An Appeal to All UTSAVITES

Dear friends, brothers and sisters,

All of us purchased flats in Ashiana Utsav to spend our twilight years peacefully, but soon after shifting to this place we started facing one problem or other due to poor quality of construction, uneven and broken road, non functioning of emergency response switches, security lapses due to low boundary wall height and inadequate barbed wire fencing etc. Even after repeated complaints, the builder or the service providing agency did not do much except giving vague assurances.

All of us have felt that inspite of unsatisfactory state of services being provided by the service providing agency Ashiana Maintenance Services Limited (in short AMSL), maintenance bill is being increased arbitrarily without any logical reasoning. In last two years fixed maintenance charges have been increased by more than 50 % where as the inflation rate in the country is around 8 -10 % only. As a result the amount of maintenance deposit which we paid upfront at the time of purchasing the flat for 18 months has exhausted within 12 to 14 months.

Baffled by this abrupt increase in maintenance billing residents took up the matter with AMSL officials individually as well as through RWAs but all their efforts proved futile as the management either did not reply to their requests or side tracked the main issues through vague and irrelevant replies.

As the maintenance billing is supposed to be done based on actual expenditure, RWAs requested AMSL to let them scrutinize the actual expense details so as to curb the unnecessary expenses and also to stop unethical practices and leakages, if any. For this purpose RWAs requested AMSL to allow Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) members of Ashiana Utsav Jaipur constituted by AMSL, to go through their accounting books and give them copies of AMCs and work contracts. However inspite of repeated requests and reminders AMSL has not provided these records for review of Ashiana Utsav Jaipur constituted by AMS. From this it is very clear that all is not well behind the screen and promises of fair dealing and transparency are nothing but misleading hollow slogans.

FAC had also been requesting AMSL to show them details of income and expenditure in Capital Fund account but the same has yet not been accepted by AMSL and as such Utsavites are not aware about the details of capital equipment purchased by AMSL from their hard earned money and whether these equipments are still available in Utsav premises or have been stolen away, because AMSL is not maintaining any stock register for capital equipment.

Now let us talk about preparation of budget by AMSL and its monitoring. From a cursory look at the budget for 2014-15 and actual expenses during that year,

it is absolutely clear that there is no correlation between the two documents. Actual expenses under various heads widely differ from the budgeted amount. For example actual expenses under staff welfare, Horticulture, Repair and maintenance and consumable materials heads were 24%,44.5%, 153% and 57%, higher than the budgeted amount where as that for security and sanitation it was 15% and 20% lower than budget amount. This means that no attention is given to budget at the time of incurring expenditure.

Budget proposed by AMSL for 2015- 16 is no better than their previous budget. FAC has pointed out several irrationalities in this budget but AMSL did not pay any attention to these observations except for some minor changes here and there. As such FAC and both RWAs have rejected in toto the budget proposed by AMSL for 2015-16. In absence of basic accounting records, work contracts and AMCs etc FAC has suggested to AMSL two possible ways to prepare the budget for 2015-16.

(a) To link the budget for Ashiana Utsav, Jaipur with that of Ashiana Utsav, Bhiwadi as both these societies are for senior citizens, both are located in the same state Rajasthan, both are being maintained by the same service providing agency AMSL and services being provided at these societies are also almost the same. For your information the budget for Ashiana Utsav, Bhiwadi for 2015-16 has FMC (fixed maintenance charges) of Rs. 1.24 per sft where as they want to charge FMC of Rs. 1.63 per sft for Ashiana Utsav, Jaipur. AMSL has no explanation as to why they want to charge Rs. 0.39 per sft extra from Utsav, Jaipur residents/flat owners.

You would be surprised to know that in the budget for Utsav, Bhiwadi for 2015-16 the component of Branch cost+ Administration cost + project staff +welfare expenses is only Rs.0.364 per sft where as in the proposed budget for Utsav, Jaipur it works out as Rs. 0.671 per sft, i.e., more than 1.8 times of that at Bhiwadi . Not only this but even the Annual Maintenance Contracts (in short-AMC) expenses at Bhiwadi for the year 2014-15 was less than that at Utsav, Jaipur, although Bhiwadi project is more than double the size of our project and the number of lifts and air conditioners and other equipment is also much more at Bhiwadi.

(b) To link budget of Ashiana Utsav, Jaipur with that of next door society of Ashiana Manglam, this is also being maintained by the same agency AMSL. Most of the services available to residents of these societies are common and rate can be adjusted for additional services to the extent of their actual cost. Another difference in billing system of these two societies is that for Ashiana Manglam AMSL is levying a service charge on the FMC where as flat owners/residents of Ashiana Utsav have paid in advance reducible Interest Free Management Deposit (in short IFMD) amount towards management fee for 10 years. To counter this difference either service charge component is subtracted from FMC

rate of Manglam before applying it to Utsav or the management fee charged from Utsav residents is refunded to them and then FMC rate of Manglam is charged to Utsav residents also. FMC rate for Utsav, Jaipur worked out on this basis would be almost same as that for Utsav Bhiwadi.

AMSL has yet not given any response to above mentioned proposals of FAC and have continued billing for April 2015 as well as May 2015 @ Rs.1.63 per sft.
You would certainly like to know why AMSL is charging such a high rate of maintenance from flat owners/residents of Utsav , Jaipur and is not listening even to their simple demands and ignoring the joint communication from the two RWAs. One obvious reason is that flat owners/residents of Utsav, Jaipur are divided amongst themselves over petty issues and are not standing united for common welfare issues and their basic rights.

You might have also noted an important lacuna in our maintenance bills that though the bills are being raised by AMSL, but the payment is being demanded in favour of Ashiana Utsav. If all is well, AMSL is fair and transparent in their dealings, then why is this accounting hotchpotch?

There are innumerable such cases /incidents of AMSL high handedness, but the details given above are enough to make you realise that it is high time to shed away the attitude of indifference, understand the ground realities, rise above petty disputes and take a united stand in overall interest of all flat owners/residents of Ashiana Utsav, Jaipur.

A detailed presentation with all facts and figures is being prepared and would be given on 5th June 2015. You are all requested to attend this presentation irrespective of whether you are a member of one RWA or the other or you are not a member of any RWA, and give your valuable suggestion as to what should be our next step under the prevailing situation to ensure a peaceful and happy living. We would like to make it very clear that we do not have any intention what so ever of replacing AMSL with any other service provider. Our interest is only to ensure that they work diligently and honestly.

We thank you very much for spending your valuable time in reading this note. We await your suggestions on the above mentioned as well as on other important issues.

Author: Mr. M.L. Rathi (M-246) Member FAC, AU Jaipur.