PUNE: A new 10-member committee was appointed by the state government last week to study amendments to the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970.
In October last year, a 15-member panel had submitted recommendations on the amendments. However, just after eight months, the state government has announced another committee. The move has raised eyebrows of activists in the housing sector. The earlier committee, constituted under the state cooperative department, had submitted a comprehensive report detailing suggestions for amending the act. However, the state government has remained silent on recommendations, neither implementing them nor providing any feedback, activists said. The state has 1 lakh buildings under the Apartment Act, including 15,000 in Pune district.
On June 7, the state housing department, through a GR, announced the formation of a fresh committee under the Commissioner for Cooperation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies along with members of the property registration department, home department, settlement commissioner’s department, Pune collector and officials of the law department. This new panel is tasked with studying the act and coming out with the amendments within three months after the formation of the committee, a decision that has left many questioning the government’s intent. Advocate Shreeprasad Parab, expert director, State Housing Federation said that the committee appointed by the state government has already made amendments to the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, Rules and Bye Laws to State Cooperative Department so the constitution of a new committee without any experts such as Pune Federation, a parent body of apartments in Pune or The Maharashtra State Housing Federation is a matter of concern. Many apartment associations are now passing resolutions to dissolve the association and form cooperative housing societies to ease the redevelopment process. He said that the state should seriously address the concerns of the apartment associations which are in majority in cities such as Pune, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mumbai, Nashik, Nagpur, Sambhajinagar etc and the amendments should resolve the present issues such as redevelopment process, he added. “It’s perplexing that instead of acting on the previous committee’s report, the government has chosen to start from scratch,” said a housing activist. “This not only a waste of time but also of the efforts of experts who spent months drafting those recommendations.”Commissioner for Cooperation Deepak Taware said that he would submit the report in consultation with the members. The Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970, governs the ownership, management, and transfer of apartments in the state.
Maharashtra State Housing Federation chairperson Suhas Patwardhan said, “We hope the government will make the amendments as proposed by the earlier committee as well,” he said. MK Rao, a member of an apartment association, said that while the suggestions for amending the act was to make way for more redevelopment proposals, eviction of those obstructing redevelopment won’t be easy. “People may go to court and extend the matter further,” he said.
