For flat-owners, repairs come with a heavy price tag

For flat-owners, repairs come with a heavy price tag
JANYALA SREENIVAS

AHMEDABAD, FEB 19: If you want your dream home back, you'll just have to pay for it again.

That sums up the response of city builders when confronted by owners whose homes are either a pile of rubble or have been badly damaged in the earthquake. In the end and inspite of people losing their homes, the builders are doing what they know best -- taking more money.

Purshottam Goyal, builder of at least 20 apartments and residential complexes in the city most of which are now damaged, has given a bill of Rs 50,000 per flat for the repairs he is undertaking and asked flat-owners to raise at least half a crore if they want their buildings to be certified safe.

Satish Shah, builder of Shikhar Apartments and proprietor of S N Developers, has sent messages to 160 Shikhar Apartment flat-owners asking them to deposit a whopping Rs 8 crore -- Rs 5 lakh each -- if they want their homes back.

Rajubhai Vyas, builder of the collapsed Mansi Complex, initially refused to take up any responsibility. When threatened with a police complaint, he agreed to negotiate but demanded that the flat-owners give him all the insurance money and government relief which comes to more than Rs 1 crore.

Dharmanand Developers of Kirtan Kruti apartment in Ambavadi is demanding 80 per cent of the repair expenses from helpless flat-owners. ``Or you get it done yourself,'' he told them.

Chimanlal Agarwal, builder of Dhananjay Towers, slapped a bill of Rs 1 crore on the Dhananjay flat-owners. He has demanded that Rs 25 lakh be immediately deposited or he will not undertake further repairs.

Homeless and weary, people are now facing stone-faced builders who, taking advantage of their helplessness, are demanding huge sums of money to get their homes back in shape. Others simply refuse to meet them when they come to demand that their houses be repaired.

``My home is on the second floor and I have put all my savings in it. Now where will I get the money to get it repaired?'' asks Suresh Modi, who owns a flat in Tirupathi Apartments in Ambavadi. ``Builder Gopalbhai Patel says he will have to raise Rs 15 lakh to put it back in shape and he is not willing to shell out a paisa,'' Modi says. ``In fact, he says he will be doing us a favour by supervising the repairs!''

Builders like Chimanlal Agarwal are arm-twisting the residents by not furnishing structural drawings unless they deposit money for the repairs. ``Agarwal is now asking us to even pay for the superficial jacketing of pillars he had got done in a hurry,'' a resident complains. ``He has prepared an estimate on his own and produced a bill of Rs 1 crore which he wants us to raise,'' he says. Agarwal says it is a natural calamity which he cannot help.

At Purvi Apartment in Paldi, builder Shrinathbhai is asking the flat-owners to give him all the insurance and government relief money if they want proper repairs or forget all about it.

For people like Hareshbhai whose flat in Jala Smruti apartment in Maninagar is now a pile of rubble, and 400 other families, there is no hope of getting their homes back. Their builder Rakesh Shah has fled and police have declared him an absconder.

Some builders are even refusing to part with the life-time maintenance monies -- ranging between Rs 30,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh -- that they have taken and deposited in banks.

Deepak Babaria, who heads the Ahmedabad City Earthquake Affected People's Association, says there are more than 1,200 families in the city whose homes are damaged and builders are demanding money from them for repairs. ``They are helpless because they are out of their homes. On top of it, the builders are asking for more money to get their homes back into proper shape,'' says Babaria, who is preparing to file a public interest litigation against builders seeking money for repairs.

Down but not out, many flat-owners also say that they plan to take the builders to court if they don't bear the expenses for repairs.