TREND MILL
Green Revolution

Tall palm trees swaying in the monsoon breeze, a velvety carpet of green, a hot cuppa... One day is all it takes to get this together! Instant lawns and gardens have taken Ludhiana by storm, finds KANCHAN VASDEV

INSTANT coffee, two minute noodles and now a lush green garden in a day! If you have just moved into your dreamhouse and are minutely examining the grass and plants for a new blade and leaf every day, instant lawns are just for you. All you have to do is choose, order, pay and wait for a day! The best part: Not only grass and potted plants, even 80-foot trees have been successfully transplanted in gardens in Ludhiana!

Gone are the days when a garden was a project running into years. You had to wait at least six months for a green carpet. The gardener would laboriously plant grass and painstakingly water it for months. And it used to take years to have a full-grown tree in the compound! But now you can walk on the velvety grass and sit under the shade of a full-grown tree days after you move into a new house.

Enterprising Ludhianvis are already experimenting with the concept and have got beautiful lawns developed in a jiffy. “We transplanted a fully grown palm tree and lawn for a businessman moving into a new house in the posh Cemetery Road area of the city,” says Lt Col (retd) R.N. Kapoor, managing director of Technocare Nursery. “Instant gardens are the rage. Residents want trees in their houses besides shrubs and grass. And we provide whatever they can possibly think of – be it grass carpets or huge, flowering and ornamental trees. The most recent trend is of planting date palms so that their fruit could be taken too.”

He said that apart from palm trees being planted for their aesthetic value, several flowering trees like amaltas, gulmohar, bohemia and ficus were also in great demand. While palms and ficus were usually planted in lawns and near home swimming pools, amaltas, gulmohar, bohemia and date palms were the favourites of farmhouse owners. “Those who spend crores to buy a farmhouse don’t mind shelling out a few more thousand to have trees planted. This way they can enjoy the feeling of a farmhouse right away,” adds Lt Col Kapoor.

He said that as demand had risen, they had started procuring big trees from nurseries in Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata and even UAE and Sri Lanka! The trucks are brought to the nursery in trucks, nurtured, stabilised and then transplanted.

In Ludhiana, farmhouse owners were buying 20-40 trees on an average. Several residents, who had spent lakhs on developing lawns alone, were not willing to be identified. “A friend has just ordered 25 palms for his farmhouse. He is trying to give a surprise to his friends by organising a party next month on the farmhouse, which he says would be ‘heaven on earth’. We just can’t wait,” said a resident, not wishing to be named.

How it all began

THE concept of instant gardens picked up very recently. Some time ago a local industrialist had imported a palm tree from Sri Lanka. He transplanted it when the house was not even constructed completely. “People were pleasantly surprised to see a full-grown tree in the compound overnight! The idea clicked and many people started asking nurseries to get trees for them. Now many nurseries are meeting the demands,” says Dr A.P.S. Gill, former professor of the department of floriculture and landscaping at Punjab Agricultural University. He has helped many people develop instant lawns.

Experts say though palms from Sri Lanka were most expensive — costing around Rs 35,000 — and most visually appealing. The leaves are longer and sway beautifully in the breeze, especially if planted near swimming pools. “I was among the first to plant a tree near my covered all-weather pool. I got a hole made in the roof for the crown of the tree and planted it in earth. People used to touch it to see if it was real! They could not believe how the tree was strategically planted near the pool. When I told them it had been transplanted after the pool was built, they were even more surprised. Now, the trend is at its peak,” says Sachin Kumar, a local resident.

For all you out there who want these out-of-the-world experiences, experts say July and August are the ideal months to transplant trees and plants. Go, book a tree or two before they are sold out! All you have to do is loosen your purse strings. But then as they say, all good things come for a price!

