In January 2021, it will be a year since the four residential apartment complexes at Maradu were demolished for violating Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms, pushing out over 300 homeowners and their families. While a majority of the families have received their compensation from the state government, the compensation committee headed by Justice K Balachandran Nair told the Supreme Court recently that the builders are yet to deposit a total of Rs 56.60 crore as compensation with the Kerala government.
As per a Supreme Court order, the builders have to hand over a compensatory amount of Rs 61.50 crore to the state government, who will, in turn, distribute Rs 25 lakh each to the evicted families. The compensatory amount to the government will also reportedly include the cost of razing down the buildings and expenses of the court-appointed committee. According to the committee, two of the four builders are yet to hand over the compensation to the state government.
The five water-front apartment buildings in Maradu — H2O Holy Faith, twin towers of Alfa Serene, Golden Kayaloram and Jain Coral Cove — were razed down on January 11 and 12, 2020, on the direction of Supreme Court for violating Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms while being constructed.
As per the Justice Balachandran Committee, which was appointed to fix the compensation for residents of the apartment buildings, only two builders — Golden Kayaloram (Rs 2.89 crore) and Jain Coral Cove (Rs 2 crore) — have deposited the compensation. The report submitted by the committee does not mention any compensation by the builders of Alfa Serene and H2O Holy Faith.
As per the report submitted by the committee, builders of Alfa Serene are supposed to give Rs 17.50 crore, Golden Kayaloram Rs 9.25 crore, Holy Faith Rs 19.25 crore and Jain Coral Cove Rs 15.50 crore.
Watch video of demolition of the apartment buildings:
Although the builders delayed in giving the compensation amount to the state government, the latter did not stop distributing the interim relief to the evicted residents. There are multiple persons who owned more than one apartment in the demolished buildings. Regardless of the number of apartments owned, all families were distributed Rs 25 as interim compensation. Reportedly, there are 13 families who have not received interim compensation due to issues in documentation.
Apart from the interim compensation of Rs 25 lakh, the families will also receive some amount from the builders. However, it is not clear how the rest of the compensation will be distributed. According to reports, the state government told the Supreme Court that it is not responsible for the disbursal of the rest of the compensation amount.
A few former apartment owners told TNM that they have received no intimation on how and when the rest of the compensation amount will be given. “However, everyone with proper documentation received interim relief,” said Koshy Thomas, a former resident of demolished H20 Holy Faith.
According to sources, the builders should compensate rest of the amount that is due to various families. In case they don't voluntarily do it, the court can intervene.
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