Military personnel pay for housing project delay
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Commander (Retd) S.R. Teotia, after a glorious stint in the Indian Navy is now forced to live off his wife’s humble salary. Wing Commander (Retd) I.T. Babu is juggling multiple jobs in order to pay for the instalments on his promised flat and has put many important events in life on hold.
This is the shameful treatment meted out to scores of serving and non-serving officers of the Indian Air Force who hoped to own a decent home after retirement, but find that delays in completing the Air Force Naval Housing Board Phase-III project at Lower Tank Bund in Hyderabad, has left them struggling to pay rents and interests on loans. Even what has been constructed is of poor quality, said the Retired Wing Commander.
“Out of my Rs 30,000 or so pension, my EMI for the loan I took for this flat is about Rs 24,000 since the cost escalated significantly from when it was launched. I am paying more than Rs 10,000 for the rented accommodation I am staying in. After paying off my taxes, I am left with nothing,” the Retired Commander Teotia said, adding that he has ended up paying three times the original cost.
Commodore (Retd) S. Parakala, president of Jal Vayu Towers Hyderabad Owners’ Welfare Coope-rative Housing Society, has demanded a high level probe into the delay.
He alleged that repeated assu-rances by the director-general and the chairman of AFNHB, and bigwigs in the defence ministry have failed to get the prestigious project completed despite six probable dates of completion being issued on different occasions, with the last one being January 31, 2012.
“The project commenced in February 2004 and was supposed to be completed on October 1, 2006. However, the actual approval for construction was obtained on February 19, 2008. Even if this date is taken into account, the project should have been completed by November 2009. There are no substantial reasons for revision of the date of completion from November 9 to June 2010, then again to August 2010, December 2010, March 2011, August 31, 2011, and January 31, 2012,” said Retd. Commodore Parakala.
He has demanded that compensation be paid to those allotted the flats who have served and are serving the country in uniform.
He said that many people had taken a housing loan at an average 12 per cent interest. Given the approximately eight-year delay in the project, and even if we take out two years’ construction time, the interest paid during the balance six years ranges from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 18 lakh additional by way of interest.
Overall, the escalation in cost is about three times the original cost. This does not include loss of rentals or rent paid by individuals staying in rented houses, he explained.
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