Green carpet

IF you are on a budget or do not want a tree, consider carpet grass. Sold for Rs 4 to Rs 12 a square foot depending on the variety, there are several native and exotic versions available. “As the word suggests, carpet grass just has to be laid out on levelled earth and the lawn is ready! We also deal in beautiful, exotic and native plants that add to the beauty of a lawn. Just tell us what you want and leave the rest to our landscapists,” says Lt Col Kapoor.

In a jiffy

A 12 to 15 feet palm tree is sold for anything between Rs 12,000 and Rs 35,000 while others — including flowering trees and ficus — come for Rs 4,000 to Rs 40,000. “Buyers just have to tell us what they want and place an order with us. We take care of the rest. The process needs a great deal of expertise as the roots and leaves of a full-grown tree have to be handled with care,” says Lt Col (retd) R.N. Kapoor, managing director of Technocare Nursery. And how exactly is this done? “Well, it is not possible for men to carry and lift big trees during transplant. So, we use a crane.”

Win some, lose some
Shariq Majeed

Mass migrations due to militancy cause land prices to jump seven times in 15 years in Rajouri

The story so far… BELA Colony came up in the heart of this border township because of mass migration from semi-urban areas on the outskirts of Rajouri after militancy erupted in the 1990s. Migrants from semi-urban areas, including Thanamandi, Darhal, Chandi-marh and Bufliaz, built houses in the riverbed, later taking the form of a colony. The unplanned colony on the banks of the Rajouri nullah and some houses constructed in this river’s bed gets its name from the fact that it can be washed away by flashfloods even of moderate intensity.

MASS migration due to militancy was a nightmare for residents but quite the opposite for the realty business in Rajouri town. Due to shortage of land, even the riverbed is on sale in the town. Bela Colony came up there — nicknamed Suicide Colony because of threat to life and property due to annual flooding — and people are still buying land in it, resulting in price growth.

For Muhammad Qasim Lone of Thanamandi, the killing of his elder brother Master Gulzar by militants in 2001 forced him to migrate from there to Rajouri. Initially, when he thought of buying land to build a house, he couldn’t find any, which forced him to buy land in Suicide Colony.

“After my elder brother was killed, I began to fear for my and my family’s life. I migrated from my native place and approached many property dealers to get me land at a good location in Rajouri but nothing materialised. With no solution in sight, I purchased eight marlas at a cost of Rs 40,000 a marla in Suicide Colony,” said Lone. “Recently, my brother-in-law Muhammad Yousuf also bought four marlas for Rs 60,000 a marla.”

Muhammad Shafiq, who has been living in Suicide Colony ever since he migrated from Thanamandi in 1994 after militancy started in the area, bought 2.5 marlas and built a house. “I bought a marla for Rs 8,000 but these days one marla in my neighbourhood ranges between Rs 50,000 and Rs 60,000,” says Shafiq. “There is great risk to this colony due to floods and every year water enters our houses, but people still are buying land here.”

“This colony is prone to floods since majority of the houses were constructed in the riverbed, forcing it to change course of flow. Every monsoon, water enters the houses of the hapless people who are living there at their own risk,” says Abdul Qayoom Dar, retired police officer and social worker. “When this unplanned colony was coming up the government didn’t do anything but now since the thousand of lives are at risk, it should act.” He further said that the only option available with the government was to take flood control measures.

GROUND REALTY
Every crack tells a story

Home truths: Cracks in the interior or exterior walls are the houseowner’s worst nightmare come true. Not all are dangerous, writes JAGVIR GOYAL

CRACKS are a common occurrence in buildings. Almost every building develops some sort of cracks in one or other part of it. To the layman, cracks are always a cause of concern. Appearance of cracks often alarms the inhabitants of a building who begin to consider the building unsafe. Cracks may or may not be dangerous. Every crack tells its own story. The location, width & type of a crack can lead to ascertaining of its cause. Here are a few guidelines to prevent them and to ascertain their cause:

Reasons for cracks

Cracks may occur in a building due to any of the six reasons:

• Improper design
• Improper construction
• Overloading of the building
• Expansion or shrinkage of materials used in the building
• An outer source of water affecting building’s foundation
• Extraordinary impact or vibrations in building.

