CBD Belapur: Terming the levy of transfer charges on property transfers by CIDCO as ‘extortion’ and ‘illegal’, citizen groups are demanding abolishment of the same.

A meeting was held in this regard on April 18 in which representatives of city-based civic organisations including Navi Mumbai Citizens Foundation, Navi Mumbai Cooperative Housing Federation Ltd, Sahakar Bharti and Navi Mumbai Vyapari Mahasangh and members of the civil society . the meeting was held in sector 44, Seawoods.

“It is an unjust financial burden to the common people,” remarked Pramod Joshi, Navi Mumbai district president, Sahkar Bharati, said. “The transfer are an unfair financial burden, which are not only limited to the transfer of properties but also hamper the deemed conveyance and redevelopment process. Citizens are burdened with double taxation, on one hand property taxes and on the other hand CIDCO's transfer charges,” he said.

“Presently the city of Navi Mumbai is managed by NMMC and the cost is recovered through property tax. CIDCO no longer provides any civil services, nor does it do any infrastructure development work. Yet, additional transfer charges are being imposed on citizens,” he added.

“The current transfer fee regime is only to harass the homeowners by penalising them and disrespecting cooperative housing society structure, hence it is our demand to abolish transfer fees immediately,” Bhaskar Mhatre, Navi Mumbai Housing Federation, said.

The campaign will be continuing until the issue will be resolved. Showing their resilience , organisers will visit every housing society under NMMC jurisdiction to educate the people about the issue.

The meeting resolved to continue the agitation till the redressal of their demands. “Legally CIDCO should not levy transfer charges. There are rulings from both the High Court and the Supreme Court to that effect. The municipality charges separate fees but provides all the amenities. Hence, we firmly believe that CIDCO should not impose any charges,” Mhatre added.

The meeting was attended by Sunil Chaudhary, Udaykumar Tandel from the Navi Mumbai Housing Federation, Triveni Salkar, Panvel district president of Sahakar Bharati, Ratnakar Kulkarni, vice president, Santosh Misal, general secretary, Navi Mumbai district, Kiran Shinde, secretary, Lalit Pathak, Shravan Rajpurohit, among others.