Mumbai: CM Shinde steps in to halt ‘dadagiri’ of housing society committee

An independent structural audit of a Malad West CHS has raised questions on the BMCrsquos report that ordered residents to vacate the ldquodilapidatedrdquo premises immediately for demolition An inspection by Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute following Chief Minister Eknath Shindersquos intervention found that the buildings only need repairs Several residents alleged that a builder along with a handful of society officebearers got the BMC to issue the demolition notice to Ujjwal Nandadeep CHSOn January 13 P North ward office of the BMC issued a notice under Section 353 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation MMC Act to Ujjwal Nandadeep CHS Section 353 states that if the BMC feels that a building is in dangerous condition it can also ask for a structural audit at any timeOver a month later on February 17 the BMC issued another notice under Section 354 which empowers the civic commissioner to issue notice to the landlordtenantsoccupants to vacate and pull down the dilapidatedAccording to the notice the BMC declared all the 13 buildings in the society divided among four sectors named Swaroop Sanket Sankalp and Sumant as dilapidated and ordered the residents to vacate the premisesAlso Read Mumbai lsquoThey suddenly came and demolished our roomrsquoUjjwal Nandadeep CHS has 13 wings PicAnurag AhireHowever a section of the society sensed some mischief in the entire process as they believed that their building only needed repairs Of the 208 families of the society committee 130 decided to oppose the BMCrsquos C1 notice immediate evacuation and demolition and get an independent audit doneCM intervenesResidents alleged that P North ward officials refused to give them time and insisted that they vacate immediatelyldquoWe had no choice then hence we approached the chief minister At the meeting we explained to the CM the entire case and he was convinced by our stand that an independent audit was needed to ascertain whether the buildings can be repairedrdquo Rajaram Malvankar a society member saidFollowing the CMrsquos intervention the society approached the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute VJTI in March A team of experts from VJTI under the supervision of Dr Abhay Bambole conducted the structural audit on March 19VJTI audit reportTen days later residents against the demolition were on cloud nine as VJTI had contradicted the BMCrsquos order ldquoIn the report submitted by the engineering institute the buildings at Ujjwal Nandadeep CHS were tagged as C2B requires structural repairs without residents vacating the buildingrdquo Vipul Sawant another society member saidVJTIrsquos audit report prepared by Dr Bambole and Professor Sandeep Ranshur a copy of which is with midday reads ldquoService life of the building structure after repairs and rehabilitation is expected to be more than 10 years provided four points are taken care of One the building is repaired as per the repair methodology submitted two the building structure is maintained on a regular basis for routine as well as structural maintenance if any three structural audit of the building is carried out every three years and suggestions andor findings of the same are implemented with immediate effect and lastly no structural changes are made during this period without prior technical sanction from a competent authorityrdquolsquoProcess is fishyrsquoShreyas Tripathi one of the society members told midday ldquoAll of us want redevelopment However most society members are opposing the nontransparent process adopted by a section of the managing committee members who are forcing one particular builder on the residents We believe that one particular builder along with a handful of managing committee members have got the BMC to issue a C1 notice to our societyrdquoThe 130 families now plan to take the case to the Technical Advisory Committee TAC and if required to the court A case is referred to TAC in case of a dispute two different structural audit reports The TAC report is the final order which the BMC has to implement mandatorilyThe society committeeOf the 15 managing committee members four are against the procedure adopted for redevelopment and the selection of the developer Jeetu Kotpalliwar who is among the four said ldquoNo one is against redevelopment But the way the current managing committee has zeroed in on its decision of redevelopment and selection of the developer is not according to the rulebook The managing committee is flouting all rules and enforcing their decision on the rest of the committee members and even residents of the societyrdquoSurendra Chaudhari the secretary of the society however refuted the charges ldquoMore than 104 flats have already been vacated Moreover those opposing the C1 notice had even approached the high court which dismissed their plea They deliberately misled the CM by not briefing him about the HC order They are misleading the local politicians as well to put pressure on the BMC and delay the processldquoSlabs of several flats have collapsed which posed a severe threat to the residents Hence a decision was made for the redevelopment of the society and accordingly selection of the developer was done by inviting tenders The allegations that proper procedure was not followed and the decision was being forced upon the residents are false and made out of angst Even after proper orders from the BMC and the HC the work is pending due to political pressurerdquo Chaudhari told middayThe secretary claimed that many of those opposing the redevelopment have not been paying maintenance regularly Despite repeated attempts officials from the P North ward were unavailable for comment