Cracks that appear due to improper design, improper construction or over-loading are structural cracks and may prove dangerous. Those appearing due to expansion or shrinkage are non-structural cracks and are often not dangerous. When an outer source of water affects building’s foundation, its differential settlement may occur causing wide cracks in the walls. An earthquake may produce extraordinary vibrations and heavy machinery working in the building’s vicinity may induce impact on it causing cracks. These types of cracks are also dangerous.

Avoiding cracks

Even if the cracks are not dangerous, these give bad impression. Therefore, always make efforts to minimize their occurrence. Take following steps to avoid occurrence of cracks in buildings:

• Get the foundations, lintels, columns, beams and slab of a building designed from an Engineer before taking up its construction. At the time of construction, stick to the design even if the mason resists.
• Use skilled labor for proper workmanship. Use materials of genuine quality during construction. Choose brand, quality and grade of cement carefully after consulting an expert.
• Every building is designed for a particular set of loads. See that the building does not get over-loaded. Often, unnecessary load of brick ballast ( coba, gatka ) is put on the slabs. Take special care of balconies and chajjas. Create a terrace garden only if the slab is designed for its load.
• See that the foundation has been designed based on the bearing capacity of soil in the area. The designer can examine the type of soil, position of water table, depth of foundations of other buildings in the area and can have a fair estimate of it. This is necessary to prevent settlement of foundations.
• See that there is no growth of vegetation below or near the foundations. Keep an eye and remove any growth as soon as it appears near the walls. Keep the trees at a distance. A vegetation shall soak all the moisture from the soil below the building. This will cause shrinkage of soil, leading to settlement of foundations and cracks in the building.
• Before laying RCC slab of rooms, provide the top of the walls with 10mm thick cement plaster of 1:3 ratio & finish it with a neat cement floating coat. Cure it well for 7 days. Allow it to dry. Now, paint it with two coats of hot bitumen of good quality like 85/25 grade. Now, rest the slab over it. This treatment will avoid movement of masonry along with the slab during its expansion or shrinkage and horizontal cracks in the walls near the slab shall get avoided.
• Paint all those portions of beams & slabs with thick hot bitumen which are in contact with masonry walls to avoid cracks along their contact line.
• To avoid cracks in plaster along the four edges of ceiling, do the ceiling plaster before doing wall plaster. Along the junction of ceiling & walls, provide a groove of ceiling plaster depth. This will break the junction between ceiling & wall plaster and cracks shall be avoided.
• Inclined cracks appear in the walls & plaster on the sides of lintels laid over window openings when the RCC lintels laid over windows are not given enough time to dry up fully and plaster is applied on the walls. When the lintel concrete shrinks, cracks begin to appear. Always give at least one month time to the lintels after their laying to dry up before applying plaster on the walls.
• While building a block of houses or rooms with a continuous slab over the rooms, provide expansion joints in slab at 12 to 15 meter intervals. Get the expansion joint sketch from an engineer to provide it properly. Otherwise, cracks may appear in the slab.
• Whenever an old wall is extended, cracks are likely to appear at the junction of old and new walls due to differential settlement. Therefore, avoid a toothed joint between old and new walls.
• It is a general belief that use of excess cement makes a building stronger. Excess of cement rather leads to excessive shrinkage of concrete, further leading to significant shrinkage cracks. Therefore, use right quantity of cement as per engineer’s advice. Designed concrete mix saves cement, saves cost and avoids cracks.
• Judging a crack: In case some cracks have appeared somewhere in a building, judge its cause. Often, the type of cracks and their progress leads to their cause. Here are a few hints to judge them:
• Stepped cracks: If the crack looks like small steps in masonry, rising from the bottom of wall upwards, it is due to foundation settlement of the wall. Vegetation growth near foundation also causes such cracks.
• Vertical crack in wall: A vertical crack in a wall originating from the ground and moving upwards is due to shearing of wall and is dangerous.
• Diagonal cracks: Diagonal cracks at the bottom corners of a window are due to weak lintel over it which has not been able to take the load above it.
• w Horizontal cracks near slab bottom: Horizontal cracks in walls near the bottom of slab are due to non-provision of bearing plaster over the walls. These occur due to movement of top courses of wall along with slab during its expansion.
• Diagonal cracks at top of window: Diagonal cracks at top corners of windows occur due to expansion of RCC lintels when proper bearing over walls is not provided to them.
• Vertical toothed crack: A vertical toothed crack is often due to jointing new masonry wall with the old one. The old wall has already undergone minor settlement that every structure undergoes while the new wall portion is passing through this experience.
• Horizontal corner cracks: These occur in the top storey of a house or building near the corners due to up lifting of roof slab.
• Horizontal cracks in parapet: Often, these occur horizontally along the parapet at the junction of slab and parapet either due to use of different materials in them and expansion of slab.
• Long thin cracks in slab: These occur due to shrinkage of concrete and during its hardening after pouring of concrete. Sometimes, these cracks disappear by the time curing of slab is completed.
• Long meandering cracks in slab: These occur due to corrosion or rusting of steel embedded in the slab. These are often parallel to the steel bars and occur when sufficient concrete cover to steel is not provided. Water and air reach steel and its rusting begins. These cracks are also dangerous.

