand the lifestyle he paid for. It is just locations like Bandra to Vile Parle and some part of Juhu which cost fortune to acquire a mere simple two bed room flat but to park him BMW with Maruti 800. The mismatch is so high that old members wants to switch off fans in summer morning to save light bills and new member wants air conditioners even in toilets. The new member wants security and old member willing to offer as a employee as security guard. The maintenance of new building though provided in corpus funds provided by the developer, the new capital based property tax system have forced the Redeveloped societies to go to its members for enhanced differences. Service Tax, VAT, LBT and all the possible taxation imposed by the government, redevelopment process of old structures are not getting takers. All the cost of redevelopment is taken from new members with 1000% margins only to give them mentality of servant type staying with them as a co-members, feels the new members.
A rosy picture is shown by the developers to the new members without disclosing the profiles of old members. Almost all big names in the builders lobby have entered redevelopment of societies. Many are looking for sale components of SRA projects without any obligations. SRA projects are selling one third the selling price for want of irresistible neighbors. Though the builder claims that compound and amenities are different for rehab and sale portions but SRA building adjacent, overlooking balconies, high density of populations, noise on festivals and goods and services offered in the area have created disappointments to people who purchased in Redevelopment buildings and SRA projects. A groceir, a vegetable vendor, a tailor, a cobbler and all such social service provides shows the way people prefer in SRA and redevelopment projects. The entire vicinity do not change with just changing old structure to new.