Registration fee: Relief for flat buyers
Sanjeev Shivadekar & Yogesh Naik I TNN
Mumbai: The state government on Friday rescinded its earlier decision to levy a registration fee at a flat 1% of the market value of an apartment. The announcement was made by chief minister
Ashok Chavan after the state cabinet meeting on Friday.
With the Registration Fee and Stamp Duty Payers’ Association threatening to challenge the decision to increase the registration fee in court, and knowing that its move had not gone down well with the ‘common man’, the ruling Congress-NCP government decided to retain the existing registration system.
The builders’ lobby, too, was furious with the government for adding to the burden of flat purchasers. At a time when the realty sector has been hit by the slowdown, the revenue department on February 17 had issued a circular announcing hike in the registration fee.
Earlier, the registration fee was 1% of the current value of the flat, but not exceeding Rs 30,000. However, according to the latest circular, there was no cap on the maximum amount to be charged as the registration fee.
BMC pension notice stumps teachers
Anahita Mukherji I TNN
Mumbai: Imagine discovering, after a lifetime of working as a teacher, that you are not entitled to a single penny as pension. That’s exactly what a few hundred teachers from private-aided schools across the city found out when they received a circular from the BMC saying they did not have the necessary qualifications to teach and would not receive any pension.
“I have put in 35 years as a teacher and was appointed by the school on a permanent basis. I have received regular pay hikes over the past three decades.
However, suddenly, the BMC says I am not qualified to teach and won’t get any pension. How come the civic body paid my salary for all these years?’’ says a 59-year-old teacher who retired last year.
The BMC, in its letter to teachers, said they should have completed their DEd by June 1985. Many teachers said they had recently received a letter from the civic body, stating that as they had done a DpEd and not a DEd, they were not qualified to teach and so would not get their pension. Incidentally, both DpEd and DEd stand for a Diploma in Education, except that DpEd was the older version.
“We had sent a circular to private-aided schools telling them that only qualified teachers would receive their pension. We had also asked them to upgrade the qualifications of the teachers who did not have a DEd. Schools should have passed on the message to their teachers,’’ says Abbasaheb Jadhav, BMC education officer.
However, a number of private schools say they did not receive any prior information from the BMC. One of the teachers, who was denied pension, dragged the BMC to court and even won her case earlier this month.
“How can the BMC suddenly deny teachers their pension after 30-40 years in service? The municipal corporation did not even issue any showcause notice to these teachers in the past. In fact, the civic body has even paid them salaries accordion to BMC payscales,’’ said G S Walia, the lawyer who fought the teacher’s case free of cost.
On February 17, the high court set aside the BMC order for the teacher and asked the civic body to pay the dues to her.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com
