The tenants of 60-year-old Firdaus Manzil, an old ground-plus-one structure in a lane near Vakola Masjid in Santacruz (E), which comes under H/East ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), are locked in a legal battle with the landlord as well as the civic authority over the condition of their building. While the BMC issued them a notice under C1 category, which states that the structure is dangerous for the residents to stay in and needs to be vacated, the residents have claimed that their building is repairable and need not be demolished.
What tenants say:
A tenant who has been born and raised in the building, claims that the landlord of the property is intent on demolishing the property and has not offered any space or money in exchange.
"We have lived here our entire lives and have nowhere else to go. We also conducted a structural audit, which states that the building is repairable. In fact, the matter is subjudice in the Bombay High Court, wherein the BMC’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has been accused of not taking proper samples of the building and were asked to recollect the chemical samples for a fair analysis," said the tenant, who did not wish to be named.
The Firdaus Manzil tenants had received the C1 notice in 2013, but there has been a stay in the matter by the Bombay HC, as the court had first ordered the landlord to dismantle the first floor of the structure as it was in a dilapidated condition and then repair the ground floor, but amid the legal battle, it has been stayed.
Despite attempts, the landlord of the property could not be reached for comment.
Another tenant of the building, Manoj Taggar said, "There is another ongoing title battle with the landlord, since the last 20 years, as the original landlord of the property had shifted to Pakistan during the partition, after which the property has been declared as the collector's land. The landlord, however, has been challenging that and the case has been getting dates for 20 years, only to get no result."
What the local corporator says:
The local corporator of Santacruz (E), Rafique Shaikh, said that he is ready to fight from either side, only until the tenants are given a certificate of property and given their rightful share of what they are owed. "According to the rules, if a developer is approaching them, he should give the tenants a certificate that they will be given what they deserve and should not be cheated. There should be a proper trail of documents to ensure there is no misleading information," added Shaikh.
When The Free Press Journal tried contacting the Assistant Municipal Commissioner of H/East ward Alka Sasane, she was unavailable for comment.
