Sea dream, the building we stay in in Colaba, is one of the hundreds of cessed buildings in the city, built more than 80 years ago. My father, a retired Central government officer, has been tenant of a third-floor flat in this three-storied building for the last twenty years, and today, I along with my elderly parents, wife and two small children stay here. On the second floor is another household, and the rest of the building is taken up by two companies who combine office and guest house in the space available to them.Since the beginning of last year, the Repairs Board had been sending us several letters at regular intervals, saying that certain portions of our building were in need of urgent repairs and that the Board would not be responsible if any untoward incident occurred as a result of this. We ignored the letters for many months, because we had had a very bitter experience with the Board in the past. When the Board had once repaired our building in the past, work dragged on for more than a year,and we had to undergo many hardships.Yet the warning letters kept coming, and in November 1998 we thought it would be wrong to endanger our lives thus by not allowing the repairs to take place. So we gave the go-ahead to the Board but requested them to restrict their work to the front balconies of the building, which seemed to be in the greatest danger (the request was not heeded). With hardly any delay the work was started towards the end of November 1998. The Repairs Board was so prompt, its representatives went about their job like a demolition squad, pulling down our structure without any concern for its aesthetics or the residents' convenience. Unnerved by their haste, I forced them to show us their plan before they could continue with their work. They then produced a detailed floor plan from the engineer and architect, detailing the unsafe parts of the building and what they proposed to do. Being laypersons those plans looked pretty impressive to us and we allowed them to continue with theirwork.The demolition work progressed at a rapid rate. We were amazed at their enthusiasm, little realising that, in the process, the priceless teak beams and posts were being removed and ferried out to be sold at exorbitant prices in the market!After the demolition, the reconstruction started, but now at an extremely slow pace. In the place of the wooden pillars they erected iron ones. The first showers of rain came in the month of March 1999. Our bedrooms were soaked with water! Valuable books and furniture had to be shifted to the rear portion of the house, which was relatively dry. We too had to abandon the bedrooms and shift to the drier areas. We would every day mop up the stagnant water to prevent permanent damage to the building. Those were extremely difficult days. I had to force my elderly parents to shift to drier parts of the building to prevent them from getting ill.We sent many letters to the Repairs Board, and I would contact the contractor every other day to request him to speed thingsup. Sometime in the months of June/July 1999, the contractor came, inspected the building and said the leakage into the house was because an adjoining wooden beam was rotten and had to be replaced. We would have to pay an additional sum for that, as the replacement of the beam was beyond the purview of the Repairs Board plan! We then called a private engineer for advice. He told us that the beam in question was perfectly alright, and if we allowed the Repairs Board and their contractors to remove it and extend the work, we would be completely at their mercy. The rains would make it impossible for us to live in the house, and the Repairs Board would then blackmail us and make us part with money illegally for further repairs!We then made it clear to the contractors that, however difficult it may be for us, we just wanted them to finish their assigned work and leave us at the earliest. Unfortunately, they have done neither. They have not done any work for more than two months, nor have they cleared the dirtand debris of their earlier work. We are now left with an ugly frontage to our once beautiful, although old, building.But God has been kind to us. The rains, after the initial heavy spell, haven't really caused any major difficulties. Still, it is nearly one year since the work started! We have written several letters to both the local Repairs Board office at Cuffe Parade and also to the more senior officers at Tardeo, along with photographs, but have not received even a phone call or a letter from them! I sincerely feel the Repairs Board should be avoided like the plague!Tenants and landlords should sit together and come to a mutual understanding to maintain their buildings without the interference of the government. Tenants have to give up some of their so-called rights, so that landlords too benefit from the deal. Otherwise, precious lives will be lost, beautiful old buildings will be converted into monstrosities and all of us will be at the mercy of unscrupulous contractors with whom the RepairsBoard seems to be hand-in-glove!The buck stops hereThe island city of Mumbai has a total of 19,642 cessed buildings and most of them have been repaired by the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board (MBRRB) at least once. The MBRRB, however, counts the number of repair works it has carried out instead of the number of buildings repaired. Since its inception in 1970, the MBRRB has carried out a total of 18,355 repair works.In case a contractor defaults in keeping to the deadline or in maintaining the quality of repair work, the executive engineer (EE) of the MBRRB can initiate different types of punitive action, including penalty ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 500 per day the work is delayed by the contractor. The extreme action can be termination of contract and blacklisting of the contractor for life. Aggrieved residents in buildings under repairs can complain in writing to the EE concerned. They can also meet him in person for redressal of problems between 4 and 5 pm. Listening to thecomplaints is mandatory for the EEs.
