After The Free Press Journal (FPJ) broke the story of residents’ protest against malpractices and corruption prevalent in the offices of the registrar of cooperative housing societies in Mumbai on November 28, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is reported to have taken cognisance and is all set to invite them for a meeting after the ongoing Nagpur session of the state legislature.
The protestors have been informed by the Shinde faction’s chief coordinator, cooperative cell, Hemant Khandekar that as a fallout of the FPJ report and their protest, a meeting with the chief minister will soon be organised for them to put forward their complaints.
Request for citizen’s durbar
The Residents’ Forum is requesting a citizen’s durbar with the chief minister where they can in a formalised and structured manner submit a ward-wise list of complaints.
“We want the registrar or deputy registrar responsible for each ward to be present and solve the issues in a transparent and fair manner. Our demand also includes timely stipulated action,” Shailesh Sansare, one of the key participants, told FPJ.
"Loopholes in cooperative housing society laws"
Residents will also be raising the issue of how the cooperative housing society laws have too many loopholes with power and authority being invested in the managing committees of the societies. “We want this to be corrected,” a member participant said.
With the movement growing and gaining fast momentum aggrieved residents have now collectively organised themselves under the umbrella name: Facc Mah (Fight Against Cooperation Corruption, Maharashtra).
A twitter handle @Facc Mah has been created for aggrieved citizens to follow and join the movement. A Youtube group invite and QR Code has been issued across Mumbai. Very soon the group which has organically grown from 50 participants to over 350 (still growing) will be launching a hashtag campaign #DaamDoOrderLo (Daam Do Order Lo), Saagarica Rane, an IT professional handling the social media campaign said.
According to Reshama Chakraborty, the movement is spreading to places outside Mumbai. “We are getting requests from residents of Pune, Kalyan, Nasik among other places. As of now we are focussing on Mumbai only” she said.
WhatsApp group
A WhatsApp group has been set up for participants to join and a ward wise decentralisation is also getting structured. “We want complaints of one ward to be handled by citizens of that ward. We are trying to make residents independent. As of now P, K, N, E, R, MHADA and Thane District wards are ready with their list of complaints and group formation” , Shashi Vadana Shetty, another participant who is overseeing this ward wise groups formation said.
