Maytas Hill Country owners to protest near Raju's residence

The flat owners of Maytas Hill County, the prestigious project of Maytas Properties, an unlisted company promoted by the family of Satyam Computer Services Limited’s founder B Ramalinga Raju, have decided to up the ante against the company to demand completion of the project.

About 100 families would stage a peaceful demonstration in front of the house of Ramalinga Raju’s Jubilee Hills residence from Friday. “The protest would be continuous,” a flat owner told Business Standard. Women who have bought the flats and also family members of other flat owners would participate in the protest.

This is the second major effort of Hill County Home Owners’ Welfare Association, a body formed to protect the interests of the flat owners, in a month to get an assurance from the company on the completion schedules for the project. Earlier, on June 7, the flat owners registered their protest at the Hill County site by raising slogans against the company management. They demanded speedy completion of the flats.

The owners said 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 the flats were not ready and in some cases were non-existent. The company promised to give them flats in the 11th floor in a particular block but that was raised till only fourth or fifth floor, they said.

They demanded the company to complete the project without further delay or give their money back. The project is delayed by over 15 months. The owners want the company to come clean on the expenditure incurred on the Maytas Hill County. They feel that the company was faced with a shortage of funds to complete the project on time as it had used the money to invest outside the Hill County, where Maytas planned to construct 840 apartments and 326 bungalows or villas.

The flats were priced between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore and the villas Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2.5 crore. It is said about Rs 150 crore is needed to complete the project. Currently, three independent units have been occupied and another 40 units are nearly ready. The rest of the units have been completed 30 per cent. However, the flats are not yet ready, said another flat owner.

Last month, the company had asked the individual owners to pool in the money for completing the project. It proposed to give a credit note for the money they pooled in.

But not many owners were enthused by this proposal.