MMRDA-agent-politico nexus: Touts use RTI to usurp Mumbai woman's property

The familiar housing scam keeps reinventing itself to rob citizens of their rights This one pits an Andheri resident against an MMRDAagentpolitico nexusu00a0If one allows his or her home or shop to be demolished so thata road a bridge or a flyover is constructed then in return they expect that the government would give them a home That is what the government also does but sadly the homes arenrsquot going to those who actually deserve to get itu00a0 When the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA undertakes major infrastructure projects like the Metro or road building work it must clear the route of all installationsu00a0If a house or a shop falls in the way and needs to be razed theowner is compensated with a comparable property elsewhere In 2004 a year before laying the Sahar Cargo Road in Andheri the MMRDA had to demolish a shop in Parsiwada The property belonged to one Tony Drsquosouza Tony had passed away four years ago at age 60 and his daughter Emina Drsquosouza was the legal heir to the propertyu00a0 The authority asked her to submit documents proving her ownership of the shop since before 1995 so it could offer her an alternate property Emina handed in the paperwork and the shop was flattened in 2005 Eight years later she still hasnrsquot got the 225 sq ft residential space she was promised in lieu of the shop This case however isnrsquot about the usually bureaucratic apathy It gets murkier It seems that the MMRDA had in fact issued a provisional allotment letter to the Drsquosouzas in November 2010 duly signed by the metropolitan deputy collector But Emina wasnrsquot aware the allotment had been made until we told her Faking it Suspiciously enough the photo on the letter is neither Eminarsquos nor Tonyrsquos Instead therersquos the picture of a young man who appears to be in his early 30s ldquoItrsquos a bogus allotment letter Such things are commonplace in this traderdquo said a senior MMRDA officer in the land department filling us in on what may have gone downIn this case Tony had been dead and Emina had stopped following up with the MMRDA She said that she had received a phone call about the house some time back but nothing came of it It was only after we informed her that she came to know of the allotment made in her name ldquoA while ago some people had called us and taken some details but they never turned up or did anything further I havenrsquot got any allotment letter till nowrdquo said Emina who has now moved from Andheri East to Kandivli with her family Ghost house Building number 9 in Poonam Nagar in MMRDA Colony where the Drsquosouzas were allegedly allotted a new flat According to the allotment letter the Drsquosouza family had been given room no 12 in building no 9 of Poonam Nagar in MMRDAColony When MiD DAY visited the building we found a lock on the door of room 12 The watchman said ldquoNo onersquos ever stayed here since the time the building was constructedrdquo This reporter went and met MMRDA deputy collector A N Kargutkar who had signed the allotment letter Asked if it was his signature on the letter with MMRDA letterhead he chose to keep mum and asked us to approach his senior Vishram Patil head of the department of rehabilitation Patil claimed that it was a bogus letter ldquoIf someone files a complaint I would look into the matterrdquo he said adding that he had received such complaints before So if the houses are empty what do the agents do with them A senior officer claimed that agents work in tandem with local politicians and public officials to sell off these homes for a price cheaper than the market rate Many of MMRDArsquos properties meant for projectaffected people have been sold at Rs 1015 lakh and now Rs 2225 lakh the official said No proper survey He said such things come to pass because the properties arenrsquot surveyed and audited properly ldquoThis is a mere example There are thousands of such cases where MMRDA homes have been misused There hasnrsquot been a proper survey for the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Projects MUIP unlike the MUTP transport projects where the World Bank has been involved And because of these loopholes the homes meant for eligible people are routinely misusedrdquou00a0