Dayanand's World

ALL ABOUT FSI & TDR I. Introduction Real estate is a sector which touches almost everyone’s life. This is because everyone has a home and many have an office. One often comes across concepts such as FSI and TDR while dealing with the real estate sector. Further, while dealing with taxation issues connected with real estate, knowledge of these terms is of immense value. The concepts of FSI and TDR are explained in the Development Control Regulations for Greater Bombay, 1991 (“the Regulations”). The Regulations have been framed under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (“the MRTP Act”). As the name suggests, these Regulations are applicable only for the City and suburbs of Mumbai. The MRTP Act provides for the town planning and the development of land for public purposes within the State of Maharashtra. This Article examines these two very important concepts. II. FSI 2.1 The term FSI means Floor Space Index. FSI has been defined under the Regulations ...

REPAIRS AND RENOVATION OF YOUR FLATS For renovation of your flat, as per section 342 of BMC Act, 1988 (amended till date), the following "tenantable repairs", can be carried out without obtaining permission from the TMC: • Plastering, painting, pointing of your flat • Providing guniting to the structural members or walls • Changing floor tiles • Repairing WC, bath or washing places • Repairing or replacing drainage pipes, taps, manholes and other fittings • Repairing or replacing sanitary, water plumbing or electrical fittings • Replacing the roof with the same material • Replacement of existing water-proofing material of the terrace. The only pre-condition to the above works are: • The original tenantable structure (whether rental or ownership) must be legal. • Though no TMC permission for the above is required, it is advisable to do so under strict supervision of a registered Architect and/ or Structural Engineer The following "tenantable re...

April 16, 2013 1. The Hon. Municipal Commissioner, Thane Municipal Corporation, Thane 2. The Dy District Registrar, Thane City, Thane. 3. The Minister of Co-operation, Govt. of Maharashtra, Mumbai. Sub: SOS - The need and importance of Structural Audit, especially in view of the Mumbra disaster and relating the issue to Saket Complex, Thane. Dear Sirs, Finally waking up to the horrific consequences of illegal constructions, the Maharashtra Government has issued directives to audit structural stability of new as well as old buildings in urban and semi-urban areas in the state. However, this is not the first time that such an order has been issued. In the aftermath of the collapse of a Borivli building, Laxmi Chhaya, in 2007, a structural audit provision was approved by the legislature and included in the building byelaws but was not enforced. Had it been enforced on time, may be, subsequent incidents in Mumbai and Thane would have reduced. Structural Audi...

Co-Operative Societies Act – Amendment of Feb-2013 In October 2012, the Centre had asked state governments to amend their respective State Cooperative Society Act in tune with the Constitution (97th Amendment), 2011 before February 14 of 2013. The Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act of 1960 has been amended with effect from 16-February-2013. The Act is applicable to 2.47 lakh co-operative bodies all over Maharashtra with an annual turnover of Rs6 lakh crore and a total member strength of 5.50 lakh. Below are the Amendments. 1. Every Member of the Society must attend at least one General Body Meeting (GBM) within a consecutive period of Five years. The Member must utilise minimum level of services at least once in a period of five consecutive years as specified in the Bye-laws of the Society. Failing this such member shall be classified asa non-active member and shall not be entitled to vote. If a non-active member who does not attend at least one meeting of the Gener...

97TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – INJURIOUS TO HEALTH OF HOUSING SOCIETIES The State Cabinet's decision to amend the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 will affect the functioning of about 90,000 Co-operative Housing Societies in the State. It is stated that the 97th Constitutional Amendment aims at bringing about uniformity across the Indian States/Union Territories and across all Cooperative Sectors in several matters of cooperative law in the wake of new directive principle to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of Co-operative Societies. The constitution and functioning of the Board/Committees of Cooperative Societies is an important aspect in Cooperative Society Law in that context. The Amendments, made in line with the 97th Amendment of the Constitution, aim at giving more freedom and responsibilities to Co-operative Societies, including Co-operative Housing Societies. An ordinance for the same wi...

April 15, 2013 The Hon. Chief Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra, Mantralaya, Mumbai. Dear Sir, Sub: Scrap Town Planning and Development Control Rules The Mumbra building crash in which 74 unfortunate people perished was one of the worst incidents in the history of Maharashtra. The incident has jolted the sensitivities of the people, just like the Delhi Gang Rape incident – as like the attitude of those insensitive and gory rapists in Delhi, in Mumbra the nexus of Politician, Builder, bureaucrats and Police has got thoroughly exposed. On this background, the people of Maharashtra expected that the Govt. will announce a string of measures that will rid the state of this Cancer like Nexus and also curb the growing menace of Illegal constructions. But what is shocking is that post the episode, politicians, who were expected to show some remorse are in fact defending this phenomenon of illegal constructions with impunity. One of them – a leader from your ruling coalition ...

