The builders, who have right and powerful political connections too, said that such move would send a wrong signal outside the state and that it would turn investors away.

Whatever they may say, the truth is that the builders are paying the price of their own machination and propaganda. The PMC may be totally wrong in its action and the poor flat-owners may be greatly affected yet there is no one to shed a drop of tear for the builders today.

When the then state government in 1990s, keeping in mind the growing congestion in Patna, imposed a ceiling of 1+3 for the new apartments these builders started propagating that they would not invest in the state as law and order situation is bad. Without discussing the law and order issue, one still can say that hundreds of apartments and dozens of new colonies came up in Patna, especially in its western part, in 1990s and later. Even Dak Bungalow roundabout underwent a complete facelift with many marketing complexes coming up.

What is strange is that the builders’ lobby fully utilized the help of media and political opponents for their own end.

They returned to the state after the coming to power of Nitish Kumar in November 2005 and once again used the same media to propagate that the law and order situation has now improved. Whether it has improved or not was not their concern, but it was upto the people to decide. But they with the help of media spread this message throughout the country and even abroad and thus got the land and apartments price doubled and even tripled in just a matter of six years. The real estate dealers and builders were the direct beneficiaries of this boom.

Now, when the Patna Municipal Commissioner, Pankaj Kumar Pal, rightly or wrongly, started cracking the whip the builders are once again trying to play their old cards.

Now see what the Chairman of the Bihar Chapter of Builders’ Association of India Mani Kant, said on Saturday. “The builders engaged in these projects are well known. They had left Patna for places like Bangalore and National Capital Region when the law and order condition in the state was bad. Now they are back and are trying to make Patna beautiful. They are being unnecessarily harried. Investments in the state won’t come if things like this continue.”

He may or may not be right by stating that all the rules and norms were taken into consideration and the claims of the PMC are absolutely baseless, but the way in which the Association is once again trying to assert is important. After all who are they to suggest that the investment would turn away from the state? Are they expert on the issue? The fact is that the new government had relaxed the rule on high-rise buildings which led to their mushroom growth.

In fact the real sufferers of the row between the PMC and builders are the flat-owners who have been cheated by both.

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