Mumbai: Babul Supriyo accused of misusing common area of Andheri society

As he gears up to contest the West Bengal polls there is simmering anger against singerturnedpolitician Babul Supriyo over 2000 km away The BJP MP who is the chairman of a housing society in Andheri faces allegations of misusing the common areaThe alleged violations in the stilt parking area of Orchid Tower Members say the managing committee has passed illegal resolutions to convert its status PicsSatej ShindeFollowing complaints by members of sixstorey Orchid Tower located in Yamuna Nagar the BMC has issued notices to the managing committee to explain alleged illegalities on the society premisesDespite repeated attempts Supriyo could not be reachedAnuradha Majumdar a resident said ldquoThe managing committee has illegally occupied car parking space and covered it with collapsible gates and grills to use them for commercial storage and sleeping areas for their servants We had opposed this by approaching the BMC as well as the Registrar of Coop Housing Society What is surprising is that our chairman is Mr Babul SupriyordquoThe members say the alleged unauthorised construction has been there for over a decade and they have to park their cars elsewhere They said they have pooled in about Rs 1 crore to renovate the building but the converted parking slots continue to remain as eyesoresldquoFor how long can we live like thisrdquo said Manish Goenka treasurer of the society ldquoHe Supriyo is aware of the situation I met with him in October 2020hellipbut after realising that it was nothing but small talk we members approached the Registrar and BMCrdquoThe members held a special body meeting on December 6 and passed a resolution to reverse the managing committeersquos earlier decision to use the stilt parking for other purposes said GoenkaThe BMC on December 16 wrote to the secretary and chairman saying ldquoOn site inspection it is observed that many of the stilt parkings have been covered by grills jali and converted as garage and storage without approval from any competent authorityrdquo It asked the society to ldquorestore the stilt parking as per the approved plan within 15 daysrdquoOn February 6 the civic body told the managing committee that it had violated the MCGM Act It again wrote on March 6 saying if the society failed to respond in 15 days the unauthorized structures would be removed and the cost would be recovered from the societyThe order also said that the secretary and chairman were ldquoliable to be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three months but which may extend up to three yearsrdquo apart from a maximum fine of up to Rs 50000ldquoThere is always a third party person present in the society compound We donrsquot know who these people arerdquo said Goenka ldquoThe chairman and secretary have multiple stilts to their names that were gained through the passing of illegal resolutions They have grabbed these stilts much like the land mafia and now refuse to give it backrdquo added GoenkaSociety secretary Sukhpreet Singh called it an internal matter ldquoIt is not a very important matter that needs to be told or written about A proper reply has been given on the matter in court We have already taken appropriate actionhellipthe competent authorities have been informed and are doing the needfulrdquo About using the parking for storage Singh said ldquoIt has been passed in the AGM not once but twicerdquo