Apropos the article captioned “A Tale of unauthorized occupancy – Mumbai” by Vivekanand Gupta, I feel the horrendous picture of rampant unauthorized occupancy, be it in slums or be it in multi-storeyed buildings / towers, it only demonstrates the unholy alliance between the selfish politicians, smart bureaucrats & unscrupulous builders.
In this dirty game the slum-dwellers or the homebuyers are often held as helpless hostages and then after some time the some reliefs are announced to protect these slum-dwellers or homebuyers. However, in the bargain the guilty builders, smart & corrupt bureaucrats and shameless politicians who mint money by providing political asylum to this fraud builders go totally scot-free.
In fact, the politicians in power win laurels from the affected public who are saved from facing eviction. Such a picture, unfortunately pinches no body in the society and thus the business of unauthorized constructions flourishes unabated, years after years and decades after decades making total m mockery of the town planning.
In Kalyan Dombivali, the builders had the courage to use fake KDMC approvals to register their various projects with MahaRERA for 65 buildings covering more than a few thousand families. But no action against any KDMC officials or MahaRERA officials or any local politicians. The High Court ruthlessly directs demolition of these buildings in which people
have been staying for more than five or six years after paying full price to the builders and registering their agreements for sale. Why could not these buildings be regularized? Was the demolition of these buildings inevitable and unavoidable? What action has been taken by the Government against KDMC officials who allowed for these 65 buildings to come up in day
light without their own approvals/sanctions? The same stories prevail in Thane, Vasai-Virar.
Only providing the relief to the occupants in some cases does not help addressing the main issue of unholy alliance of the trio of politicians, bureaucrats & builders. Even while providing relief to the homebuyers staying in buildings/societies without OC, it must be remembered that Municipal authorities have been merrily collecting extra water
charges and extra property taxes from residents of these buildings. The builders in such cases go scot free, no action against them. In the regularization schemes, the residents/societies are required to pay penalties and also premium to municipal authorities.
And this premium is also at the current Ready Reckoner rate! And to show that the Government is doing a favour, it is made 50 % of the Ready Reckoner Rate. But why current Ready Reckoner rate? Why can’t it be the Ready Reckoner rate prevailing in the year when the
buildings came to be occupied? And the most pertinent question – What action is being taken by the Government against these fraud builders who have defrauded and cheated the honest homebuyers and the municipal authorities? Total Amnesty for them? Kis Khushime, Bhau?
(Adv. Shirish V. Deshpande is Chairman – Mumbai Grahak Panchayat)