Tax tips
Rental deduction: Commercial & house property identical
S.C. Vasudeva

Q. I have let out a commercial property situated in a district centre. Please let me know what are the deductions available against such income for the purpose of computing taxable income?

— M.K. Mahajan

A. The Income-tax Act 1961 (the Act) provides that the annual rent of a house property consisting of any buildings or lands appurtenant thereto of which the assessee is owner shall be chargeable to Income-tax under the head ‘income from house property’. The annual value of any property is deemed to be the sum for which the property might reasonably be expected to let from year to year or where the property is let and the actual rent received or receivable by the owner in respect thereof is in excess of the sum for which the property might reasonably be expected to let from year to year, the amount so received or receivable.

For computing such annual value the taxes levied by the local authority, which have actually been paid during the year are deductible. The following deductions are allowable from the annual value so computed:

• 30 per cent of the annual value.
• The interest paid or payable on money borrowed for acquisition, construction or renovation of property.

To save CGT, build house

Q. My husband bought a plot on which we constructed a house in 1995 by taking a loan from his department. He died in 2000. My daughter (a major) and I are the legal heirs of the property but I have remarried. We sold the house for Rs 25 lakh. My questions to you are as follows:

• Is it necessary to buy residential property in exchange of our sold house or can we buy a plot?

Once CGT is Paid, use amount as you wish

Q. I purchased a plot for Rs 10 lakh in March 1997. The market value thereof should be about Rs 50 lakh. We have a residential house in which we are living. There is housing loan of Rs 20 lakh outstanding against the said house. I am planning to pay the housing loan of Rs 20 lakh and purchase a plot from HUDA in a different sector on installment basis. Please suggest me the tax liability of the above statements and measures to save the tax as individually both my wife and I are paying tax in 30 per cent slab. I shall be thankful for the advice.

— Pawan Kumar

A. The plot acquired in the year 1997 for Rs 10 lakh will have an indexed cost of Rs 19,08,197 (Rs 10,00,000x582/305). The computation is based on taking the cost inflation index of financial year 1996-97 and for the financial year 2008-09 as the index for financial year 2009-10 has not been notified so far. The capital gain on the intended sale of plot at Rs 50 lakh would thus be Rs 30,91,803. The tax payable thereon for assessment year 2010-11 would be @ 20 per cent plus education cess @ 3 per cent thereon.

