Property experts

NEW DELHI: The Govt of India will soon appoint real estate experts to prepare affordable housing policy and updating the rules for approving real estate projects in 15 states in the country.

The Govt is coming out with a policy where it will involve large number of real estate experts to each state and direct them to study various rules and regulations regarding building plan approvals. In the first phase The Centre will identify 15 major states for simplification.

Realtors regulator body CREDAI has been demanding a single window clearance for realty projects, because the cost of construction goes up by 40-45 pc due to delay in the nod.

The Government is hoping to complete the process of appointing experts in next two months. The experts’ job will be to help the states in developing affordable housing under all the laws and regulations.

The Govt is also planning to develop software that will help the states in accelerating the approval process.

The Govt is thinking to bring down the minimum built-area to 20,000 sq mt from the existing 50,000 sq mt for the FDI investors in the realty sector. The FDI of 100 pc investment is allowed in real estate by the Cabinet.

The Centre has sanctioned two schemes which will mobilize money by the government and institutional sectors to develop 2 million houses in next four years and with assigned investment of Rs 40,000 crore.

To indulge the private sector in the affordable housing unit the Govt has reframed the partnership scheme in which it would give 15 pc rebates in construction and make it avail for the poor section.

The home lovers who all want to settle down this year have to wait a bit longer. Surveys show that in 2013, developers on an average would be delivering one third or even less number of units committed this year.

The National Capital region is being performing very badly among the other cities. Data shows only 24 pc of units have been delivered until September this year. More than 25 pc committed supply has not been delivered. The market condition in Southern part of India is far better than the Northern part the survey showed.

In Gurgaon the market hit ratio is one third while in Noida region is below 20 pc. Pune and Mumbai are far ahead in delivering, 40 pc of committed supply this year.

Most buyers have budgets for delay of a few months for some genuine problems faced by eth developer.  But this time around the developers are facing many problems some are being created by the developer and some are out of their control.

The factors which are delaying the developer can be assume as shortage of capital, equity firms are worried about 80:20 schemes introduced by RBI. The next one can be over-leveraging, as many developers had burrowed money to but land but due to the slowdown and the interest rates going high which suck most of the cash flow of the developer and have nothing left for the construction. The third might be the availability of land and the fourth can be inadequate approvals when required have not been taken from the respective bodies.

There are some more reasons also like the increase in land prices with increasing in input cost and the currency depreciation can be some more factors for slowdown in delivering.

When the house is not delivered on promised date there are additional cost the buyer has to bear. The EMI payment that goes any way and the additional expenses unit the unit is delivered.

The consumption in the local market is very essential for the real estate market to grow as most of the housing requirement is local or in near by areas. Large project sin small towns are facing hurdles due to slow movement of inventory.

The resale market is a good prospect in these conditions, especially if the purchase is geared towards end-use. The current slowdown in demand and high interest rate has also hit investors hard. The only participant in the market are the end-use buyers, for them situation looks promising.

Property Tax

Mumbai: The property association of Mumbai is gearing up to challenge the Civic body of Greater Mumbai against the revised method of property tax calculation.

Accepting the plea the Bombay High Court has asked the municipal corporation to file its reply by Nov 11. The court will hear the plea with two other institutes who had also complained against the body.

The association has over 8,000 active members across the state. The result of these cases will have an impact on many property owners, charitable trusts and religious institute in the city. The association is seeking a stay order on the revised system.

According to the plea, the imposed property tax should be reasonable, taking into account the paying capacity of the property owner. Earlier, five trusts in Mumbai approached the court challenging the civic body notices on tax calculated on capital value.

In the new system, the tax is fixed at 1.3 % of capital value for the commercial and 0.35 % for the residential units.There were certain concessions and leverage given to the charitable organizations but there is no such thing avail in the new syytem.

The association is also ready to file a plea in the apex court if the verdict will come against them. The association has also written letter to the Maharashtra CM to intervene in the matter.

