Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Wednesday,
March 08, 2017.
The issue
brought to light by social activist Kamlakar Shenoy last year.
Ravindra
Waikar, minister of state for housing, has announced a probe by Special
Investigation Team (SIT) into the issue of builders not giving nearly 5,0000
flats to Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) admeasuring
nearly 1.25 lakh square meters and worth more than Rs 6,000 crore.
Waikar made
the announcement while replying to a question raised by BJP’s city unit
president and legislator Ashish Shelar in the assembly on Tuesday.
“Only in 33
cases approximately 1,250 flats admesuring 31,319 sq.mt were handed over
to MHADA by builders. In rest of the cases, these flats were sold in open
markets.
“The SIT will
not only probe private builders, but also MHADA officials whose mistakes of
commission and omission resulted in such a huge loss to the agency.” MHADA,
said Waikar, would withdraw permission for redeveloping cessed building in
which builders have not been able to carry out redevelopment for more than 10
years.
The issue,
which was brought to light by social activist Kamlakar Shenoy through an RTI,
was first reported by Mirror in August last year. Last week this newspaper also
wrote about a PIL filed by Shenoy in Bombay high court demanding FIR against
MHADA officials and builders. Following the petition, the court has has asked
Director General of Police (Anti-Corruption), Mumbai’s Police Commissioner and
housing secretary of state government to file their response their responses by
14th of this month.
The cessed
buildings are those structures that were built in the first half of the last
century. Rents in the buildings are protected under Rent Control Act. As rents
were frozen, owners lost interest in maintaining these buildings. Subsequently,
these buildings were handed over to MHADA for repairs and maintenance, and in
return, MHADA collects cess on rent from tenants of these buildings.