Voice from the Rooftop

Amrapali is in news. Not the Amrapali of Vaishali of the time of Ajathashatru. It is Amprali Builders. Many buyers had booked flats with them in 2011 and they have not got possession. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was brand ambassador. Many said they trusted Dhoni and went for Amrapali flats. India had won the World Cup. Dhoni was the captain. They had faith in him and booked flats. Dhoni quit as brand ambassador. Harbhajan Singh said Dhoni did the right thing. Amrapali had promised flats to cricketers after 2011 World Cup victory but did not give. Amrapali official said villas are not given because players did not do paper work. If they do paper work they will get villas after one year. It means villas are not ready.
Similarly many other flat buyers are stuck. Some had booked flats with Jaypee Builders. One person said Jaypee spent the money on expressway and Formula One race course. Flat construction has not even begun.
Flat buyers must do three things.
First, buy ready flats. Don’t go for under construction flats. You do not know when the construction will be over or whether it will be over at all.
Second, buy a flat with your own money. Don’t borrow to buy a flat. The money you borrow you have to pay back. If you take a loan from a bank you have to pay interest which may be more than loan. Many people are in grief because they took loans from banks and continue to pay equal monthly instalments while they have not got the possession of flats years after the proposed date.
Third, make full cheque payment. If a builder demands part payment in cash don’t buy from him/her.

In India different laws govern marriage and divorce. There is Special Marriage Act. There is Hindu Marriage Act. There is Indian Divorce Act which deals with Christian divorce. There is Anand Marriage Act 1909 which deals with Sikhs. There is The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936. There is The Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act. There is The Foreign Marriage Act, 1969. I do not know how Jews are covered. Buddhists and Jains come under Hindu Marriage Act.
India should have a uniform law regarding marriage and divorce. Grounds for divorce shall be following:
1) Adultery or any extra-marital sex or demand for sex against the order of nature.
2) Alcoholism or drunkenness
3) Beating, kicking, punching, slapping. Husbands who are victims also can use this ground.
4) Change of religion
5) Corruption
6) Cruelty
7) Desertion
8) Drug addiction
9) Drug peddling or trafficking
10) Fraud
11) Human trafficking
12) Gambling
13) Smoking
14) Illegal activity
15) Impersonation
16) Incompatibility
17) Incurable communicable disease
18) Irreconcilable differences
19) Irretrievable breakdown
20) Match-fixing, session-fixing, spot-fixing, toss-fixing.
21) Murder, abetment to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, false claim to have committed murder in order to mislead police and judiciary and/or to debunk and discredit death penalty, threat to murder, abduction, acid throwing, threat to throw acid, banditry, character assassination, highway robbery, hijacking, kidnapping, rape, double rape, repeat rape, gang rape, revenge porn, hoax call or message about bomb in building, plane, train, ship, bus or any other vehicle, transmission and/or uploading of nude pictures to cause damage to someone or any such high crime.
22) Smuggling of arms and ammunitions
23) Swindling
24) Terrorism
25) Tobacco consumption
26) Violence
Some grounds are part of the law. I have not included mutual consent. Couples can use incompatibility.

Bombay High Court has ordered IPL matches out of Maharashtra after 30 April for this year. It was in response to a PIL which wanted matches out of Maharashtra because cricket grounds needed lakhs of litres of water when there was drought in large parts of Maharashtra. The judgment affects 4 matches at Wankhede Stadium, 6 matches in Poona, and 3 Kings IX Punjab matches in Nagpur.
The verdict said “We agree that merely shifting of IPL matches out of the state will not be a solution, but diverting water to villages which otherwise would have been used for maintaining pitches will help resolve the problem to a large extent.
We were informed RWITC (Royal Western India Turf Club) will supply sewage treated water to pitches. In our view it will not be possible for court or government to monitor if this is being done even as RWITC has given an undertaking stating the same. This does not satisfy us.
Court cannot be blind to the plight of millions of people. In certain areas, livestock are dying due to scarcity of water. In areas like Latur, water is being supplied twice in a month. The condition is the same in cities next to Mumbai like Thane, Kalyan. Even Pune is reeling under severe water shortage.”
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said there is no problem if IPL matches were shifted out of Maharashtra.
Loksatta Movement and Foundation for Democratic Reforms had filed a PIL for shifting all 20 IPL matches out of Maharashtra. Bombay High Court first allowed the opening match to take place. Now it has allowed six more matches to take place. This gives sufficient time for franchises to organize shifting of matches. Surendra Srivastava is the president of Loksatta Movement.
Some said IPL is a soft target. Some said it is tokenism.
IPL is a not a soft target. IPL is a hard target. IPL teams are owned by billionaires or trillionaires. One of the owners is a bank loan defaulter and out of India. IPL is a product of BCCI. BCCI has as its members politicians from BJP, Congress, NCP and NC. BCCI has shifted IPL matches to South Africa and Dubai. Some anchors are soft on IPL.
Ness Wadia, an owner of Kings IX Punjab, welcomed the judgment. His team was to play three home matches in Nagpur. His team will play those matches in Mohali which is their home ground. How is that they have to play three home matches in Nagpur? It seems there was pressure from BCCI and VCA President Shashank Manohar.
Anurag Thakur disagreed with the judgment. He questioned whether watering of High Court lawn has stopped. He questioned water supply to swimming pools of five star hotels. He said “We are not using drinking water, we have said that we will use treated sewage water only. How may swimming pools of five star hotels shut? Have people stopped watering their lawns? There is an attempt to create negativity on every issue these days. IPL was to use 0.00038% of water.”
Some said sugarcane crops and golf courses use more water than cricket grounds.
Majeed Memon said “Right to water is right to life.”
Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants are affected. RPS have chosen Visakhapatnam for home matches. Final will be held in Bangalore. Some have sympathy for RSP because they are on a 2 year contract. They paid 16 crore rupees to BCCI in reverse bidding and are not getting money from TV rights.
It is said BCCI decided not to appeal because they are fighting with the Supreme Court on Lodha Committee recommendations. MI and RPS chose not to appeal.
IPL has changes in teams. It began with eight teams. After three years Kochi Tuskers and Pune Warriors were added. Kochi Tuskers was out in one year. Pune Warriors was out in two years. IPL was back to eight teams. The owners of Deccan Chargers were short of money. They pledged Deccan Chargers. BCCI cancelled the franchise and Sunrisers Hyderabad came in. Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were banned for two years for deeds of owners. Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants came in.
IPL is entertainment. Its contribution to Indian TV is putting an end to K serials. Its controversies include match-fixing and spot-fixing.