Hotel projects

New Delhi: The new inclusion of hotels and convection centers in the master list of infrastructure will provide huge employment in the country, Chiranjeevi said.

In a recent development, the Finance Ministry has decided to incorporate hotel project costing more than Rs 200 crore and convection center valuing over Rs 300 cr to be an infrastructure project.   The decision was welcomed by the Tourism Minister.

The facility will be effective from the date of notification and available for qualified prospects for three years. The eligible cost excludes cost of land and lease charges but it includes the interest during the construction.

The Tourism Minister had met his south paw P Chidambaram earlier in this connection. The Tourism Ministry had been following the Finance Ministry for this kind of benefit for the developing  hospitality industry in the country.

The inclusion of the hotels will give a boost to the industries and many foreign brands will be interested doing business in the country. Tourism and hospitality business has seen huge growth in recent times.

The inclusion of convention centers will also help to set-up niche products in tourism which have year-round business and therefore, would overcome the present bane of seasonality of Indian tourism.

Reliance Infra will ask its cement manufacturing company in Madhya Pradesh to produce over 5 mn tonnes of cement to enter into the cement manufacturing market.

Reliance Infra, which is into power and infra business, had set up a subsidiary Reliance Cement by using the fly ash generated from its power units.  The project major is currently operating cement 0.5 mtpa units from its Butibori power plant in Maharashtra.

The firm is ready to add the new cement business to their portfolio and will hoping to serve the county in long term. Reliance cement will add a new proximity to the infra business which deals with power, roads, and metro rail systems.

The firm is making new plans to increase the capacity of its new business and is hoping to produce over 20 mn ton per annum in next few years.

The unit which is being constructed in Madhya Pradesh involved an investment of Rs 3,000 crore which took 22 months to complete.

The unit is constructed with high international standards to be one of the most energy efficient and eco-friendly units in the country.

New Delhi: The Delhi Development Authority being repeatedly attacked over its wrong address policy, the Government body has issued notice to its senior officials to more careful in finalizing applications. The developmental body has asked its officials to contact the CBI directly if they found any wrong doing in the selection.

The notice has a set of new norms for dealing with claims produced under the wrong address policy.

DDA drafted the policy in November 2002, after a Delhi High Court verdict in which it was decided that all cases in which the allotment letter is sent at wrong address despite change have been confirmed by the allottee leading to cancellation. The allottee   should be given a flat at the same price in the given location and no interest will be charged.  The DDA has since been prone to controversies in allotment under this policy.

In some cases, allottee alleged against the authority of not providing them flats despite receiving all the desired documents. There are many charges of corruption and involvement of dealers in the authority.

The last case against the DDA came in July this year when crores were wrongly drawn during the allotment of 150 flats at 10/15 years old rate but being put off at current market rates. The CBI investigated the matter and filed three separate cases. Various cases were filed in the court against DDA for not allotting property to the original owner after submitting all the documents.

The new notice has asked the officials to get the verification of the claimant’s papers done in a forensic lab to make sure every thing is in order. DDA will also make sure that flats once assigned are not put on sale within five years of allotment.

Value buying

Real estate market is seen as India’s one of the biggest money producer over the long term. Those people who have invested in property or property shares have got higher returns. Properties bought in big cities in posh area for new lakhs are worth crores, surging 25-26 pc per annum.

After almost a decade and half of property rise, the process are stable and are affected by slowdown in the economy, higher interest rate and new funding rules by RBI. Liquidity in the market is drying and the prices of some recent peak hottest property destinations are getting corrected by 10-15 pc. It seems like real estate market is over for sometime. The market will crawl to find its desired destination.

These days property market is more restricted than people thing. If the prices in big cities fall it does not mean that the price is falling in other markets. The demand will arise at the right price.

But the huge rise in property prices should go under some correction. If we are finding a residential property at 3,000 per sq ft in Delhi-NCR it seems a good buy for a long term investment. Since property is growing in other parts of the country one must try to explore in the small towns also.

