The Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka approved the constitution of the “South City Maintenance Committee” (SCMC) on 31-5-2013 as agreed to by SUGRUHA and L&T in the mediation ordered by it on 27-5-2013

(written order copy awaited). The names of the members of this committee, who are all residents of South City, are Sri C. Vedanthan, Sri C.N. Subramanian, Sri K. Satyamurthy, Sri R. Rajagopalan and Sri S. Banerjee.
SCMC held its first meeting on 31-3-2013 to discuss the immediate tasks at hand as described below and took some urgent decisions.

Ad-hoc Maintenance Charges

A fund will be constituted to collect maintenance charges and make payments for maintaining the South City Complex, with effect from June 1, 2013. To help in smooth transition, L&T will maintain the complex on SCMC’s behalf till June 30, 2013, even as SCMC makes alternative arrangements for taking over responsibility for maintenance.

As per the Court Order, SCMC has to pay Rs.50,00,000/- (Rupees Fifty lakhs only) to L&T latest by June 30, 2013, towards maintenance expenses for June 2013. L&T is authorized to deduct shortfall in payment, if any, from the maintenance corpus. Subject to final accounting, we have to pay/ receive differences, if any. Any default will severely dent our community's credibility in the eyes of law and our own. With the cooperation of all of us, we are sure we will deliver.
L&T will continue to maintain the corpus amount of Rs.18.5 Cr (approx.) as Fixed Deposits and transfer the interest received to SCMC to partially meet maintenance expenses. Interest will accrue only periodically and not every month.
As a matter of caution we need to build sufficient working capital to maintain the Complex from July 1, 2013. Hence, as explained in the special meeting of all owners/ residents held on Sunday, June 2, 2013, SCMC has decided as follows:

1. An ad hoc maintenance charge @ Rs.3/sq ft/month for the first quarter, that is, June 2013 to August 2013 will be collected. This is payable immediately, latest by June 15, 2013. The actual charges will be subject to on-going negotiations with potential facility management firms and final accounts. This amount is payable by each apartment, irrespective of whether it is unsold, unoccupied, self-occupied or rented.

2. In respect of apartments, say A Blocks, for which even if the period of first six months of provisional maintenance has not ended and also in respect of those Apartments for which the Maintenance charges have been paid in advance to L&T beyond 31st May, 2013, they have also to pay the maintenance charges as above to the committee. Their accounts will be settled in due course.

3. The Committee has already initiated suitable steps to evaluate and select alternative facility managers and service providers through a transparent process with the help of a committee of volunteers.

4. The working capital may be needed to meet emergency expenses for repairs/ replacements of vital installations. SCMC has no resources of any kind to fall back upon.

5. All payments must be only through A/C payee CTS-2010 compliant cheques payable at Bangalore, till we set up alternate modes of payment like net transfer etc., with our bankers.

6. We will appreciate one cheque per apartment for the three month period, June-August 2013. If necessary, you may pay through three cheques dropped in one shot, one per month, but encashable latest by June 15, July 7 and August 7, 2013 respectively.

7. Please draw your cheques in favour of 'South City Maintenance Committee' and drop it in the collection box kept near the SUGRUHA office in the clubhouse. We will first issue a preliminary receipt. The final receipt will be issued in due course, after incorporating service tax related details.

8. On the back of the cheque, Please mention the following details: Apartment Number, Owner’s Name in Capital, Built-up Area of Apartment (sqft) and your Phone Number.

We request your cooperation in full measure in this hour of transition for our community.
Our success should be visible in the following:
1. How responsive and proactive will estate management and maintenance services become?
2. How responsive will the residents become, in contributing to solving community issues like garbage disposal, water use, etc., and in following the Code of Conduct?
In the interest of the Community, SCMC will be constrained to adopt prompt action against and to report to the Court, any persistent violators/ defaulters. We are currently discussing ways and means of ensuring compliance and the escalation process to handle defaulters in payments and violators of code of conduct.
The true measure of success of this Committee is how quickly and smoothly it ensures lawful transfer of maintenance and management to the Owners' association.
On behalf of the South City Maintenance Committee (SCMC)

S. Banerjee
Member, SCMC