Promoters of troubled cooperatives have not only embezzled billions of rupees depo-sited by common people, but have also cheated customers of their housing projects.

Housing projects undertaken by them have been found to have misappropriated as high as Rs 1.33 billion in up-front payments made by buyers.

A high-level commission formed to probe troubled coo-peratives said it has received 468 complaints under the housing segment against 11 cooperatives. According to the complaints, promoters of 11 cooperatives misappropriated Rs 1.33 billion in the name of housing projects.

Housing projects run by Sudheer Basnet, chairman of Oriental Savings and Credit Cooperatives, have liabilities worth Rs 1.28 billion. The projects are Oriental Colony, Kausaltar Homes, Chakr-apath Heights, Dhumbarahi Apartment Phase-2, Vegas City and Eastern Apar-tment. Other projects are Imperial Apartment, Namaste Colony and Sanepa Height.

Basnet, once a major player in the domestic realty sector, promoted more than a dozen housing and apartment projects, but did not complete most of them. For example, Vegas City was launched in 2009 and the company had promised to hand over the property in two-three years, but construction has hardly made any progress. A total of 268 individuals have booked apartments at Vegas City, paying Rs 830 million up-front.

Besides Vegas City, other projects promoted by Basnet, including Kohinoor Hill House and Imperial Housing, are also yet to be completed.

According to fellow realty traders, Basnet’s woes began with the slowdown in the realty business . Basnet launched a series of projects when the sector was booming some five years ago. But his projects started to suffer after the market started to slowdown due to multiple factors, including the central bank’s tightening on realty and housing loans, rising interest rates and his aggressive expansion plan.

Same is the story of Rajendra Shakya, promoter of Guna Cooperatives, which is yet to settle Rs 28 million raised from common people for its housing projects. The housing projects promoted by Shakya affiliated companies are Guna Colony, RC Apartment, LP Apartment and GN Apartment.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Vegas City Consumers’ Management Committee on Tuesday met the commission’s chief Gauri Bahadur Karki and urged him to help them get their money back. They demanded either their money be returned or they be provided apartment or allow them to finish the incomplete work of the projects.

source:the kathmandu post,27 march 2014