An investor need to be selective and cautious before investing as not every property one buys turns out be a goldmine, unless the investor is in one of the rising periods.

In the current scenario, the land owners are desperate after 2-3 years stagnation and the developers are unable to oblige them and they land mind get cheaper and increasingly available. This could bring down the property cost and make property more affordable in near future.

Selecting right property in the volatile market is a tough task. It need research, high conviction and huge amount of patience. Investor ignores liquidity risks in real estate and end up over investing. If the investment is done in a wrong place it might take long time to deliver the goods.

New Delhi: Availability of office space dips by more than 75 pc during the second quarter.  The decline is huge as compared to the previous quarter in the top cities in the country. High vacancy in completed buildings and poor pledges in the under-constructions ones found out to be the main reason of the short supply.

In the second quarter less than 3 million sq ft of office space got acquired which shows a drop of 75 pc over the last quarter’s 10 million sq ft of office supply to the real estate market.

The Q2 witnessed the lowest supply of office spaces over past several quarters. The report provides a jest of office space activity in the major cities.

Bangalore was hit worse where supply fell to 3.5 lakh sq ft compared with 35.83 lakh sq ft in the last quarter. Delhi-NCR accounted just 12 pc in the context. The decline was ere 3.24 lakh sq ft as against 15.53 lakh sq ft in the previous one.

The big corporate houses have sifted their emphasis to relocating and efficient use of their current real estate portfolio since last year and the trend will continue in the mid-two quarter also.

The economic slowdown and the new bank scheme from RBI is also adding tool to the developer for the shortage of office supply in the country.

New Delhi: The property prices in NCR’s new housing markets, which are known as micro markets have nearly doubled in last few years. The new trend of having new options available in the local market has become an eye catching opportunity for the buyer who cannot enter the prime market.

These small markets are challenging the slowdown in the market and are moving forward.  The areas near the Gurgaon’s Golf course, extension and Dwarka Expressway seen a huge property hikes.

In the Golf course Extension periphery, the prices are around Rs 8,000-13,000 per sq ft while these figures were Rs 6,000-9,000 two years ago. The realty firm has seen a hike in rates in Dwarka Expressway where there are high demands for property.

In the southern parts of Gurgaon the prices were Rs 4,500-5,500 per sq ft  a year back compared to todays price ranging from Rs 6,000-7,000 in the area.

Gurgaon has converted from an investor-driven market to being an end-user driven market. On the other hand, the Southern part essentially remains a hotbed as the current price the area has the highest amount of affordable housing units. The new proposed widening of Golf Course Road , construction of the underpass and the proposed expressway will improve connectivity significantly which will boost sales of these low lying periphery.

New Delhi: India’s leading construction firm L&T has bagged a Rs 1,337 cr construction deal from DLf to build its new residential project in Gurgaon.

The realtor is developing a new housing project ‘The Crest’ in Gurgaon, having 765 units, of which 250 flats have been sold out.

The real estate firm had decided to outsource the construction job to third parties for quick deliveries of its project. The works are of L&T comprises construction, civil, structural, external services, landscaping and all the other construction work associated with the project.

The real estate major had a net profit of Rs 711.92 cr and a total of Rs 7,773 cr in the 2012-13.

MACE group a global consultancy and construction firm was hired by DLF for Project management.

The global consultancy firm offered some iconic projects like London Eye, Heathrow Airport T5, and 2012 London Olympic Games.

The Crest being the next luxury project, DLF is aiming for best construction techniques and best company in the market to construct the project.

New Delhi: The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is gearing up to put its 60 plots, in 14 prime locations under the hammer after a gap of one year. The auctions will be at Pitampura, Vikas Puri, East of Kailash etc on 20th, 21st, and 22^nd of November. The process of sale will begin from October 28.

All the 60 plots going under the hammer are having a base price of above Rs 1 cr. The body has chosen to start the auction with a high base price, which will surge the property price in the respective areas.

