Parties, drugs, and penalties: Bengaluru RWA in the dock for ‘threatening tenants’ to pay fines

The complainant, who does not want to be named, told The Indian Express, “Many students from other states are living here on rent. The RWA has levied and collected penalties for drug-related offences. They threaten students and tell them that their lives will be ruined if the matter is reported to the police. The panicked students immediately pay whatever penalty is demanded by the RWA.”

“The security guards, who have been watching this development, have also started to extort money from the students without informing RWA members in some cases. The students need help to get out of drug abuse, and collecting fines will not help them in any way. What if they are taking loans from others to pay the fines?” he added.

Responding to the allegations, Vishwanath, president of Provident Sunworth Apartment Owners Association, admitted that fines were collected, but not for drug abuse. “We have collected fines from those who created a ruckus under the influence of alcohol or caused disturbance to their flatmates,” he said.

The fine receipts, however, cite “using drugs or involving such activities”, “illegal substance”, and “involved in flat having illegal substances” as reasons for collecting the fines. To this, Vishwanath replied that another committee was looking into the specific issue and would clarify.

The documents showed that the minimum fine collected was Rs 10,000 and the maximum fine was Rs 30,000.

The practice has allegedly been adopted by other RWAs too. A resident of an apartment close to R V Engineering College on Mysore Road said the fines collected in his housing society would be used to develop the common area. “Students from other states will be in fear if they are threatened that either the police or their parents will be informed (about their drug abuse). They, therefore, pay the fine. The RWAs boast how they have increased the revenue during association elections,” the resident, who is also a member of his housing society’s RWA, said.

Anitha B Haddannavar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South West), Bengaluru, said it was a crime to conceal incidents of drug abuse, and they would take appropriate action against those who collected fines instead of informing the police.

‘Will look into issue’

Satish Mallya, President, Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF), said no RWA can collect such fines as per the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972. “The by-laws only allow you to collect a late fee if the maintenance fee is not paid on time,” he added.

Mallya recalled that around a year ago, they were informed that some RWAs were penalising residents whenever their pets defecated in the common area. “With no nodal agency to address apartment issues, we went to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (now Greater Bengaluru Authority), and it came up with a new SOP which does not allow apartments to penalise. As this issue has now come to our notice, we will look into it,” he added.

The BAF, an umbrella organisation of more than 1,400 apartment and villa RWAs in the city, has also requested the state government to table and pass the Karnataka Apartment Ownership and Management Bill during the forthcoming Belagavi Assembly session. The BAF said the proposed Bill has provisions to better regulate the functioning of RWAs.