Kochi: The panel set up to distribute interim relief to the owners of the soon-to-be-demolished flats in Maradu on Thursday decided to grant Rs 25 lakh compensation to three more applicants. With this, the number of flat owners who will get the full compensation has risen to seven.
Earlier, the panel found only four flat owners were eligible to get Rs 25 lakh, the full interim compensation fixed by the Supreme Court.
The deadline to submit applications ended on October 16.
The applications have been vetted by the Justice K Balakrishnan Nair-led committee. Former Kerala chief secretary Jose Cyriac and KSRA engineer R Murugeshan are also members of the committee.
The committee decided the compensation amount based on the price of the property in the first sale deed. The low value in the title deed has proved detrimental to the rest of the flat owners.
The panel had instructed the builders to submit an affidavit, stating the amount of money paid by the flat owners.
The Supreme Court had ordered for the demolition of the four apartment complexes at Maradu after these were found to have been built by violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms.
The affected flat owners had sought a compensation ranging from Rs 51 lakh to Rs 2 crore.
The committee did not consider the applications that did not have the first sale deed enclosed with them.
But the panel has made it clear that the flat owners can later make more claims. The panel said this after the owners had pointed out that they had given more money to the builders than that was mentioned in the sale deed.
The panel made it clear that if the first owner had sold the flat, then the price in that sale deed would be considered.
As per the Supreme Court order, the compensation amount has to be levied from those who are responsible for the illegal constructions, including the builders, promoters, individuals and officials, who gave the permission.
Incomplete registration procedure
A preliminary assessment by the Maradu municipality has found that only about 130 flats in the four complexes have registered owners – meaning they have completed the registration procedure called 'transfer of registry' (jamamattom).
Registration process is complete with the 'transfer of registry', which establishes a person as the owner of a property in the records of the local administrative body.
The four flat complexes have 343 housing units.