In the current scenario, the real estate market is going through a rough phase and the investors are not showing much interest but the Govt body has chosen to pitch its properties aggressively for the auction.

Recently, at Janakpuri, the property rates usually range from Rs 45,000-50,000 per sq ft but DDA had auctioned the plot at Rs 42,000 against the new housing unit developer built property.

The authority is now planning to take a bigger role in the realty market at will auction 70 sq mt plot in Yamuna Nagar for Rs 1.47 cr and 357 sq mt ploy in Janakpuri which will start from Rs 15.74 cr.

Some properties which include a 270sq mt plot in Jasola has a base price of 13 cr, a 245 sq mt plot at Pritampura starting at Rs 10cr, and a 355sq mt plot at Dwarka will open at Rs 11 cr.

The auction of property at DDA was regular thing till a year ago, but due to frequent changes in the top management the auctions were put on hold. There are more residential properties marked for auction and will be put under hammer in coming months.

After the RBI’s new plan of loan under 20:80 ratio, many leading developers are working out new strategy to attract the buyer with any deduction in their prices. Some Realtor are giving gifts and freebies to the buyers. With economic slow down prevailing in Indian markets its like rubbing salt to the injury.

The just concluded Navartri festival has not given much movement in NCR real estate market. This is usually a period when the buying activity is at its top. But due to slow down the developers are giving new schemes and offer and also handing out freebies.

In a recent report, there are unsold inventories lying which will take Delhi-NCR 21 months more to clear the back log, Mumbai being the worst hit will take 48 months to absorb.

The real estate market got a jolt when RBI issued a notification and asked the banks to restrict the loans to 20:80 for under construction project. This led all the calculations upside down for the developers.

Under the scheme the RBI has tightened the rules to protect the interest of buyers and contain the result of such new housing financing schemes. If the builder defaults it will affect the credit profile of the buyer and expose banks to higher NPAs.

As the new loan scheme prevails, a pact will be signed between the bank, the builder and the buyer who would pay 20 pc of the total cost while booking. The bank will pay the remaining 80 pc to the developer on buyer’s behalf.  The problem lies with the developer has he was using the credit line of the buyer to get home loan at a cheaper rate of 10-12 pc which is usually given at 16-18 pc.

This type of plan 90/10 was introduced in 2009-10, by some developers but was banned afterwards.

Over a period of time several developers diverted funds and deferred the project for which loans were taken. The buyer was forced by the bank to repay after a particular period without even getting possession according to the agreement. Then buyer’s resisted legal issue cropped up making properties non-performing assets.

There are big players in the market with good capacities who exploited the banks and the buyers and made profit. This lot of builders would be more affected if the supply of cheap funds halts.

Given the slowdown they are facing, developer would avoid payment schemes and would bank on the freebies to attract the customer. Some are even gifting gold coins with each booking, some are even paying stamp duty and waving off some charges. After that they have to provide furniture, fridge,sofa sets, LCD Televisions etc.

New Delhi: Some experts believe the poor governing decisions, inferior quality and slow economic growth are holding back the foreign retailer to expand in India.

The next few years will be challenging as the supply of material is constrained. Although some foreign groups used the space in new developments, anticipating more supply crunch. But a very few retalers are cautious as the economic attitude remains slow.

The international brands are mooting to expand I the country but they are approaching very carefully.

Foreign brands like Swarovski, Jack N Jones, Only, Vero Moda, Tommy Hilfiger, Levis, Louis Philippe, Puma, Nike, Voi Jeans, Marks & Spencer, and Calvin Klein among others are doing business in the country.

There is a huge interest among the foreign brands to expand but due to the ups and downs prevailing in the Indian market and no clear view of future they are only focusing on the top cities.

The vacancy levels in some malls which are not well located are more but a few developers have shut down also. The developer is expecting some return for the brands if it is not getting any return it will ask the retailer to shut shop and go. In this kind of bad crisis only the local brands can survive.

