MUMBAI, July 25: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has intensified its crackdown on slumlords and asked the public to report those indulging in acts of forceful possession.Deputy municipal commissioner (general) Chandrashekhar Rokde issued a circular on July 21 asking citizens to provide information about slumlords. He has assured that information received will be kept confidential.Information has been sought about any person who takes illegal possession of private land or who enters into or creates illegal tenancies or leave and licence agreements. Besides, anyone who constructs unauthorised structures on such lands for sale or hire or anyone who gives such lands on rentals or on any other basis for construction or occupation should be reported, the circular said.Rokde has asked citizens to look out for instances where a person has financed those taking illegal possession of such lands or who collects rent or other charges from occupants of such lands by criminal intimidation or whoevicts or attempts to evict such occupants by force.Anyone caught abetting any of these crimes will be booked under the Maharashtra Prevention of Slumlords and Dangerous Activities Act (MPDA) 1981, Rokde has stated.Information may be given to the local police station or ward officer, ward officer (encroachments) based at the F South ward office at Parel on telephone number 411 8686 or fax number 411 2304 or the deputy municipal commissioner (general) whose office is at Bhabha Hospital Building, Bandra (W) and can be contacted on 655 2061 or fax number 655 2063.Meanwhile, corporators of all parties recently accused Mumbai police of misusing Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code to harass slumdwellers undertaking repair works on their homes. Corporators alleged the police were threatening slumdwellers with the connivance of civic mukadams and ward officers.``Routine matters of plastering one's home, repairing the roof or changing the floor invite the attention of police constables who demand bribes.Failure to pay could result in detention under Section 151,'' said Samajwadi Party corporator Mohsin Haider, adding that permission was not needed for plastering and other minor changes. Section 151 of the IPC empowers police to register a cognisable offence and detain a person for a day if he is likely to commit a breach of peace.Nationalist Congress Party's Subhash Mayekar said, ``The BMC is an administrative body. If someone does a wrong, we have penalties to punish him. The work of police is law and order. But instead of going after criminals, they are harassing law-abiding slumdwellers.'' The BJP's Rajesh Sharma said it was mainly the BMC mukadams and police beat officers who were collecting haftas and bribes from slumdwellers wishing to undertake repairs.
