Maha govt allows selling of reserved flats to others

Maharashtra government has decided to relax norms for housing societies to enable sale of flat to a person outside the category for which the flat may have been originally reserved.
Retired IAS officer Uttam Khobragade's demand for change in the norm was one of the reasons behind the decision.
Revenue minister Eknath Khadse said here today that Khobragade wanted to sell his flat in the controversial Adarsh Housing Society here after he was named by CBI in the Adarsh scam.
"The land allotted to Adarsh society was reserved for a particular category, the existing law does not permit him to sell his flat to anyone but an IAS officer," Khadse said.

The senior minister also said that there were demands from societies to relax the norm for flats reserved for SC and ST categories even prior to the Adarsh case.
"The only condition is that district collector should supervise the transfer of flat. But a society which is entirely reserved for a particular category cannot sell flats to those outside the category," he said.
There are more than 14,000 cooperative housing societies in Mumbai, where certain number of flats are reserved for SC, ST, disabled persons, etc.
Explaining the rationale, Manukumar Shrivastava said, "If an IAS officer wants to sell his flat (reserved for IAS officers) but does not find another IAS officer, he is held up. Now such a flat can be sold to anybody.