Gurgaon: Realty firm Unitech Group  has inked a pact with Accenture to lease its 8 lakh sq ft of area in its Gurgaon Tech-park SEZ, the deal will yield Rs 1,000 cr to the group over 15 years. The deed was finalized last week.

Unitech, which is listed in London Stock Exchange are in discussions with the US based private equity firm Blackstone  and Singapore based wealth fund firm GIC to sell off the entire stake in the special economic zone Tech pack in Gurgaon. The price is estimated to be Rs 2,700 cr for the IT SEZ.

The renting pact with Accenture could help the realtor to get better valuation for the tech park, which has a total of 36 lakh sq.ft rented land to offer.

The leasing deed has been singed for 15 years with escalation clause in it. The space has been leased on a monthly rental basis of over Rs 60 per sq ft.

With this agreement, about 90 per cent of leasable space in the tech park has been occupied. The major portions have been occupied by Accenture, RBS, Sapient, Bank of America, and Ernst & Young.

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry is gearing up to put all the things placed and draft the rules for the new Infrastructure Trust Fund. The fund will help to speed up the flow of funds into various projects like power, ports, aviation etc in the country.

The Ministry is sure to finish the legalities and formalities for the trust fund in one month.

The Ministry is expecting to get funds the funds in the nature of REIT, which are dominant in countries.

The trust will issue all the units to domestic and foreign investors who all want to buy the unit after the revenue projects are transferred to it.

The Government of India has been looking for valid options to fund the infra sector which is projected to require three times from the current status by in next two years.

The Debt Fund was introduced  in the Union Budget 2011-2012. The debt fund is  aiming to fastening and increasing the flow of long term debt for funding public oriented plans for infra in the country.

Recently, Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Washington said that the total infusion for power, road, and civil aviation etc. in 12th plan period is expected at $ 1trillion; nearly half of the amount is expected from the private sectors.

New Delhi: The National Housing Bank will be a boot of Rs 500-Cr loan from the Department of International Development of British Govt to construct affordable house in the country.

The housing project will target the eight-low income states in the first phase in the county.

The lending cost for the affordable housing project will be lower than the market rates. The project will initially start with these eight states and gradually increase to other states in future.

The partnership between the British Department and the NHB will also invest in private sectors to help the poor while getting benefits.

The NHB will give fund to low and medium developer also to build housing projects for 17,000 households. It is also thing to finance mortgages for low-income families.

The loan will be available in two installments; first Rs 400 cr will be given to finance the construction of affordable housing units and the other part will be given to the low-income families as technical assistance.

NHB is also gearing up to infuse additional Rs  500 Cr or more in the affordable housing units according to sources.

If the partnership flourishes according to the plan it can tackle and address housing shortage units in low-income states.

New Delhi: In recent developments the Commerce ministry has directed the developers seeking to give back Special Economic Zones will have to submit an undertaking that the land is used according to the guidelines drafted by the Government of India.

According to the SEZ guidelines all the submission proposals must have a clearance letter from the state government and such lands after denotification will be handed over to the respective state governments.

The state governments will also ensure that the acquired SEZ land is used in creating infra projects which fulfill the SEZ objectives originally thought off, according to the drafted rules.

SEZ was an attraction for investors; it has lost its sheen after the Cabinet implement Minimum Alternate Tax and Dividend Tax in 2011. There are certain provisions in the DTC tax also held responsible. The global slowdown is like rubbing salt in the injury.

More than 58 developers have surrendered their SEZ citing global slowdown. The Centre has initially approved 576 SEZ zones out of which 173 have starting exporting.

During the first quarter of the year these zones gave Rs 1.13 lakh crore while the country’s total export aggregated to Rs 1.05 lakh crore.

Investment in real estate is not same as buying a mere property for use, now days it requires a thoughtful process to buy or sell a property. Infusion in realty market is a huge risk. Investment in realty sector should be done very cautiously. Before buying or investing some important additional factors should be considered.

