Will Fadnavis government show sufficient political will ensure that all dilapidated buildings in Mumbai are vacated and redeveloped in a timebound manner? This question looms large even as the death toll in Husaini building collapse reached 34 on Friday morning.
While the opposition has squarely blamed Maharashtra government, BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) for the building collapse, the fact remains that way back in 2011, the BMC had declared this building unsafe for occupation. The building was included in Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust's redevelopment project and seven families were shifted out of the building in 2014. MHADA too had twice sent notices to residents, stating that the 117-year-old building was in a totally dilapidated condition.
Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust, in a press communique, pointed out that MHADA had sent two notices to the building. "The notices were sent in March 28, 2011 and May 20, 2011 along with an offer of transit accommodation to the tenants and occupants. The ground plus six storey building housed a total of 13 tenants, including 12 residential and one commercial. Of these, the trust had already shifted seven families in 2013-14," said the communique issued by the trust.
Mumbai NCP president and former minister of state for housing Sachin Ahir has blamed Housing Minister Prakash Mehta for the building collapse. Ahir, who handled housing portfolio in the Congress-NCP government, said the housing minister has all the powers under Section 95 A to make sure that a dilapidated building must be vacated so that there is no harm to life in any untoward incident.
Mehta clearly failed to take action here, stated Ahir. He felt that the issue of dilapidated buildings in Mumbai is so grave that the state government should come out with a white paper on measures it intends to take.
There are over 15,000 dilapidated buildings in Mumbai and nearly 14,000 of them have been constructed before 1940. The families living in these buildings often refuse to shift to transit camps as they are located in far-flung areas in the outskirts of Mumbai. Another reason is that redevelopment takes a lot of time and owners of the buildings or land often don't have enough money to do it by themselves. They in turn hope for some big builder to approach them. Given the pace of redevelopment, tenants fear that they may never return to their original place of residence in south Mumbai.
Mehta stated on Thursday that the state government will start the process of vacating all dilapidated buildings in a week. But he did not say anything beyond that. His deputy and Shiv Sena minister Ravindra Waikar, however, has suggested a timebound action plan for the problem of dilapidated buildings in Mumbai.
"I have already explained this on the floor of state legislature. There are three ways we can tackle the situation. The government must make it mandatory for the owner of the land that he must finalise redevelopment contract within three months of the building receiving a notice from MHADA that the structure is dilapidated. If the owner fails to do it, the government should allow the tenants to bring in a developer and develop the building and then share upto 20 per cent profit with the original owner of the building. If both of these options fail, the the government should move in and hand over the building to MHADA for a timebound redevelopment," Waikar told THE WEEK.
