BMC officer bribed to declare Borivli building unsafe

After the Mumbra building collapse that killed 74 the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC issued notices to buildings that were dilapidated illegal or had undergone alterations Nearly 56000 such notices were sent but not all of the structures may actually be as dangerous MiD DAY has come upon a letter by ward officer Vijayanand Bole in which he claims that society committee members of Om Shree Gokul building in Borivli tried to bribe him to get the building declared as dilapidatedu00a0When he refused he was pressured by local politicians including the MLA and the ward committee chairman a local corporator to reconsider his decision Not so dilapidatedu00a0Om Shree Gokul building in Borivli PicAmit Jadhav The structure is located near Kora Kendra in Borivli west and was given its eviction notice on September 27 Of the 63 families 12 had refused to vacate the building stating that it was not dilapidated MiD DAY had reported about how BMC had cut off water and power supplies to force residents to leave lsquoBMC cuts water power supply to building two days before demolitionrsquo Oct 27 Bole the ward officer of RCentral ward had visited the premises and he found that the structure needed repairs but was not dilapidated He alleged that some society committee members tried bribing him twice to get it declared as a dangerous structure When he refused local MLA and the ward committee chairperson pressurised him following which he wrote a letter to his seniors in August stating that he was being put under pressure to change his decision Residents stand in front of their building in Tata Compound Andheri W PicNimesh Dave The 55yearold Bole in his letter copy with MiD DAY categorically mentioned that attempts were made to bribe him so that he declared a building dilapidated ldquoI am not someone who would do wrong I visited the building after I received complaints that it had tilted But I found that it hadnrsquot I visited every house there and found that the structure wasnrsquot dangerous but needed repairs Some members of the committee tried paying me off to get me to put the building in C1 category highly dangerous but I asked them to leave Then they brought in pressure from the politicians but I didnrsquot succumb to itrdquo said Bole Strangely even after Bolersquos letter the building was declared dangerous ldquoThe notice of eviction was issued by the Assistant Engineer after the powers were delegated to him from the higher authoritiesrdquo explained Boleu00a0Abhijeet Mhatre a resident of the building claimed that the building wasnrsquot dilapidated and they were sure that they would wintheir case soon ldquoWe have approached the competent authority and are expecting a positive answer for our problemsrdquo he saidu00a0 Meanwhile only 12 families live in the structure that was built in 1976 The residents had alleged that there was a builder who indirectly wanted them to vacate their homes and hence people were working against them The claims couldnrsquot be verified as the officer when asked he told this paper that he was never approached by any builder directly Why is it done A senior BMC official on condition of anonymity said ldquoMany a times developers want to redevelop a building and have to get it vacated But there are some residents who refuse to move out By giving them these notices of eviction using political and committee member pressure or by bribes the buildersrsquo work becomes easyrdquo The other side Bolersquos claims were refuted by Manisha Chaudhari the ward committee chairperson She says she didnrsquot pressurise the ward officer in any way Gopal Shetty the local MLA from the Bharatiya Janta Party claimed that he never pressurised any officer ldquoI think Bole wanted money from the builder to declare the building dilapidated and hence wasnrsquot ready to issue the dangerous building notice When he didnrsquot receive any he refused to declare it as dilapidated There should be a narco test done on the officer to find out the truthrdquo Manisha Mhaiskar additional commissioner BMC western suburbs to whom Bole addressed his complaint claimed she received no such letter Nisar Khan the builder in charge of the redevelopment of Om Shree Gokul Society denied having anything to do with the building being put in the dilapidated list Not the only lsquodilapidatedrsquo building gtgt In June this year buildings in Tata Compound in Andheri west were also issued evacuation notices claiming that they were dilapidated Even there residents had stated that the building only needed repairs and was not dangerous Even today the families continue to reside in the structure ldquoWe approached the court with our case and finally won The BMC carried out another structural audit and the building isnrsquot dangerous any morerdquo said Sameer Dighe a resident of the building gtgtu00a0Building no 1 in Gautam Nagar Dadar was also issued a similar notice But residents had refused to vacate the building and got a private structural audit done The report letter states that the structure needed heavy repairs but wasnrsquot dilapidated It added that after the repair work residents could stay in it for 1015 years more See story below for moreu00a0 56000 Number of notices issued by BMC to buildings that are either dilapidated or illegal