Maytas property buyers protest outside Raju home

People who have purchased flats at the Maytas Hill County, a residential and commercial real estate project taken up by Maytas Properties, an unlisted company promoted by the family of Satyam Computers founder B Ramalinga Raju, today staged a protest before Raju's house at Jubilee Hills.

They demanded Rama Raju, the younger son of Ramalinga Raju who heads the company, to come in person and give a concrete assurance on completion of the flats and villas.

Maytas Hill County is a Rs 1,100-crore project out of which the company has collected Rs 654 crore through sale of residential property. It currently has Rs 100 crore as receivables and Rs 200 crore as vendor liability. The project envisaged construction of  840 apartments and 326 independent villas. The flats were priced between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore, while the price of villas ranged from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2.5 crore.

Those who purchased the residential property now  fear that Enforcement Directorate, Serious Fraud Investigation Office, the state government or other agencies would attach the Hill County pending investigation into the financial scam at Satyam. Their fear persists though no agency so far had announced that these properties would be attached.

The Hill County Flat Owners Association, a body formed to voice the concerns of those who purchased flats, is now thinking to file a caveat to keep their properties from being attached by any agency.

About 100 members of the  500-member association have participated in the protest today and some more people are likely to join from Mumbai and Bangalore and even abroad during the weekend.

The owners of the high-end flats have also decided to go on an indefinite hunger strike till Rama Raju gave an assurance for completion of the  project at Bachupally on the city outskirts. They raised slogans against Ved Jain, government appointed director on the Maytas Properties board, for not coming to their rescue.

"The EMIs (equated monthly instalments) are killing us. We are paying for nothing,'' said Sujani, one of the flat owners. She wanted the company to expedite the construction and also insulate Hill County from any possible attachment by any of the investigating or government agency.

The owners said that a majority of them have already paid the full amount towards the purchase of the flats and were paying EMIs  in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 without taking possession of them. They said that the flats were not ready and in some case were nonexistent.

"The land belongs to us. We should not be victimised for the mismanagement of the parent company (Satyam)," said another flat owner. He said that Maytas Properties had already collected full money from them but has not spent it on the project. Accordingly, it needs another Rs 150 to 200 crore for completing the pending work.

Satish Tirupati, president of the association, felt that the state government should intervene in the matter to ensure that the flat owners are not put to further discomfort.

"We want Hill County. Not haunted County,'' cried a flat member. He said that most members paid their entire life savings for buying a property at Hill County. Some people took possession of some flats by agreeing to pay for the remaining works from their own sources but were living there without basic amenities like water and power, he said adding that the members paid more than what actually the property was worth.

The association members have already petitioned their cause with the Company Law Board and it would be heard on July 24.