Dear friends, fellow residents and owners of Oasis.
2016 has been a rather tumultuous and eventful year for the country in general and we at Oasis have had our share of ups and downs. As we head into the new year, here is a recap of what did and did not happen in that little corner of the universe that we call our home!
Undoubtedly the high point of the year was the 2nd Durga Puja that we celebrated with a lot of fun, flair and excitement. As a part of the Telegraph Durga Puja ecosystem, we had, for the first time, access to all the activities that are a part of a big media brand and our residents used this to the hilt. Moreover the theme of “Rural Bengal” with which Durga Puja environment was decorated was quite a big hit. The religious aspects of the Puja were adhered to with all due devotion and by the Grace of the Divine Mother, we are on our way to becoming one of the finest “housing complex” puja pandels in Calcutta. An excellent souvenir was published to commemorate the festival and you can read it here.
Close on the heels of the Durga Puja was our Deepawali Dhamaka -- another blockbuster event that treated the residents to an evening of food, fun and frolic and the mandatory “Lucky Draw” that ensured that everyone went home with at least a silver coin in their hand. Next on the horizon is the New Year’s Eve and all the fun and frolic with which it is associated.
But unfortunately, not all was nice and pleasant ….
18th September 2016 was a black day in the short history of Oasis when a mob of local gangsters entered the complex, allegedly in search of a hit-and-run driver who had killed a person on Hazra Road, and vandalised nearly 70 cars in Tower area. While the immediate response of the local administration was rather tardy, some of our residents who know people that matter did manage to arrange for some kind of police action that had a rather limited and temporary effect. We have realised that we have to manage our own security on our own.
While the FOAOA could not prevent the unfortunate event, it did manage to contain the fallout to a large extent. Extensive discussions were initiated with the police, investigations were carried out, the situation was analysed. In conclusion it was agreed that while the mob of vandals was perhaps too strong to be stopped and repulsed at the gates the response of our security setup could have been far better. Since then and after repeated discussions and deliberations the FOAOA has come up with three steps that will improve the management and enhance the security of the complex, namely
- Colliers -- a fairly big brand in property management has been appointed to manage the property
- Frontline -- a company aligned with and recommended by Colliers has been entrusted with security. We hope that Colliers and Frontline being aligned companies they would be able to manage the security in a seamless manner
- A new set of CCTV cameras are being installed to monitor entry and exit from the external gates and from each building
We hope that with these initiatives Oasis will become a safer place for all of us.
There are two other external issues that continue to trouble our peaceful habitation at Oasis. The first is the challenge of getting direct CESC electrical meters to our Towers. CESC has demanded a significant sum of money from the promoter to install a substation and which the promoter is yet pay. In the meanwhile, one our residents had filed a writ petition in the High Court at Calcutta requesting the court to direct the promoter to make the payment. The High Court has passed an order in our favour and directed the promoter to make payments but unfortunately, the promoter has still not responded to the direction of the High Court. Other legal steps are being planned.
The other issue that continues to bother us is the fact that FOAOA is not a registered society and hence cannot take formal responsibility for the management of the complex. The promoter has refused to hand over the finances, including the sinking fund, until FOAOA is registered. Currently the complex is being managed Fort Oasis Maintenance Private Ltd (FOMPL), a private limited company wholly owned by the promoters to whom all ( or most ) of us pay our maintenance charges. While the FOAOA can influence the way money is spent from FOMPL our visibility into its very opaque finances is very shallow. Under the West Bengal Apartment Owners Act, under which FOAOA intends to take over the maintenance, it is necessary for 50% of the owners to join the association and submit their deeds of registration. This means that FOAOA needs 175 members ( or their deeds ) whereas, for a variety of reasons, the collection drive has stalled at around 110 only. Until we reach the magic number, we are forced to play an auxiliary, advisory role to the promoter. This is a request to all of you to please join the FOAOA and share your registered deed with us.
