Less than a month after the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police booked a builder for failing to convey (transfer) land in the name of the housing society within the stipulated time frame, another Mira Road-based construction firm met with the same fate on Friday.
However, none of the directors of the construction firm have been named in the FIR which was filed against Shanti Star Builders under the relevant sections of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of the promotion of construction, sale, management and transfer) Act, 1963 at the Naya Nagar police station in Mira Road.
The action followed in response to a complaint filed by a 58-year-old glass trader, Narendra Singh who purchased a resale property in Shanti Shopping Center in Mira Road and got it duly registered before becoming a member of the co-operative society in 2010.
Supported by documentary evidence, the complainant in his statement to the police alleged that despite the formation of the co-operative housing society more than a decade ago, the developer had failed in handing over conveyance - a deed that conveys a property title of ownership from the original owner to the ultimate buyer.
After verifications, the police registered an offence against the construction firm sans the names of owners. Notably, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) volunteers who helped the complainant in filing the FIR have launched- Aapka Ghar, Aaapki Zameen”- a campaign to help protect ownership rights of local citizens and housing societies in the twin-city.
It is binding on the builder to transfer the land and the building to the society within four months on the completion of the project. However, more than 80 percent housing and commercial societies in the twin-city are still registered under the names of the developers or landlords, which is bound to deprive the actual flat owners of benefits of future redevelopment schemes.
Deemed Conveyance in Limbo.
As a large section of builders were not executing conveyance, the state government in an attempt to safeguard the interests of flat owners had amended the MOFA to make provision for deemed conveyance in favour of cooperative housing societies. However, it has come to light that hundreds of deemed conveyance proposals are biting dust due to complicated documentation needs and the involvement of money-fleecing middlemen.
