Bleeding Hearts
My heart is heavy, I have just seen the results of a good person being misled by sentiments.
The good person is Medha Patkar, no one doubts her integrity or her compassion. Problem is the application of both of those things.
Sometimes I wonder how difficult it is for people in power like judges or columnists to understand what influence they have over people. One wrong word or interpretation and it sets a very wrong precedent. As I was informing one of my readers yesterday I only write only once I have fully researched a topic since its very easy to be swayed by emotions.
Medha Patkar unfortunately has made the mistake of getting swayed by sentiments. Let us understand the agitation:
Ganesh Krupa Co-op Hsg Society (proposed) ,a society of dwellers formed on encroached lands, wanted to go in for redevelopment. Which means that new shining buildings will come up instead of these encroached shanties, giving current residents compensatory flats and allowing private developers to build a mini city on the freed up land. Located in Khar East, near the airport with highway access, Golibar is prime parcel of 140 acres of real estate.
(Let me explain this agreement between Madhu and Shivalik in all rights may not be illegal since all NORMAL agreements carry the endorsement heirs, assigns, etc where the parties are defined so to all intents and purposes Shivalik Ventures is an assign of Madhu Constructions if this is there in the agreement)
There followed a whole list of irregularities such as allegations of encroachment on 65 acres of conjoined defence land by Shivalik Venture for the land on which the current rehabilitation buildings stand, etc. for which separate cases have been filed.
Medha Patkar stood up and stated some very solid facts such as alleged forged signatures, signatures of a dead uneducated woman in English 3 years or so after her death, etc which have been used to bolster Shivaliks claims.
So she decided to go onto a fast unto death till such time as the Govt
The five items the Govt agreed to are:
1) A halt on the demolitions on the 140 acres plot of Golibar slums and report on the issue by two Government appointed Committees. She claimed that the signatures of slum dwellers was forged on letters of consent for the project.
2) Independent enquiry committee to look into SRA projects with history of conflict such as Golibar, Antop hill, etc.
3) Removal of clause 3K of Maharashtra Slum Areas Act 1971 which allows the government to take over land without the requiring the consent of slum dwellers. Patkar also wanted an investigation into all the projects sanctioned under this section.
4) Committee to probe irregularities in the rehabilitation of the members of Ganesh Krupa Co-op Hsg Society (proposed). Implementation of Rajiv Awas Yojna in Mumbai which aims to provide subsidized affordable housing for the urban poor.
5) Declare unauthorised colonies as slums so a to provide them with basic amenities.
Point number 4 has a basic flaw it asks for "subsidized affordable housing". Slum dwellers would be fools…as of now they are getting "subsidized FREE housing". Why would they bother to even pay affordable rates. Point number 5 is plain crazy. The moment you declare UNAUTHOURISED colonies as legal slums, they become eligible for SRA. And under SRA they get free houses….who says crime des not pay.
The second problem I have with her "fast to the death", since the Govt caved in saying that DEMOLITIONS will stop till further action, she has played right into the hands of the manipulative babus. From now on, everytime there is a demolition of ILLEGAL slums, some "social worker" will fast and the babus will get an excuse to halt work.
I personally know someone in Golibar who "purchased" a house from a slumlord almost 20 years ago. It was a ground floor structure and he stayed in it and ran a printing press from one corner. About 12 years ago he came to me to borrow a lakh of rupees since he wanted to add a floor to his house since he was married now and had a small son, so space was now short. I lent him the money which he paid back , but by the time the floor was finished , he was using only half of it and had given the other half on rent for Rs. 4000 per month.
Now comes the fun part. 5 years ago, he again borrowed another 2 lakhs, this time to add a second floor to his house. Now he gets a rent of almost 15000 a month, for the two upper floors and his press is closed since he makes more from rent than he did in the press. ( he outsources his press to others in less lucky slums).
I asked him and he was cursing Medha Patkar since she was standing in the way of him and thousands of others getting legal 3 flats in stead of the narrow filthy laned slums for the cause of some 75 or so families out of which according to him only 26 were legal residents ( read pre 1995 as legal as per Maharashtra Govt.)
Let me understand his logic. he gets 3 flats ( since he has shown family members as resident in each of the floors, almost everyone has done that a fact which even Medha Patkar acknowledges in her speech ). Each of these flats is 500+ sq ft built up area. Rate in that area even for a SRA building would be approx 12,000 per sq ft built up …so he ends up with 3 flats each of potential sale value Rs. 60 Lakhs.
Of course, our Govt cant be so stupid and has put in a clause which says you cant sell or transfer the property for 10 years. Our punters have of course found a shortcut. They give a irrevocable power of attorney and in a survey it was found that a least 45% of SRA flats are not occupied by the original owners. What did the SRA authorities do, made a token show of issuing notices to a few flat owners, made some clucking noises about confiscation and the matter has gone into endless court litigation.
Folks accept it for a fact, the scam at Golibar is not only from the builders and the Govt side, almost each and every resident is out to line his pocket at the cost of the poor taxpayer like you and me.
In closing let me give you a simple little calculation: 140 acres = 140*44000 sq ft. Taking into account that there are lanes and roads criss crossing and that there are multi-storey structure we can safely assume at least 1 times the are is covered. So we have a potential area of approx 62 lakh sq ft.
Add the municipal and stamp duty built up ratio of 1.2 and the saleable area is approx 74 lakh sq feet. At the basic rate of 12000 per sq ft, approx we are talking about 9000 Crores worth of SRA materials being given FREE to these encroachers.
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Picture says it all: (click on image to enlarge)
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Appeal
Folks, I've been asked by India Against Corruption to ask if any of the readers would like to have a meeting in their area, gymkhana / club or any kind of general gathering where their volunteer could come and talk about the Jan Lok Pal Bill and how it will benefit the public.
I am a firm believer in the Bill and if any of the readers would like to have such a meeting in their area, please email me at theindipatriot@yahoo.co.in and I will put you in touch with the volunteers.
For more articles like this one , please visit http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com
let me introduce myself:
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I am an person of Indian origin residing in Mumbai who feels that the time has come to speak up or be silent forever. We all see movies like Rang De Basanti or Lage Raho Munnabhai and after walking out of theatre for the next couple of days the effect hangs like a halo around us. A few days later we go back to our old ways. This is my way of keeping the spirit of India alive.
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As they say" 100 mein se 99% beimaan phir be India hai Mahaan"
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My Mission Statement is:
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I am sending you this mail since you have at some time or the other sent me a joke, an interesting article or some other little snippet or or some friend who has liked my articles has reffered you to me or at the very least you have been a CC on such an article forwarded to me so I feel this may be of interest to you.
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I have started a blog under the name indipatriot and am sending you this article and the link to the blog http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com where you can read this and other articles. I would also request you to send me articles and other things you would like me to publish on this blog from jokes to spiritual articles all comments are welcome. The email address for sending articles to is theindipatriot@yahoo.co.in If you feel that this blog is not to your taste and do not wish to receive updates about the same, please send an email to the same address and we shall remove you from the mailing list.
Disclaimer This article is my personal opinion and is not meant to offend or hurt any person or any body of people. The matter is drawn from public domain and no copyright is knowingly transgressed. If any topic is found to be objectionable by you for any reason whatsoever, please do leave a comment and I will be glad to include a clarification in my followups.
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