Landlords, developers and BMC officials conniving to force tenants out of their homes for decades, Gopal Shetty writes to Eknath Shinde
A dilapidated building in Borivli. When dilapidated tenanted buildings are vacated, the tenants lose their bargaining power. Representation pic
A nexus between builders, landlords and BMC officials are stalling the repairs and redevelopment of dilapidated tenanted buildings in the suburbs, BJP Member of Parliament Gopal Shetty has alleged in a letter to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Tenanted buildings are owned by private persons where residents pay a nominal rent or pagdi. While the law allows the tenants to redevelop or repair the buildings, arm-twisting tactics are deployed to dissuade them from going ahead.
In his letter to the CM, Shetty said the inhabitants of tenanted buildings do not get permission to repair their dilapidated buildings. “Landlords with the help of developers and civic officials are not allowing repair of the building. Instead, the unholy nexus is ensuring that old buildings are declared dilapidated and subsequently vacated,” Shetty wrote in the letter.
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Once forced out of their buildings after the BMC declares them dangerous, the tenants are at the mercy of their landlords or developers and lose their bargaining power. Unlike the island city, where cessed buildings can be repaired with the local area development funds of MLAs, tenanted structures in the suburbs enjoy no such cover.
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Shetty has demanded the administration ensure that the landlords and developers protect the rights of the tenants and provide alternative accommodation or rent once the inhabitants vacate the tenanted buildings. Along the lines of a Slum Rehabilitation Authority scheme, Shetty has recommended, the tenants are allowed to redevelop their buildings by paying 25 per cent of the land value to the landlord.
In 2016, the Maharashtra Assembly passed a bill to amend the BMC Act, giving tenants of dilapidated buildings the right to redevelop or repair their tenements if the landlord, builder or the civic body has delayed the work for more than a year. But it hasn’t translated into any real action, said Shetty. BJP MLA Parag Alwani had moved a private member’s bill seeking amendment in the BMC Act. After the idea was supported by all parties, the private member’s bill was withdrawn and the government introduced a bill to amend the Act.
Alwani told mid-day, “Prior to the bill, landlords had vast rights. Post amendment, tenants too got almost equal rights. But unfortunately, the act was never used by tenants to its full capacity. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, not a single dilapidated building has been pulled down and developed under the provisions of the amended act.”
This is not the first time that a public representative has levelled allegations of a nexus involving builders, landlords and civic officials. In 2011, then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had created a flutter by pointing to a similar tacit arrangement and vowed to take measures to curb the menace.
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