House alert

This landmark judgment will go a long way in protecting the interests of numerous home buyers in the country, who are finally able to purchase a shelter of their own following the economic boom of the recent years. However, the consequential real estate boom gave birth to scores of unscrupulous builders, whose primary source of funding has been the advance booking amounts from unsuspecting buyers, and who invariably end up delaying delivery of houses — sometimes for years — due to a shortage of funds.

The Government has taken little action against this practice, which has almost reached the proportions of a mini scam. A consumer education drive can be launched, encouraging the aggrieved buyers to book complaints against their errant builders. Most of the builders are purchasing additional land from the money which they receive from consumers for any project and then they delay the project. The government should come down heavily on such builders or real estate developers.

Raj Thackeray’s campaign for renaming some famous Mumbai institutions is political activism at its juvenile worst. However, this is still a minor offence when compared to his provocative outbursts that encourage attacks against migrants — especially north Indians in Mumbai. His targets for physical assault are the poorest of people — who neither have a political voice nor any support.

Taking pride in the city that you belong to is unobjectionable, but forcing it down the throat of others or using this pride as a stick to beat the poor and helpless is wholly uncalled for. And just what does he hope to accomplish by renaming Bombay Stock Exchange as Mumbai Stock Exchange? Agreed Mumbai has its share of problems, but they cannot be washed away by holding non-Mumbaikars responsible for all of them, or by evicting them. No major city in the world can sustain itself by closing its doors to outsiders.

Raj’s obsession with son-of-the-soil politics reeks of desperation. By directing his goons...