You have stated in your query that you would be repaying the housing loan of Rs 20 lakh in respect of house in the name of your wife and would like to purchase a plot with the balance money. You can save the capital gains tax provided you construct a residential house within a period of three years of the date of sale of the plot which you intend selling. For the compliance of this requirement, the net consideration (sale price less expenditure incurred wholly and necessarily for effecting such sale) will have to be deposited in a designated bank account under capital gain scheme and the amount will have to be spent for the acquisition of the plot and the construction of the house by withdrawal from the said account. If you adopt this course it will not be possible for you to withdraw any amount towards the repayment of the loan raised by your wife. The other method of saving capital gains tax is the investment of capital gain of Rs 30,91,803 in acquiring infrastructure bonds issued by the Rural Electrification Corporation Limited. These bonds have a lock in period of three years and cannot be sold or transferred for the said period. Such bonds cannot even be used for obtaining the loan from bank by pledging the same as a security. This would also not be of any help to you. Therefore, in case you want to repay the loan of Rs 20 lakh the best course would be to pay the capital gains tax @ 20 per cent plus education cess @ 3 per cent thereon which will enable you to use the entire sale proceeds less taxes for any purpose.

Govt land acquisition: No tax on capital gain

Q. My brother and I jointly bought 10 acres of land in a village within municipal committee limits in 1992 for Rs 8 lakh. On this land agricultural operation were being carried out. In August 2008, the Government of Haryana (HUDA) acquired the land and paid compensation of Rs 20 lakh. Please guide me about the taxability of such compensation that we have contested in the court.

— O.P. Gupta

A. Long-term capital gain arising on compulsory acquisition of agricultural land situated within the municipal committee is exempt from tax under section 10(37) of the Act provided the following conditions are fulfilled:

• such land, during the period of two years immediately preceding the date of transfer, was being used for agricultural purposes by an HUF or individual or a parent of his;
• such transfer is by way of compulsory acquisition under any law, or a transfer the consideration for which is determined or approved by the Central Government or the Reserve Bank of India; and such income has arisen from the compensation or consideration for
• such transfer received by the assessee on or after April 2004. “Compensation or consideration” includes compensation or consideration enhanced or further enhanced by any court, tribunal or other authority.

The facts in the query indicate that you fulfill the above requirements. The capital gain arising on account of the receipt of such compensation would thus be exempt under the aforesaid section.

Ancestral property
Long-term capital asset

Q. I along with my five brothers got my parents house, which is more than 50 years old, registered after the death of my parents. Now, all of us decided to sell off the house and each one may get approx Rs 10 lakh. Kindly let me know what amount of capital gains tax or income tax if any payable by me.

— Narender Singh

A. House property having been held for more than 50 years will be treated as a long-term capital asset and any capital gain arising on sale of such a property would be a long term capital gain. It is not possible to compute the amount of tax payable on capital gain as the cost of acquisition of such house, date of sale, date of death of your father, fair market value as of the house on 01.04.1981 and the sale price thereof are not indicated in the query. I may add that for assessment year 2010-11 the tax in respect of the long term capital gain would be leviable @ 20 per cent plus education cess of 3 per cent thereon.

Rental woes: Nothing to do with I-T

Q. I retired in February 2008 under the VRS scheme but have been living in official accommodation ever since. My company allowed me to stay in official accommodation till August by paying market rent of Rs 5,000 a month. We have not vacated the official accommodation till now and are looking for a place on rent. I have applied for pension but the company told us they would deduct Rs 15,000 per month for the additional months. They sent us rent letter of Rs 5,000 (market rent) for three months. In between they also sent us a letter saying that they will charge Rs 15,000 if we did not vacate after August, but we did not take it seriously because the company is charging Rs 5,000 a month for the two-room set, four times the HRA during my job. Kindly guide us on what to do it they deduct Rs 15,000 from my pension instead of Rs 5,000.

— Surinder Rana

A. The query as raised with regard to the payment of rent does not involve any income-tax related issues. I am, therefore, unable to give any advice on the issue raised by you.

This column appears weekly. The writer can be contacted at sc@scvasudeva.com