It might not be a bright welcome for the 29,700 people from Northeast who left the city to their home states after SMSes warned them of attacks, as many house owners are reluctant to rent out their premises to this community.
During a reality check by Express in areas such as Neelasandra, Koramangala, Austin Town, Shanthi Nagar, Ejipura and Jakkasandra many house owners said they were not ready to rent out their property to Northeasteners when they return.
The property owners have also decided to insist on identity proof, letter from college/workplace and reference contact numbers among others details from Northeasterners before renting out their property.
When asked about the reason of reluctance to rent out their houses to Northeasterners, the property owners spoke of cooking of pork and beef at home, creating noise and inviting too many friends.
Some property owners refused just because they “didn’t want to invite trouble”.
Somnath, a house owner in Jakkasandra, said he now has second thoughts in dealing with a Northeasterners.
“We have been reluctant to rent out our space to NE students from the start. But this incident has given us more reason to believe so. In case we do decide to rent out to a NE person, we would ask for identity proof, letter from college/ work place and reference contact numbers. The problem is that people from the NE are known to party a lot and disturb neighbours. We have directed many to vacate in the past after causing nuisance,” he explained.
Another house owner from Koramangala didn’t even consider renting out a 2BHK for four NE students.
“We do not want our tenants to cook beef and pork. We expect our rent in time. These are things people from NE cannot comply with. We speak based on previous harrowing experiences,” Muniraj, the house owner said.
Many others from areas such as Shanti Nagar, Austin Town and Frazer Town cited communication issues as the main problem.
“They cannot interact in Kannada and it is very hard to explain to them to pay electricity and water bills. They have proven to be chaotic tenants. We do not wish to get involved in any controversy either,” said Ravi Gowda, a house owner in Shanti Nagar.
Incidentally, in areas such as Ejipura and Neelasandra that had huge residential concentration of people from the NE, the open mindedness of house owners has take a beating too.
“We have been instructed by house owners to be very cautious from now on. We will check with their previous landlords before even considering renting out our property to them.
Further, they will have to give us a letter promising not to cause trouble to anyone around,” Ramachandra, a broker from Ejipura said.
Some landlords in Neelasandra are furious because their NE tenants wanted to vacate on an hours’ notice once the rumour scare broke out and demanded their advance amount back.
“How could we return advance amount on the spot? Some vacated and some locked their houses and left. In case they do not return we have decided to seek police assistance in breaking the lock. We do not wish to deal with people from this community anymore,” said Nanjappa, a house owner from the area.
However, coming to the rescue of those who would return is Superintendent of Police Victor D’souza, who is also the special nodal officer appointed by the state government to interact with NE people.
“Bangalore is a metropolitan city and owners shouldn’t have such restrictions. If those who’ve left the city, choose to return, we would extend all our help,” D’souza said.