The body has asked the Chief Minister to instruct the police to take complaints of extortion from developers seriously and investigate such matters thoroughly
The Maharashtra Chamber for Housing Industry (MCHI) has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding stringent action against RTI 'activists' who are allegedly blackmailing and abusing provisions of the law to extort huge amounts from them.
The body represents over 1,800 developers, and its letter has been signed by president Nayan Shah, secretary Bandish Ajmera and COO Sanjiv Chaudhary. "These so-called RTI activists are organised blackmailers," the letter says, "They even have lawyers, architects and engineers on their rolls which help them run relentless campaigns against developers to delay and derail projects with the objective of extracting huge amounts from them."
"This fact becomes completely obvious when one examines their criminal records and begins to question why a 'social worker' would spend lakhs of rupees to get copies of documents from the Mantralaya, civic offices, housing board, etc. under the RTI Act; and further spend lakhs of rupees in filing several cases in various courts and committees," says Kailash Agarwal, chairman of the Avighna Group.
It letter says that these "criminal elements" blatantly violate the process of law to entangle the real estate fraternity in false and frivolous litigations. "Even after securing all the mandatory approvals and permissions, developers are harassed in varied ways," reads the letter. "They are brought under pressure to meet the blackmailers' demands."
This relentless campaign takes a toll on developers, who are already under severe stress due to bad market conditions and the high cost of finances. "With every day's delay puts a huge financial burden on the developer. Some developers have even been driven to suicide by the stress," says MHCI, citing the examples of two builders who recently ended their lives due to professional setbacks.
The body has asked the Chief Minister to instruct the police to take complaints of extortion from developers seriously and investigate such matters thoroughly. "Only then will such blackmailers be brought to account and genuine law-abiding developers can focus on delivering quality construction on time," said Agarwal.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The MCHI, which represents over 1,800 developers, has asked the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to instruct the police to take complaints of extortion by builders seriously and investigate such matters thoroughly.
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