Maharashtra Series - 3 Planning Commission says Maharashtra is a failed state: Compulsions of coalition politics, tug-of-war between 2 power sharing and power hungry groups and thanks to a combination of factors, primarily skewed priorities and insufficient attention to social and other infrastructure, Maharashtra has slipped even as neighbouring states like Gujarat have made rapid and spectacular progress on the economic and industrial fronts. Once an industrial and economic powerhouse, known for its progressive social policies, Maharashtra has earned the tag of 'failed state', a dubious honour normally bestowed on states like Bihar or other BIMARU states. An assessment of the performance of Indian states, carried out by the Planning Commission, shows that Maharashtra fared abysmally on almost all economic and social counts including social spending, power availability, fiscal health and implementation of key irrigation projects. "Maharashtra is an example of ...

The Irrigation Scandal in Maharashtra The Rs 35,000-crore irrigation scam in Maharashtra came to light after the Economic Survey’s observation that though Rs 70,000 crore had been spent on various projects in the last decade, the state’s irrigation potential had increased only 0.1%. That was enough for Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to announce that the government would bring out a white paper on irrigation projects undertaken in the state. Apparently, the Chief Minister did not consult the departments concerned before making the announcement. Dy CM Ajitdada Pawar then quit the cabinet demanding that he will rejoin it only after the White Paper gives him a clean chit.. It took just 75 days for that to happen.. The irrigation portfolio has been held by the NCP since 1999, by Ajit Pawar till 2009 and after that by Sunil Tatkare. The proposal for the white paper coincided with the exposé in a section of the media about Tatkare’s alleged involvement in irregularities and...

Maharashtra Series - 2 Maharashtra’s murky politics – Politician – Contractor nexus on one hand, Ruling- Opposition partnership on the other hand… The birth of Maharashtra’s current model of irrigation corporations began during the Sena-BJP regime, inspired by the Gujarat model of corporations that issued bonds to fund their projects. The Krishna Valley Irrigation Development Corporation was the first, formed in 1996, followed by corporations in each of the state’s regions that matched the political interests of the leaders of the Shiv Sena – BJP regime – Manohar Joshi wanted a corporation for the Konkan, Eknath Khadse of the BJP wanted one for the Khandesh region of northern Maharashtra, and so on. IIIn theory, these corporations were meant to be semi-autonomous entities, run by professionals. In practice, they got hijacked by the politician-contractor nexus. Every tender was rigged in favour of a particular contractor. And the ‘Gandhiji ko baat ke khaav’ motto- let us split...

The politics behind Vishwaroopam controversy. Kamal Haasan’s film Vishwaroopam landed in big controversy in Tamil Nadu and rumours are rife that the film might be even banned by theatre owners. Trouble started brewing earlier when Kamal Haasan’s big gamble to screen the film simultaneously on DTH services like Tata Sky, Airtel came to the limelight. Apparently, he struck a Rs 50 crores deal with several DTH operators which would have made it possible to screen Vishwaroopam on DTH on the same day as its theatrical release. As soon as a leading distributor came to know about Kamal Haasan’s new distribution model, he alerted other theatre owners across Tamil Nadu. The theatre owners feel that there’ll be a huge loss in theatrical collections if Kamal Haasan goes ahead with his plan. It’s not yet clear what their future course of action would be, but they have sent a message loud and clear that they’ll not allow Kamal Haasan to air Vishwaroopam on the same day of its theatrical rel...

Gujarat Series -11 THE TURNAROUND OF THE SABARMATI RIVER FRONT Sabarmati Riverfront is among the most innovative projects in the world. The project is an urban regeneration and environmental improvement initiative according to leading international advisory firm KPMG KPMG, one of the world’s top advisory firm has included Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project in the list of ‘100 Most Innovative Projects’ towards urban regeneration that make cities livable as well as sustainable. A release by the KPMG about the Sabarmati Riverfront states, “The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project is an urban regeneration and environmental improvement initiative currently under way in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It involves the reclamation of a 10.5 kilometer stretch of the banks of the Sabarmati River, creating a new public space for cultural and civic institutions. Along the river, space will be made for recreation use and markets. The aim is to transform the stretch of river from...

