SmartCity Kochi has shot down allegation that it has terminated 12 companies operating out of it as baseless and attributed it to an alleged misinformation campaign by a couple of its tenants.
In a release issued here, SmartCity Kochi said that it had not initiated any eviction process but had only issued demand notices to six of its tenants for pending dues. Lease termination notices had been served to three tenants for continued breach of agreements, it said.
The clarification was issued in the wake of a news channel report in which the chief executive of a company alleged that his company was terminated by SmartCity Kochi. “We refute such false information and confirm that the company so represented on the television news has not been served any demand/termination notice since it is no more a defaulting tenant. The reasons for an unconnected person from a tenant organisation to represent as a ‘terminated tenant’ in the media is only to tarnish the image of SmartCity Kochi before the general public for reasons best known to him,” stated SmartCity Kochi.
It further stated that one of the tenants even resorted to verbal and written abuse demeaning the officers of SmartCity Kochi, which were on record and the matter was currently before the law enforcement authorities. The tenants needed to honour the tenancy agreements and law, it said.
The company further reiterated that it being not a Government IT Park, the government’s order dated April 27 granting rent waiver and payment deferment to IT/ ITeS companies operating out of such parks was not applicable to it.
Out of the 37 current tenants, 28 had chosen to honour the tenancy agreement with a few accepting SmartCity Kochi’s offer for deferred payment of rentals, which was offered early in April. The terminated tenants were defaulters and failed to make timely payments of dues in spite of numerous opportunities provided to them. “However, SmartCity Kochi will not forcefully evict them from the premises since it is against SmartCity Kochi’s culture and ethos. If they clear their dues, they will be reinstated as tenants,” the release said.
Seven tenants had approached SmartCity Kochi for amicable settlement of unpaid rent, and some of them had even started to settle their dues, in the wake of a High Court direction in this connection, the release said. As directed, SmartCity Kochi would either adjust the unpaid rent dues from the security deposit or would accept dues from the tenants, as the case may be.
“The matter is now restricted to only four tenants and they have full clarity on the matter by way of court and government orders and should settle the dues and fulfil their obligations as per the tenancy agreements,” said SmartCity Kochi.