The lack of registration and the consequent lack of access to FOMPL financial information is a big challenge for the effective management of funds. We have a very hazy idea of the quantum of our sinking fund and the payment of interest from the same. While collecting maintenance fees is always a challenge, it has come to our notice that we are getting almost no money from nearly 70 flats of which 35 are unsold flats kept in the name of the promoter. Many other owners are also refusing to pay maintenance because of contractual or quality issues with the promoter about which the FOAOA has neither any visibility nor any influence. Despite earnest requests, certain members are either unable or unwilling to see the logic in the distinction between project / CapEx issues -- that should be resolved with promoter -- and maintenance / OpEx issues that are are within the jurisdiction of FOAOA.
The best way forward at the moment would be to reach the 50% mark in membership, register our society and formally take charge of the sinking fund and the formal maintenance of the complex. Without these steps, the financial position of the complex will be on shaky grounds.
As a matter of fact, we are already on shaky ground. Given the number of flats for which we do not receive maintenance charges, there is a deficit between monthly income and expenditure. This has gone up with the new, more expensive, property management and security services but our maintenance charges have stayed the same for the past 5 years from 2011. Fortunately, the demonetization frenzy has been of some help because we have made some windfall collections but this will run out soon.
You would be aware that because of financial mismanagement by the promoters, many of our vendors had not been paid for months and many reputable vendors have withdrawn their services. To restore some sanity in this chaotic state of affairs, FOAOA has been overseeing the process of disbursal of payments since July 2016 and since then, most vendors have been paid on time. However as described earlier, collections still continue to haunt us and haunt us very badly and residents should be aware that there is financial turbulence ahead.
The FOAOA is deliberating on ways and means to augment income and all suggestions in this regard are most welcome from all residents and owners. After all this is your house and if you do not think about how to keep it nice an clean, it is you who will suffer.
Which leads us to request you to please engage with the FOAOA and take an active part in managing the complex. You are not guests in a hotel but owners and without your participation the FOAOA cannot run this place to your satisfaction. To get engaged you can do the following :
- Please get yourself nominated to the Executive Committee of the FOAOA for 2017-18. Currently we have to force people to be EC members and there is no election. What we would like to see is a lot of people wishing to join the EC through a healthy election process. Please watch out for the Election Notices that will come out in March 2017
- Visit our website http://www.fortoasis.com
- Join the two WhatsApp groups by contacting the admins.
- Oasis Residents Group - Vivek Agarwal - 98307 97397
- Oasis Members -- B K Daga 98302 63868
- Help run this newsletter by writing articles and contributing your time and labour in collecting information and assist with the editorial process -- contact Prithwis Mukerjee 98310 02066
While many of you may be blissfully unaware of what the FOAOA has been doing for a whole year, please rest assured that it is trying hard to make your house into a home that you would love to cherish and come back to every evening. In addition to what has been described earlier, the FOAOA has also performed the following tasks
- Repair of Water Pumps in Blocks and Towers
- Repair, recommissioning and restart of Water Treatment Plant -- residents may not be aware that the water treatment plant supplied by the promoter was lying non-operational for almost two years! All of us were using raw, untreated ground water for quite some time
- Repair of Air Conditioners in Club, Banquet, Lifts
- Repair of Intercom
- Repair of Block Gate
- Repair of Road leading to Tower Gate
- Replacement of nearly 50 batteries in all the lifts
- Replacement of non-operational CFL lights in Blocks with new LED lights
- Planting of decorative plants, trees around Central Lawn & roadways
- Removal of huge amount of garbage from the Tower Ducts and other areas -- these had been lying around for nearly 5 years
Unfortunately there are many more things to be done and there are too few of us in the FOAOA to do all this. Kindly help us by participating in the myriad tasks that are necessary to run this complex.
Come join us to celebrate a Happy Christmas and a very Merry New Year!
Jai Hind
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Executive Council 2016-17
Fort Oasis Apartment Owners Association