Gujarat Series -10 Narendra Modi auctions his gifts and spends the money to promote Girls education In June every year, when most people heave a sigh of relief from the scorching heat, Team Gujarat including the CM himself goes out to villages and remote areas visiting primary schools. Do you know what the motivation behind that is? It is the passion of Narendra Modi to spread quality education to every child in Gujarat – especially the girl child and quip them with knowledge which shall help them in their future lives. The likes of Mayawatis and Laloo Prasad Yadavs should take a lesson or two from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s style of governance, instead of accepting garlands of currency notes worth millions of rupees on their birthdays and filling up their individual coffers with public money. From the beginning of his tenure, Mr. Modi has made it a practice to auction the gifts received by him and donate the proceeds for the girl child education. Public a...

Gujarat Series -9 YEH NARENDRA MODI SAAB KA RTO POST HAIN – YAHAN RISHWAT NAHI CHALTI.. Much is made about India blindly imposing an alien Constitution and bureaucracy on the people of the Country.. While it’s true that several key portions of the Indian Constitution do not reflect the true aspirations of the soul of this ancient nation, it still provides a workable model. Our intellectual class and media, which has made a profession of abusing our large and “unworkable” bureaucracy rarely looks at how the same bureaucracy can be used to deliver the goods. Narendra Modi has used the selfsame bureaucracy to make Gujarat what it is today. Perhaps no other Indian leader has genuinely implemented the much-touted “single window clearance” as effectively and as consistently as he has done. An important but much-overlooked factor is Modi’s punctuality. Every single Indian politician wears his unpunctuality as a badge of pride whereas Modi’s decade-old record shows what kind of a s...

Gujarat Series -8 Swachch Gujarat – Nirmal Gujarat At the risk of sounding too eulogistic, it should be conceded that the State of Gujarat has a very distinctive methodology for bringing focus on burning issues. Every year is celebrated in the State as a theme year. This is the initiative of Narendra Modi. The success of the “theme year” celebrations lies in the tremendous detailing of every aspect of the execution, i.e., from planning the strategy, to implementation, role defining, to regular tracking and monitoring by the concerned department/s and reporting up to the highest levels. Recognizing the urgent need to address the issues related to cleanliness and sustainability aspects of environment, the state government declared “Clean Gujarat” or “Nirmal Gujarat” (in local parlance) as the theme for the year – 2007-2008. And, to show how serious the Government was in ensuring success in the area, a SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) was created with the sole purpose of stra...

Gujarat Series -7 Paani Bachao - the key to Prosperity of the state... Gujarat has always been a state with scarce rainfall...to the extent that when Mr. Suresh Mehta was the CM, the state had to resort to Cloud seeding and artificial rains. Hence its necessary that the people of Gujarat be acclaimatised with methods of water conservation. Shri Narendra Modi’s razor-sharp mindset captured this capacity of the Gujaratis and programmed it to be utilized for welfare and betterment of the society. Many schemes and yojnas adopted for water reservoir and conservation have tendered Gujarat, to be a Tanker free state. The height of Narmada Dam has been raised, which has yielded production of energy for Gujarat and the water shortage of the neighbouring state Rajasthan was also allieviated to a great extent due to canal network. In every rural region, more and more lakes and ponds have been dug deeper, which has aided in increasing the water level. The dedicated movement preva...

Gujarat Series -6 GUJARAT’S ‘ROAD’ TO PROSPERITY Hearing a PIL regarding a road-maintenance contract, the Bombay High Court recently observed that roads in neighbouring Gujarat are in better condition than Maharashtra. "People say that Gujarat has got best of the roads...as long as you have not crossed the border (into Maharashtra). It's a shame for our government that we cannot build good roads," said Justice J N Patel. As anyway I was to travel to Ahmedabad as part of my ‘discovery’ of Gujarat, we decided to take the Road route to check out the much tommtommed Roads. MY first problem was the first 75 kms stretch from my house in Thane to Manor on NH8, which has been witnessing horrific traffic jams at 2-3 points’ thanks due to the delayed work of building 3 flyovers on the Ghodbunder Road to the Vasai-Virar toll gate. Therefore, I decided to skip the first section of NH8 by going on a parallel road direct from Thane to Manor via Bhiwandi & Wada. ...