Funds: If a loan is being taken for the property, most lending firms fund only 75-80 pc of the property value and asks the buyer to arrange the rest amount.

In the current age, the buyer must ensure that he have savings at least 40-50% of the property value. It is more preferable to apply for a bank loan rather than taking loan from a non-banking institute. Before clearing the loan the bank will cross check and verify certain minute things which the buyer might over look.

Right spot: The most important factor before investing. The investor should verify thoroughly the actual development of the area where the project is being constructed keeping in mind for livability and commercial values.

It is very necessary to check the transport facilities, health facilities, and social amenities before taking any final step. Location influences the returns more than any factor.

According to a market survey conducted by Crisil, the average return in India over the past ten years has been 12-15%, but due to some location problems some have fetched very low returns also.  If the location is not developing according the market demand it can bring disastrous returns.

Project and Developer: Before finalizing the project, the buyer must check the developer’s track record and deliveries of past projects. The investor needs to verify all the legal and the Government approvals regarding the project, obtained by the realtor.

Apart from checking all this things, the buyer must check the quality of construction, facilities and amenities given and the annual charges charged by the developer.

The second part of the realty market in selling. The realty investor should be ready to keep the property intact for 7-10 years before selling it. The idea of selling the property for short-term profits is a bad idea.

The growth index of property prices is very high. The average prices across top cities in India have swelled up to 12-15% annually.

New Delhi: The National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabad) has drafted new loan proposals to finance private sector to build storage houses. Nabad is facing huge shortage of warehouses for storing agricultural products.

The new scheme has already got a green signal from the Centre, now Nabad is gearing up to give direct loans to public and private sectors for building warehouses, cold storage and storage towers.

The developmental body is trying to increase the involvement of the private players in warehousing infra developments for perishable green products such as fruit and vegetables.

Maharashtra is going to get most benefit from the loan scheme as the state faces a huge storage gap of 28.16 lakh mt, with 15.89 lakh mt for cold store, affecting all the districts.

The new financing scheme by Nabad will be helpful to bridge the storage gap in the country and it can also boost the scientific storage and preservation of the agricultural products in the country.

The body is estimating to help in constructing an additional 100 mt modern storages.

The financing and constructions should be done keeping the rules drafted by the Warehouse Development and Regulator Authority.

Gurgaon: The special panel appointed by the Haryana Government paved the way for the municipal corporation to restart collecting property tax in Gurgaon.

The corporation was suspended from collecting tax in June this year, following claims of mistaken land tax bills received by many land owners.

The body will start tax collection as soon as it gets notifications from Chandigarh.

The special panel was selected by Haryana’s public work minister. As per the new rules implemented, residents of Gurgaon will have to shell out Rs 1 for every square yard, until their plots measure not more than 300 sq yd. Rates for plot between 301 sq yd and two acres will be charged between Rs 4 to Rs 10 per sq yd.

For the commercial plots Rs 12 per sq yd up to 1,000 sq yd has been decided and Rs 15 for every sq yd above this size. Basements are tax free as they are exclusively used for parking purposes.

The municipal corporation had collected Rs 270 crore as property tax past one year.

The body said it was a notorious act by some people to evade the property tax.

New Delhi: The Central Government is hoping to solve the controversial projects pending including the Gail’s Kochi-Bangalore gas pipeline project. The pipeline project was proposed to go through Tamil Nadu but the project is in limbo after the growers’ opposition to land acquisition. The State Govt has also opposed the project and asked Gail to lay the pipeline along the national highway.

After the land acquisition passed the Govt is trying to convince the farmers by promising a four times higher compensation in rural and two times higher in urban areas under the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill.

The 300 km long mega project of Gail cut across 1,600 acres of farm land in seven districts in Tamil Nadu.

The most awaited Land Bill orders at least 70 pc of land owner consent in public-private JV and 80 pc for the private sectors. The future of the mega project lies in the lands of the farmers whether they find the plan attractive enough to give their lands.

