“Do not treat me as your enemy, treat me as your friend,” chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told developers at a meeting on Tuesday.
Builders found it a welcome move from someone who has always tried to keep them at arm’s length to maintain his Mr Clean image. Chavan, who was brought in by the Congress high command in the wake of the Adarsh housing scam, had almost restricted the entry of builders to his office and home lest he be accused of being involved in any deal.
“We were surprised with his changed attitude. We are not untouchables anymore for the CM,” a leading builder, who was invited at Tuesday’s meeting, said.
Builders now expect files that were held up at the urban development department (handled by the chief minister himself) and at the Mumbai municipal commissioner’s office to be cleared at the earliest.
“The CM told us, we should not treat him as his enemy, but as his friend. The CM said he is here to resolve our problems,” another prominent city developer from South Mumbai said.
Tuesday’s meeting with Pune and Mumbai developers lasted for almost two hours. “It was a very positive meeting. For the first time, the chief minister heard us patiently. He promised to resolve the issues pertaining to the real estate,” Hemant Naiknavare, president of Pune CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India — the apex body for private real estate developers in the country), said. The Pune CREDAI gave a presentation before the CM, highlighting Pune real estate problems.
As per the proposed central government policy, if a developer undertakes to develop a plot size of 10,000sqm or more, he has to reserve 20% of space for the economical weaker section, Naiknavare said.
“We told the CM that reserving 20% space for affordable houses should not be implemented in small cities. It should be implemented where the population of a city is more than one million,” he said. “In small cities, most such houses remain unused. Besides, there are several restrictions while implementing the slum rehabilitation scheme. We requested the CM to remove these restrictions.”
Another developer said it was pleasant to see the CM rubbing shoulders with developers. “He even directed his assistants and urban development secretaries to pay attention to developers’ demands. It shows his seriousness,” he said.
A senior member of CREDAI, however, appeared cautious. “Our past experience with the CM is not good. He is indecisive,” he said. “If he does not want to favour a developer, he should either reject his proposal or approve it immediately. There is no high-rise committee for the past 14 months in Pune and in Mumbai for the past one month. There are many such issues where the CM hasn’t taken any decision.”
On Monday, the 90-minute marathon meeting took place at Sahyadri guest house where almost 90 Mumbai developers, many of whom are members of the Maharashstra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), attended the meeting.
Those who attended included Bandish Ajmera of Ajmera Group, Vimal Shah of Hubtown, Paras Gundecha of Gundecha Group, Srikant Shitole of Shitole Group, Nayan Shah of Mayfair Housing and Mayur Shah of Marathon Group.
Change in attitude
It was pleasant to see the chief minister rubbing shoulders with developers. He even directed his assistants and urban development secretaries to pay attention to developers’ demands
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