10. My House - History of Acquisition

As I have stated earlier, my father could not acquire any house of his own after we had migrated from the erstwhile East Pakistan, where we had an ancestral home. We did not, therefore, have any home or house anywhere in post-partition India. While serving in the districts of West Bengal, I could not acquire any house or homestead for my family until I came to Calcutta on transfer; in fact, I did not feel an urge for my own abode till then, despite my wife's pestering. I had served in the districts for the first half of my service career. I did not consider it worth having a  house of our own in any of those districts. 

When I came to Calcutta on transfer in the early 1980s, I learnt of a scheme under which the State Govt. was allotting residential plots in Salt Lake. I applied for a plot of land there to the Urban Development Department, which controlled the distribution of these plots, on January 2, 1984. I received a printed postcard reply to my application from the Urban Development Department years later, informing me that they had no plot available in Salt Lake. I knew Govt. was still allocating lands to different categories of people, including politicians and bureaucrats, at the time. The Assistant Secretary, who had replied to my application and had been a batch-mate of mine in the postgraduate could also find a plot for himself during the same period. Many of my colleagues in service having connections at the right places, or using influential persons to plead for them, too, had the favour of getting plots in Salt Lake around the time I applied for and during later years.      

Residential plots at Salt Lake were distributed by the party in power in the 1980s and 1990s as the largesse to their party followers, the bureaucrats and others toeing their lines or somehow connected to them. The allotments were made purely on political consideration or on consideration of connection with those that mattered. I did not have any linkage, political or otherwise, nor was I eager to develop any at the cost of my individuality. For in this age, to get something, you must give some other thing in return, maybe your loyalty here. Lack of transparency in the allotments of plots of discretionary quota finally invited a PIL. Deciding on the PIL, the High Court cancelled the last lot of allotment of plots. The court also took away the powers of allotment of discretionary plots from the department and ordered that such allotment, then onward, could only be made by the Chief Minister. But this was not a remedy by itself; it only shifted the power centre to the political office of the Chief Minister.

Much later, during my tenure in Rajbhawan, the Governor, at my request, had talked to the Chief Minister about allotting me a plot of land at Salt Lake. The Governor, Prof. S. Nurul Hasan, told me later that the Chief Minister had indicated a plot of land for cooperative housing could be available. Accordingly, I formally applied for a plot as the promoter of a prospective cooperative society. I submitted the application personally to CM’s Office, along with a handwritten personal note from the Governor to the CM. Subsequently, I followed it up with the official of the CM’s political office, who used to deal with the matter but to no avail. Finally, I had to give up. At that time, I learnt that even in cooperative plots, some persons favoured politically or otherwise, were often elbowed in to replace some in the group that initially promoted the society. The official dealing with the matter in the political office of the CM possibly had genuine doubts about my agreeing to replace any of those named in my application as prospective members by persons of political choice. That was perhaps why my application, even though it annexed a personal note from the Governor to the CM, did not find favour and finally died a silent death.

Incidentally, on an earlier occasion, one of my predecessors in office at Raj Bhawan had managed to obtain an individual plot of land following the same Governor-Chief Minster channel. That colleague of mine could find favour to have a plot of land despite owning a flat elsewhere in Calcutta, even though the eligibility criteria did not permit allotment of land in Salt Lake to anyone having land or house in Calcutta metropolitan area. I did not have any land or abode anywhere in India, and yet, my application died a silent death in the political office of the CM. This instance vis-a-vis mine should be enough to make one understand on what consideration the State Govt. disposed of such matters at that time.

However, on the other side of the story, I had applied for homestead land in Mouza Parui, PS Behala, in response to an advertisement by the Housing Department. I made the application on April 26, 1985. I was allotted a plot of land on October 30, 1985, by lottery among the applicants. I paid the cost of the land, amounting to ₹24367 taking a house-building loan from the Govt. I was handed over the possession of the land on February 5, 1993. I then applied to Calcutta Corporation for the mutation of that land. 

Meanwhile, my friend Balai1 and others had formed a cooperative housing society named Prangan Cooperative Housing Society Ltd and had obtained a plot of land for a residential building at Salt Lake. He (Balai) had to do much persuasion to get this plot of land, even though he was working in the Urban Development Department, which controlled the matter then. One of the members, a colleague of ours, was unwilling to continue as a member of the said society. Balai and my other friend Asok Chatterjee in the cooperative offered me that membership. Initially, I was reluctant as I had already taken a loan for Parui land and couldn’t have a second loan for Salt Lake. I did not also have the means to do without a loan. Besides, I prefer a house to a flat. But Balai and one of our senior colleagues (whose son was also a member of this society) assured me that they would take up my problem regarding the availability of a House Building loan for the Salt Lake flat with the Finance Department to resolve it. At the instance of Balai and my wife, I finally agreed. I got admitted to the membership of Prangan Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. on January 17, 1992. Our senior colleague, Ashok Bhattacharjee, and my friend Balai had persuaded the Finance Department to sanction a second House Building loan and helped me a lot to resolve my problem. 

As stated, at the instance of my colleagues, Finance department had agreed to sanction me the second loan, subject to certain conditions. As the Finance Department had required, I first returned the Parui land to the Housing Department. It was on August 30, 1993. Finance Departments' direction was in accordance with the Govt. policy that one possessing a plot or a flat in the Calcutta Metropolitan area would not be eligible for a residential flat or a plot of land in Salt Lake. After surrendering the Parui land, I  applied for a new House Building loan, attaching the Housing Department's certificate of return of the Parui land. A loan was then sanctioned to me for the Salt Lake flat after deducting the amount previously advanced to me for the Parui Land. Later, I got the refund of the cost of the land I had paid to the Housing Department for the Parui land. But, in the process, I was a loser by ₹ 10460, ₹ 2460 as the registration fees and ancillary charges, and ₹ 8000 as interest on loan taken for Parui land. I had applied to the Govt. for exemption from the interest on the HB loan, as the money had been lying with the Govt, although in a different department, and I did not derive any benefit from it. Finance Department turned down my prayer. 

The Govt loan was, by itself, not enough to enable me to complete the construction work of my flat. One of my colleague-cum-friends, Alok Basu, came to my help. When he learnt of my predicament, he, without my asking for it, offered a personal loan of Rs. 10000, which I gratefully accepted. I had another personal loan of Rs. 2000 from my elder brother. Even after all these, I had fallen short of funds for having all the windows of the flat made of wood. I cut down the expenditure on this account by opting for steel windows in all the rooms except the roadside two, which needed to be in wood to maintain an aesthetic front view of the building. I repaid all loans in due course.

Construction of the building under Prangan Cooperative Society completed in plot no. BB – 29 in 1995, and the allotment of flats was made by lottery. I now have a flat in this building. We shifted here on June 1, 1997, and have been living since. . I feel it was a better choice when compared to Parui land. I must thank Balai and my wife for forcing me o take the decision to join this cooperative. I am grateful to my friend Alok for his timely help, but for which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to complete the construction of the flat in time.

It is how I came to own a residential flat for settlement in Kolkata.

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