The new Land bill is expected to get notification on January 1, next year. Within one stipulated year the notifications of the new law will be implemented and the new rates for compensation, resettlements and rehabilitations will be given.

The Government-run state infra and Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Ltd (SIDCUL), is planning to infuse Rs 400 cr in Sitarganj to develop the infra facilities. SIDCUL had also help the state Government   in developing Pantnagar and Haridwar

The construction work at Sitarganj will commence soon which will be the main attraction for the entrepreneurs to start their new units, said an official.

All the things including roads, streetlights, or things concerning the Sitarganj estate will be covered, added Baguali, the additional secretary of the state.

In the month of April, the state govt had initated the process of giving industrial plots at SIDCUL-ll ubder the huge industrial policy which was to entail an investment of Rs 75 cr.  A  50pc rebate on the stamp fees, one pc in CST offered y the state govt. Till this date corporates like DS Group, CHD Developers, and Ural India group arround 500-550 acres of land calling for Rs 1,400 cr investment in the area.

SIDCUL has big things to worry as the industrial scenario in the country is bad due to the constant rupee depreciation due to which corporate houses are going away from infusing money.

For developing the infra in the state, the board has hired three consultants-Engineers Project India Lts, ), National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd, and and Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam ltd.

With CM Vijay Bahuguna’s total focus shifting to the rebuilding and rehabilitation in the havoc affected state, the industrialisation has suffered a lot.

New Delhi: The Parliament Panel submitted its detailed report on Adarsh Housing Society.  The report has bashed the Defence ministry and State Government for failures at all level leading to a scam in it.

Adarsh Housing Society was basically built for the welfare of serving and retired personnel of the Defence Services in the heart of Mumbai.

But top lawmakers, bureaucrats and military officers bend several rules to allot flats for themselves and their families in the property at artificially lower rates.

The PAC in its report said a group of top officials sabotage rules and regulation and took the ruse of welfare of war widows and children.

In its report the House panel said the wrongdoings had been carried out all through the process from allocation of land to getting NoC from the Army, getting permissions from Maharashtra Government, obtaining NoC from BEST and also getting clearances for residential development. The draft also blamed certain officials who used their position for their personal gain.

The PAC report stated that when the Defence Ministry was quizzed how clearance was given to the society, the ministry was informed that it was issued by the defence officials.

The panel warned the Govt not to commit further incidents in near future.

Noida: The Noida Authority is planning to give away 900 flats to every section of the society this Diwali at cheaper rates. An official confirmed that around 700 flats in Sectors 55, 56, 71, 93 and 135 are selected for the project. In these sectors the flats will be allotted for low income group and economically weaker sections.

The body is busy in surveying to identify unused flats which are lying vacant for many years from past one month. The costs of the flats are not finalized yet but according to sources the cost will be cheaper to existing market rates.

The cost of the flats will be calculated by the finance department.

The body will soon finalize the date on which applicants will able to buy forms and the flats will be allotted through lucky draws on Diwali.

There are few MIG and HIG flats on avail but EWS and LIG flats are higher in number said an official.

The body has also decided to launch 501 commercial purposes in Sector 69.

The Noida Authority had got a flat scheme last in 2006-2007.

Gurgaon: The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has denied the people to give extra fee those who were allotted alternative plots instead of the original plots given to them.

The Haryana authority had sent notice for the excessive fee but later withdraw all the notices.

A client from Gurgaon was allotted a plot in Sector 28, but due to some dispute on the plot, Huda gave another plot to him in Sector 38 and asked him to pay an extra amount for the plot.

After paying the enhancement amount the plot owner moved to the Punjab and Haryana High court challenging the Huda’s notice.

The High Court gave its verdict in the favor of the plot owner and said “The petitioner is likely to pay the extra money for Sector 38, since the plot owner deposited the money before filling a suit; Huda is directed to refund the amount, if there is no extra acquisition cost in sector 38”.

The court also quashed the notice issued to the plot owner and directed the body to refund the enhancement fees to the petitioner.