Dear Editor,

We are seniors and tenants of Bai Khorshed Banu Sanjana Parsi Trust Building, located at Tardeo Forjett Street, Dinanath Mangeshkar road. Our Trust Building was sold off by Trustees Nariman Dubash and others to Safeway Projects Pvt. Ltd. (Builders and developers) in 2006, without informing the tenants.

The Building is in an extremely dilapidated condition with water leakages from terrace during monsoons, large cracks in RCC Structure of the buildings like beams, columns, ceiling, etc. This is because the previous trustees never carried out any maintenance work of the building which is more than 80 years
old!

Us tenants after coming to know about the sale of the building approached MHADA to redevelop the building under their redevelopment scheme. As such, all procedures were completed. In 2011, Safeway project approached the tenants with the redevelopment proposal on the premise that the existing building is declared beyond structural repairs and under dangerous condition under section 88(3) of MHADA and they would offer better amenities than MHADA. The tenants executed a Permanent Alternate Accommodation Agreement for redevelopment of the said property and were to be provided accommodation on “Ownership Basis”, free of cost. The tenants were also to be given Corpus, Rent towards compensation for transit accommodation till the tenants are put in possession of their new premises, area as per MHADA Rules and regulation and other amenities as per the agreement.

Subsequent to the agreement many tenants have expired and many have surrendered their rooms to the landlord (6 Tenants have surrendered at meager rates) as the condition has worsened further and is inhabitable, with some senior citizens staying in dharamshala or at their relatives’ place out of fear that the building may collapse, because even after getting NOC from MHADA, the builder is deliberately delaying redevelopment – giving excuses.

We have approached most Govt. departments and Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, Sachin Ahire for years now and though they have cooperated in many ways, it has not translated into action. We have put numerous complaints in writing to various departments and the response is extremely slow. The new owners of the building have carried out superficial and cosmetic repairs to the building after numerous complaints to MHADA, BMC and other Govt. departments. Water leakages, cracks in RCC have again developed, broken staircase, dangerous condition of the Meter Room, loose and open wires dangling with likely chances of catching fire in monsoons due to short circuit, are other difficult conditions in which we senior Parsi tenants are staying. To further harass the tenants the new owners have stopped accepting rent, when the rent Cheques are sent through Registered AD the cheques are not deposited.

We request and will be greatly obliged if Parsi Times is to publish our plight and deplorable condition in which we senior citizens are living on a daily basis.

Rustom Irani, Gulshan Dara Patel, Adi Irani, Nargish Mehta, Najoo Medhora, Jimmy Wadia and Homai Namderian