Times of India: Mumbai: Sunday,
March 30, 2014.
The managing
committee of a housing society in Bandra has issued expulsion notice to one of
its member citing filing of RTI applications as one of the reasons.
The
96-year-old Salsette CHS, which has 210 plot owners as its members, in the tony
Bandra (W) has issued an expulsion notice to Leslie Almeida, a member of the
society. Almeida was a served a show-cause notice on February 10, asking why he
should not be expelled for his various misdemeanors, including filing 54
applications under the Right to Information Act. He has been seeking
information about various buildings that are members of the society.
A special
general body meeting of the society has been called on Sunday evening to decide
on the matter. Cornel Gonsalves, secretary, Salsette CHS, said there are
several other serious charges against Almeida. The notice also states that in
2009, when a similar threat of expulsion had been made, Almeida had issued an
unconditional apology but since he did not mend his ways, it was once again
forced to consider his expulsion. However, Almeida claimed he had given the
apology under duress.
The society,
said Gonsalves, had been unnecessarily dragged into an almost decade-long
property dispute between Almeida and his brother Dr Selwyn. "We and the
deputy registrar are being unnecessarily harassed. We have built up as many as
15 files on this plot dispute," he said. Dr Selwyn is a member of the managing
committee.
Almeida,
however, said he had used RTI to expose various illegalities in Bandra and in
the Salsette society.
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