ALERT: New Sub-Urban Racket - Don't get cheated

I have come across a new racket that seems to be going on in Chennai. Have heard of two instances in two days, enough to assume that there are more of the same happening.

The modus operandi goes thus:

1. A young sales person approaches a sub-urban household and introduces himself as representing a retail shop selling electrical and electronic goods in the other end of the city. He/ She says that they are setting up a new show room in the neighbourhood and as an introductory offer would like to give the housewife an unbelievable offer of domestic appliances at throw away prices. This is done by issuing a token to the housewife with a specific number in it. They take the name of the housewife and provide her with a printed sheet with a phone number hand written in it. The address of the shop in the other end of the city is also given with its name. The housewife is asked to call the mobile number written by that evening to get to know whether she is one of the lucky winners who will get a mixie or micro-wave in a heavily discounted price.

2. The ignorant housewife calls the phone number in the evening and is promptly told that she has won an award after ascertaining her name and address. She is asked to keep an amount handy to receive the highly discounted 'gift', a well known international brand is mentioned.

3. The next morning a van pulls up outside the house with a couple saying that they have come to deliver the 'gift', they collect the money and deliver the goods. The housewife is assured that if she wants to exchange this for some other goods at a later date, she can approach the said showroom that is newly coming up in the neighbourhood! She is also told that there is a further possibility for her to win a free gift if she can call the mobile number again that evening.

4. On opening the new 'branded' mixie or other domestic appliances, the housewife finds that she has been landed with a cheap unbranded variety that does not seem to have anything with the brand on the outside box or the one she has been promised. On further enquiry it is revealed that there is no new shop in the neighbourhood nor is there the original shop in the other end of the city!!!

Two instances have come to my notice in the last two days. Someone with the same story marketing wares in Tiruvanmaiyur saying their original shop is in Royapuram and they are newly setting up a branch in Tiruvanmaiyur and another group doing the same in Madhavaram saying their original shop is in Mylapore and the new branch is coming up Perambur. In both cases it has been found that there is no branch in Tiruvanmaiyur or Perambur. The address given has been found to be false and belonging to someone else. The telephone number does not seem to work as it is temporary mobile number and perhaps no longer valid after it has been well 'used'.

Please forward this alert to your friends across the city to ensure that this racket does not spread and people do not get victimized by such tricksters, our people are suckers for anything being offered at a low cost and seem to forever keep falling for the cheapest trick in the trade.

don't walk, drive and shop

this evening as i crossed the signal at sterling road, nungambakkam high road junction heading towards the chetpet bridge saw an elderly gentleman scoot across the road from the college road side to the other... with the policemen not always present and people waiting to zoom in 4 corners of the road it seemed suicidal! then it struck me that there was no zebra crossing anywhere in this junction.

chennai has long since stopped bothering about those who cycle or walk in the roads now that it is fully concentrated to making the roads as good 'driving experience' for car drivers, it is really unfortunate that there is hardly any walk way worth talking about, except the beach road there probably is none.

worse is the nungambakkam high road, the platform is almost a feet and half high from the ground and one has to a few dozen such hurdles in which one is supposed to walk if one dares to walk in the footpath, the alternative is to walk in the road (as most people do) with the zooming vehicles going past you at crazy speeds and angles.

it is a crazy city that does not bother to cater to the walking citizens.

the other day driving through the usman road, i realized the macabre humour of the flyover construction. the flyover is necessary for traffic to move in that wretched road, but, the construction cannot stop people coming to do their shopping, so, absolute chaos reigns...all vehicles seem to be allowed from almost all directions to compete with determined pedestrians to occupy this road, the entire scene looked like it was from some old motor car movie with just about everyone moving their bodies in some act of going forward and staying where they were all the time...horrible, wonder what is it that people want to shop so bad that they can do it at the cost of being humans!?

Problems of the Chennai House Rental Situation

There is a recent report that the first billion dollar home in the world will be that of an Indian in India. Nothing can more contrast the situation and prove the inequality in India than the fate of thousands of homeless and people living in poor conditions.

