Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Thursday,
June 13, 2013.
Christian,
Muslim occupants of Khar's Aman building ask whether their sense of ccomunal
harmony was just a pipe dream.
The name
'Aman' is a nice fit for this building on 5th Khar Road it has had a Hindu, a
Muslim and a Christian family occupying its first two floors for many years.
But information gathered by the building's owner from the local civic office
this week has shown that the sense of communal amity may have been superficial.
Documents
procured by the owner Ayub Khan this week under the Right to Information Act
have revealed that the family of Chogmal Jain who occupy the ground floor along
with a Christian household got a separate water line sanctioned by the
municipal corporation for their flat because they did not want their water
coming from the same source as that of their Muslim and Christian neighbours.
While Jain on
Wednesday claimed his faith had nothing to do with his dedicated water line,
the then engineer with the water department in H West ward clearly mentioned
"religious reasons" in his two-page sanction note. "The owner of
the premises has extended the connection to a suction tank. The tenant is not
getting water through a direct line due to extension of water connection to the
tank. The applicant (Jain) is not ready to accept its (tank's) supply due to
religious reasons," says the note.
Aman building
was constructed in the 40s. It was a ground-plus-one structure with Jains and
the Christain family occupying the ground floor, while the Khans occupied the
first floor. The three houses had two water lines one for the Khans and other
for the occupants of the ground floor. The line for the ground floor was split
into two sub-lines carrying water directly to the two houses.
In the 80s,
Khan added two floors to the building and sold four new flats on these floors.
With number of occupants in the building rising, he decided to construct water
storage tanks on the ground floor and the terrace. The two lines which were
earlier carried water into the flats directly, were diverted to the tanks.
The Jains,
however, were not comfortable with this arrangement. A compromise was arrived
at and an outlet was created from the new BMC line coming into the building
before it reached the two storage tanks. A pipe was attached to this outlet to
supply water to the Jains.
But there was
a problem - since the storage tanks had booster pumps and rapidly pulled in
water, the Jains on most days had to do with a trickle.
Chogmal Jain
applied for a separate line first in 1999 and then again in 2002. The sanction
came in 2003. Khan claims he was not informed about this and the BMC did not seek
his clearance before accepting the Jains' request. "We wrote several
letters to the BMC to find out how the line was sanctioned without clearance
from my side. The civic body should have obtained an NOC from us before giving
the new line," said Khan.
After his
queries were ignored, Khan used the RTI to seek all documents and
correspondence pertaining to the new connection. Last week, the papers were
handed over to him. What the papers revealed was a big blow to the building's
Amar-Akbar-Anthony story. "It has come as a huge shock to us that a family
that has been living with us for around 70 years has had a problem drinking
water from the same tank as ours," said Khan.
Jain,
however, maintains that he sought a new connection because he wasn't getting
adequate water. "We have always had a direct line supplying fresh water to
our house. All of a sudden the owners diverted that line to the tank as a
result of which we had to suffer. We did not want to take water from the tanks
as we were used to fresh water supply from BMC's direct line. Moreover, we were
worried that the tanks were being controlled by the owner and they would harass
us for water. Hence we applied for a separate line."
He also
denied applying for the connection on religious grounds. "I don't know why
the engineer sanctioned the line on grounds of religion."
.JPG)
.JPG)
