BENGALURU: A consumer forum in the city ordered the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Development Corporation to pay 50 per cent of the initial deposit of a senior citizen for not allotting a flat under Namma Mane’ scheme even seven years of her application.The Fourth Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum said the Corporation should refund the initial deposit of Rs 60,000 with interest and pay a compensation of Rs 30,000 to the petitioner, Bharathi Singh, a resident of Halasuru in the city. It also told the Corporation to pay a litigation cost of Rs 20,000 to Singh.
“Since the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Development Corporation has accepted that there was a delay on its part due to unavoidable circumstances, the project could not be completed in time. Since it are ready to give away the initial deposit, we deem it proper to hold that there is a deficiency of service on the part of Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Development Corporation. Due to its conduct, the complainant was made to suffer since 2012...”, the forum comprising its president RK Prathibha and member N R Roopa said.
In response to an advertisement, Singh had applied for a flat in 2012 and the Corporation had promised that the construction would be completed within two years and a flat would be allotted. But it did not keep its promise, Singh said.
There was no response to several communications, including a legal notice, till September 2016. But in April 2018, the Corporation gave a negative reply to an RTI application filed by the complainant seeking to know the status of her application.Terming it is deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, Singh moved the consumer forum.
The Corporation contended that the state Government launched ‘Namma Mane’, a multi-storey housing scheme at affordable prices for the economically weaker sections of the society in semi urban and rural areas. The entire work was expected to be completed within 12 months. As the flat was not allotted, she was not a consumer, the corporation had claimed.
The Corporation also submitted that the tender for construction of 1,564 flats had been awarded to a Hyderabad-based company. It had received applications for allotment of 1,453 flats, out of which 784 flats were already allotted. For remaining 780 flats, the Corporation called applications for which it had received 429. As the builder did not complete the construction, a case was filed against it and same is pending before the court, it said.