Bill to amend Rent Act in Assembly

Referring to the March 31 deadline, Jain said if immediate steps were not taken to protect tenants’ interests and control the rents, there would be enormous social unrest. Justifying the meagre hike in the standard rent, he said the landlords had made enormous gains over the years by transferring tenancies, by utilising the extra FSI available to them and by the sale of developmentrights. He said many landlords had recovered their original investments in the properties several times over.

“The entire economy of the island city has developed and prospered because of the low rentals. Also, substantial parts of land owned by public and local authorities have been given on leasehold at nominal rents. As such, it would be unjustified to take into account the rise in real estate prices while computing the rents,” Jain said.

Tracing the history of the age-old Rent Control Act, he said there are three different rent control laws in force in different parts of the state. While the Bombay Rent Control Act is in operation in Western Maharashtra, different legislations exist for Vidarbha and Marathwada. The Maharashtra Rent Control Bill was introduced in 1993 with a view to enact a uniform rent act for the state.

For Congress, however, the debate was an opportunity to settle old scores. They were quick to point out that the it was the Shiv Sena which had opposed the 5 per cent hike instandard rent when it was first proposed in 1993 by the then housing minister, Chhagan Bhujbal. "Had you agreed to the hike then, we would not have faced this unfortunate situation,” said Congress leader Dilip Valse Patil. He was joined by Narsaiya Adam of JD who also blamed the ruling allinace for the present crisis.