‘We have been defrauded’: Cidco home applicants protest high prices, poor locations

The buyers, who have conducted a signature campaign and are exploring legal options, announced on Friday at a press conference that they will organise a human chain protest in Vashi on Tuesday

Navi Mumbai: Aspiring home buyers from the economically weaker sections (EWS) and the lower income group (LIG) categories are up in arms against the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) over the pricing of its mass housing scheme. They are also upset that the area of the homes mentioned in the intent letters issued after the lottery draw was less than what Cidco had stated earlier, a charge denied by the government agency.

Navi Mumbai, India - July 12, 2018: CIDCO to offer over 2,800 unsold properties next month at Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai, India, on Thursday, July 12, 2018. (Photo by Bachchan Kumar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The buyers, who have conducted a signature campaign and are exploring legal options, announced on Friday at a press conference that they will organise a human chain protest in Vashi on Tuesday. They have also sought the help of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), whose Navi Mumbai chief, Gajanan Kale, was present at the press conference. The buyers are also planning to approach the state government with their concerns.

As part of its much-hyped My Preferred Cidco mass housing scheme, the agency had in October last year initiated online registration for 26,000 homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the central government’s affordable housing scheme. The flats on offer are located at Vashi, Bamandongari, Kharkopar, Kharghar, Taloja, Mansarovar, Khandeshwar, Panvel, and Kalamboli. They were placed in two categories: EWS (income up to ₹6 lakh per annum) and LIG (income over ₹6 lakh per annum).

However, most applicants were left aghast when Cidco announced the home prices under these categories in January. In the EWS category, homes ranged between ₹25 lakh and ₹48 lakh, while those in the LIG category were from ₹34 lakh to ₹97 lakh. These prices were exclusive of additional charges for floor rise, registration, and stamp duty.

Cidco’s refusal to budge led to a poor response, as only 55,000 of the 150,000 people who had applied for the scheme paid the registration fee. Despite Cidco extending the deadline for payment of the booking amount four times, only 21,399 people ultimately paid it. According to reports, 2,000 buyers have withdrawn after the draw was conducted recently.

The buyers were further upset that the home size mentioned was 27.12 sqm (290 sqft), instead of 29 sqm (322 sqft) advertised in the letter of intent. According to Cidco, this was the carpet area of the house, excluding the balcony area, as required under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act.

The buyers claimed that Cidco had misled them. “The dream homes of the poor have turned out to be homes for the rich,” said Dada Padalkar, one of the applicants. “We can somehow manage to pay for the ₹40-50 lakh homes with the help of loans, but not those priced over ₹85 lakh. How can auto drivers, hawkers, mathadi workers, maids, etc., afford them?”

Vijay Mane, another applicant, said, “For the last year and a half, we collected and submitted volumes of documents asked for, incurring huge expenses and time. We took loans to pay for the registration and booking amounts. Now, we realise we have been defrauded in terms of price, area and even location.”

He added that the homes on offer are located in the far-off Taloja area, where there is pollution, or next to the crematorium in Kharghar. “Let Cidco give us land, and we shall construct small huts there for ₹25 lakh.”

The MNS’s Navi Mumbai chief, Gajanan Kale, who was present at Friday’s press conference, said that Cidco was speaking the language of private developers and defeating the very purpose for which Navi Mumbai was developed and why PMAY houses are constructed. He added that Cidco’s prices were even higher than those offered by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority.

“Cidco has violated central government norms even on EWS and LIG eligibility. We will meet [MNS chief] Raj Thackeray to take up the issue at the highest level and also plan to file a public interest litigation in the matter. We will take to the streets if nothing works, as we have done earlier with Cidco and got them to accept people’s demands,” said Kale.

Cidco’s joint managing director, Shantanu Goel, had justified the pricing, saying, “One must accept the fact that if you need cheaper houses, you must go out of the city. We, however, are offering flats at places near the Panvel bus terminus and Mansarovar railway station. The EWS category with aspirations of living in a city will take loans as per their capacity and use their savings. “We are providing them loan facilities from banks and NBFCs.”