Bldr defaults on rent, Mhada seals bank account

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) on Wednesday sealed the bank account of a city-based developer for defaulting on payments and failure to surrender tenements allotted to it on rent. Officials said that two bank accounts of Pankti Developers, which has its registered office in Vile Parle, were sealed at Mhada's behest. 
    Ramesh Survade, joint chief officer of the Mumbai Building Repair and Reconstruction Board of Mhada, said the recovery was undertaken due to persistent default by the developer. 
    On March 3, TOI had carried an article highlighting Mhada's plans to seal bank accounts and attach properties of developers who have defaulted on rent payments for transit tenements allotted to them and have also failed to surrender these in time. 
    The matter pertains to transit tenements rented out by Mhada for three Dharavi-based slum redevelopment projects taken up by the developer. While the tenements were submitted for a maximum timeframe of three years, officials said the developer failed to surrender these within the stipulated period. 
    The developer is yet to surrender 205 tenements allotted for two projects. These were allocated in 1998 and 1999 respectively, Survade said. Further, the rent payments towards the tenements were not paid in case of all three projects leading to an accumulated rent and interest arrears of Rs 8 crore, Survade said. 
    The MBRRB served three notices (since Sept 2012) to the builder stating that dues will be recovered as "arrears of land revenue" as provided under Section 80 of Mhada Act, 1980, which enables attachment of movable and immovable properties and sealing of accounts. The builder issued a cheque of Rs 6.60 lakh, but it bounced.