The urban poor are the worst that way, they live in apalling conditions and most of them service the elite where they get to see the riches manifest in many ways. The condition of urban poor in terms of choice of habitat is limited by their affordability. Chennai real estate having hit its craziest best (Sri. Krishnamurthy a long time observer of real estate prices recently told me that those who were demanding price in lakhs till a few months back now talk only in crores, 'aniyayamga!' as he summarized it), the fate of the poor is even worse. No one, not even the government wants them in prime city property any longer, so, plans are afoot to displace slums into distant pheripheral areas through various means. Those who can afford to pay small amount as rent end up putting up with every whim and fancy of the house owner.

Nandini Voice for the Deprived, a city based NGO recently held a public consultation on the state of the rental situation for the poor in the city. The summary of their consultation enclosed.
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SKY-ROCKETING HOUSE RENTALS DRIVING THE DEPRIVED TO DESPAIR - Proceedings of the meeting at Chennai on 1st May,2008

Nandini voice for the deprived, a Chennai based NGO organised a meeting at Chennai on 1st May,2008 to discuss the extremely difficult problems faced by the people belonging to the lower income group due to the skyrocketing house rentals in Tamil Nadu and particularly in chennai in recent times.

The meeting was attended by around 300 persons largely belonging to lower income group.

The meeting was presided over by Dr. M.S.Udhayamurthy, founder , Makkal Shakthi Eyakkam and was addressed by Sri. A.K. Venkatasubramaniam IAS (Retd), Trustee, Catalyst Trust and Mr. N.L. Rajah, a senior advocate and social activist.

Sri. N.S.Venkataraman, Trustee, Nandini Voice For the Deprived presented the findings of the study made by the Trust on the problems faced by the lower income group due to the skyrocketing house rentals. Several instances of the sufferings of the poor people were described which moved the audience in no small measure.

Several participants were provided opportunities to express their views and provide their suggestions to solve this problem.

On the basis of the discussions and the observations made during the meeting the following resolutions were passed in the meeting.

1. Electricity Charges :
Several house owners demand electricity charges at Rs. 5/- to 6/- per unit from the tenants, which is much higher than the stipulated charges by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. The Government of Tamil Nadu/ The Tamil Nadu electricity Board should stop this practice immediately.

2. Number of inmates :
Many house owners specified that the maximum number of inmates who can stay in the rented house. The house owners object even to the relatives visiting the house and staying for a few days. If they would do so, they demand higher rent.

It was resolved that it is an unethical and unacceptable practice and the government should take the house owners to task who putforth such conditions.

3. Need for minimum facilities
The government should issue orders that every rented house should be provided with adequate toilet and bathroom facilities. There are number of instances where seven to eight families are forced to share tow or three toilet and bathroom facilities.

4. Demand for advance payment :
The house owners demand advance rent for ten months and more depending on their whims and fancies. They do not provide any interest for the advance amount collected. And in many cases, even proper receipts are not provided. This exploitative practice should be stopped by the government immediately.

5. Fixation of rent :
The government should fix the rent for the apartments based on the size, location and the floor level. Any one collecting rent above this figure should be punished severely.

6.. Tenancy agreement period :
The house owners should provide the rented houses for a minimum period of two years, before which the tenants can not be asked to vacate under any circumstances.

7. Need for new apartments :
The government should immediately construct thousands of new apartments with minimum facilities for the lower income group and sell them to the poor people on long term instalment payment facilities. Earlier, Slum /clearance Board and Tamil Nadu Housing Board were actively involved in such constructions. Unfortunately, the government has shirked this responsibility in recent years and has left the housing construction activity largely to private sector.

8. Need for special courts :
To settle the disputes between the house owners and tenants and to avoid exploitative practices, the government should immediately constitute a “special court” with judicial powers all over the state.

9. Solution :
While construction of thousands of apartments and extending mass transportation facilities are long term solutions, there is need to find immediate solution, as the poor people are being harassed or in dire straits. The government has to ensure fairness in dealings by the house owners who rent out their premises.

The government’s apathy and lack of appreciation of the problems of the poor people is the single big reason for the problems faced by the poor people. The government should realize its responsibilities and come to the rescue of the deprived and downtrodden.