Major collapses in LIC-owned properties cause injuries, lakhs in damages

In the past two months five buildings owned by the Life Insurance Corporation of India LIC have reported major slab and ceiling collapses leaving many residents injured causing property damage estimated to be worth several lakhs and raising serious questions over accountability safety and the prolonged impact of legal delays on urban housingIn response the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA has begun issuing general vacation notices to the occupants of these buildings ldquoConsidering that the Bombay High Court is looking into MHADArsquos authority to declare buildings being unsafe we do not even know if MHADA has the authority even to send these vacation noticesrdquo said Mukesh Shah general secretary LIC Tenants and Occupants Welfare Association LTOWAThe spot where Dadar East resident Uday Patil was sitting when the ceiling slab fell on his headFurthermore in a move that has alarmed the residents even more MHADA has formally written to LIC stating that it will not be held responsible for any loss of life or property resulting from structural failures in these buildings By doing so the authority has made it clear that its hands are tied due to ongoing legal constraints According to the residents and activists the worsening condition of these ageing structures is a result of the Bombay High Courtrsquos July stay order on Section 79A and 79B notices issued by the MHADAMajor hurdlesActivist Jitendra Ghadge said ldquoLIC and the landlords of nearly 15000 cessed buildings stand to benefit from redevelopment under Section 79A Unfortunately many landlords demand an inflated share of the profits while tenants are legally entitled to only 350500 sq ft leading to serious disputes during the redevelopment process There is absolutely no regulation over the landlordsrsquo expectationsUday Patil a 78yearold who sustained head and shoulder injuries following a ceiling collapse right Chaitali Tarkar resident of Mandodari Building at Grant Road where a slab collapsed on Nov 29Meanwhile the 79B mechanism mdash the only real solution to this crisis mdash remains pending before the Supreme Court It is high time the government urgently took up the matter in the Supreme Court before more lives are lost to collapsing buildingsrdquo The 79A and 79B notices are meant to declare buildings unsafe or unfit for habitation and pave the way for repair eviction or redevelopment With the stay order in place MHADArsquos powers to enforce urgent structural action have effectively been curtailedLIC unwillingOn the other hand despite several complaints and requests made by the residents of these 68 LIC buildings dotting South and Central Mumbai LIC hasnrsquot agreed to redevelop any of these buildings to date This has created an unprecedented situation where responsibility appears to have fallen through the cracks While MHADA cites the high courtrsquos stay order as the reason for its inaction LIC mdash the owner of the buildings mdash has shown little willingness to either redevelop or undertake comprehensive structural repairsPawan Vaishya Dadar resident whose family narrowly missed being injured two months agoldquoThe only way to protect residents now is to start redevelopment without delay Human life is more important than anything else LIC must act immediately and place peoplersquos safety above property and procedurerdquo demanded Shah LIC Regional Manager Barun Kumar Khan with whom the LTOWA is in touch over this issue did not answer several calls made by middayOngoing nightmareThe consequences of this bureaucratic deadlock are being borne entirely by residents many of whom live in constant fear for their safety Residents allege that despite repeated complaints and warnings only temporary patchwork or no repairs at all are being carried out Banoshri Shah a resident of Jiwa Devshi Niwas building in Dadar West suffered a leg injury after the ceiling of her house collapsed while she was cooking with her daughter on the night of November 27ldquoAfter the incident happened MHADA officials visited the site around 1145 pm and carried out temporary fixing and propping work Debris was also removed by them Right now we are staying in the same house as we do not have any other alternative But we must shift soon as my daughter mdashwho also faced severe shoulder injury which had rendered her unconscious due to shock mdash is scared to live in the same house now She is just 19 and living here every day has become a form of mental torturerdquo she saidPawan Vaishya another resident of Jiwa Devshi Niwas said ldquoTwo months ago on the day our newborn daughter was discharged from the hospital the ceiling of our flat and a slab collapsed just an hour before we were to return home from the facility Some of the debris weighed 10 to 12 kg Are the officials waiting for all of us to die before they take cognisance and start redevelopment work I would have lost my baby She was just 16 days old on the day this incident happened We all would have died We continue to live in the same house even today with our lives in our hands because we do not have any alternate home and neither do we earn so much that we can rent a house in this areardquoSamrudhi Patil a resident of Minerva Mansion of Dadar East recalled an incident where the ceiling of her home collapsed on her 78yearold fatherinlaw Uday Patil ldquoMy fatherinlaw was seated on a chair when suddenly plaster fell on his head and shoulder We had to immediately rush him to the hospital and he had a scratch on his head that was bleeding The doctors had then told us that it was a close shave especially considering his age We are living in this house despite this because we do not have any other option If either of the authorities takes responsibility for redeveloping our buildings and helps with transit homes then we can live a safe liferdquo she saidChaitali Tarkar a resident of Mandodari Building at Grant Road said ldquoWhen the flooring of my room sank by four inches we wrote many letters to the LIC and MHADA requesting them to at least allow us to get it repaired While MHADA stated that they do not have any authority LIC officials kept us hanging by just giving verbal assurances They did come and inspect our house but nothing happened after that Now that another slab of our building has collapsed the LIC is claiming that they have started the redevelopment process But no official communication has reached us which means that they are blatantly lyingrdquoWhy is MHADA involvedThese buildings which came under the Pagadi system were acquired by LIC around 1956 Since 1976 the occupants of these buildings have been paying a cess fee to MHADA Thus the latter is responsible for the upkeep of these buildings allowing it to send vacation notices to those occupying cessed buildings Pagdi cess properties come under the direct control of MHADA The occupants pay a cess for MHADA to carry out repairs All these LIC buildings have been repaired at least five times by MHADA which has clearly stated that these aged structures cannot be fixed furtherThe five spots where collapses happened over two monthsgtgt Mandodari Building Badam Wadi VP Road Grant Roadgtgt Angrewadi Sikka Nagar Girgaongtgt 225 Minerva Mansion Dadar Eastgtgt Fourth floor Jiwa Devshi Niwas Indian Mercantile Building Dadar Westgtgt First floor Dr Marshekar Child Clinic Jiwa Devshi Niwas Dadar Westgtgt Bhatia Bhavan Shivaji Park Dadar West