Tenants of 935 cessed buildings whose redevelopment was stayed are hopeful

Implementing a Bombay High Court order staying the issuance of 79A and B notices served to the owners of several buildings the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA office between November 7 and 20 heard the submissions of landlords and tenants whose redevelopment is being stalled because of the courtrsquos directionsThe backgroundHearing a matter where some tenants had filed a complaint stating that the notices given during the monsoon inspections to identify dilapidated buildings were not as per rules and were in some cases given by engineers who did not even belong to the respective ward the court had then put a blanket stay on all notices served ldquoThis stay was brought in without considering if any of these landlords and tenants were willing to go ahead with the redevelopment or making it a fair deal for us said Dinesh Loke a resident of Kondaji Chawl project number one which includes building no 1 2 3 and 5 His hearing was held on November 17The HC had thus directed that meetings be conducted and a report be submitted The hearings of landlords and tenants of the 935 cessed buildings concluded on Thursday at the MHADA office in BandraThe hearingsThe landlords of 500odd buildings out of the 935 buildings mdash the redevelopment of which had been stayed by the court in July which had stated that MHADAs executive engineers had issued notices declaring the buildings as dilapidated and dangerous for habitation without jurisdiction as they had vested interests in the properties mdash were heard between November 7 and 12 Further the tenants of the same buildings were called for hearings between November 14 and 20ldquoWe were asked for details such as whether our respective buildings had the required consent from the tenants if our landlord had given consent for redevelopment and if we had zeroed down on any developer Those tenants who had difficulties expressed their concerns while the rest of us stated that we had everyonersquos consent including our landlordsrdquo said LokeFurther Jitendra Ghadge a resident of Parekh Building one of 46 buildings the notices of which were revoked after HCs stay order who had his hearing on November 14 told midday ldquoWhile the committee is rightly advising tenants of dangerous buildings to vacate and shift to MHADArsquos alternate accommodation the harsh reality is that MHADA simply does not have enough transit homes to house thousands of affected families In such a situation the most practical and humane solution is to allow tenants to undertake redevelopment under Section 79B when landlords refuse to cooperate mdash before the building collapses and lives are needlessly lostrdquoMeanwhile a report containing the statements of landlords and tenants will be submitted to the high court in the coming week ldquoWe just hope that at least we who have already given consent for redeveloping our buildings and also have landlordsrsquo support for the same get justice and our redevelopment begins soonrdquo said Loke