The Hindu            05.02.2014

TNHB residents asked to pay for property sale deeds

Nearly 20 years after moving into flats constructed by
the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) in Kodambakkam, owners have been
asked to pay a few lakhs to obtain their property sale deed.

Residents
of this cluster of TNHB flats at Puliyur, in Kodambakkam, recently
received a circular from TNHB asking them to pay amounts varying between
Rs. 1.8 lakh and Rs. 3.5 lakh, as the differential amount they owe to
the Board, to get the sale deed of their flats. Land cost was fixed at
Rs. 16.18 lakh a ground (2,400 square feet) in March 2009.

“We
purchased a single-bedroom flat for Rs. 2.29 lakh in 1993 by borrowing
from various sources and completely using up our savings. We rushed as
the flats were built by the government but now we regret our decision,”
said S. Varadhan and S.N. Eshwaran, who were among the first to move
into the TNHB complex in 1996.

Residents say rarely
does a day pass by without a portion of a balcony, ceiling or terrace
crumbling and falling. There are a total of 428 flats, comprising 64
two-bedroom flats, 124 single-bedroom flats and 240 flats constructed in
10 blocks.

“A team of government officials should
visit and see for themselves the pathetic condition of our flats. We are
living under the perpetual fear of being buried in rubble, and
demanding more money of us is unfair and arbitrary,” said Vasantha
Viswanathan.

Jecintha, a resident living in a ground
floor flat, had a narrow escape on Monday evening. “I was sitting
outside my flat on the ground floor when the plaster on the sun shade of
the flat on the third floor fell in a heap,” she said.

Chitra
Bhaskaran, another resident, said the quality of construction was poor
and the overhead water tanks were resting on weak and brittle concrete
slabs and pillars. Several owners had sold their flats at a pittance and
shifted elsewhere, she added.

TNHB officials said
they had issued the circular following a High Court direction. There was
nothing wrong with the quality of the construction, the officials
claimed, adding that the maintenance of flats was the responsibility of
the owners and occupants.