Sub-letting hurts MHADA

June 12: For years now, tenants of a transit tenement in Ghatkopar have been paying their rents to local organisations like cricket clubs a...

June 12: For years now, tenants of a transit tenement in Ghatkopar have been paying their rents to local organisations like cricket clubs and yuva mandals, instead of its rightful owners, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA.

MHADA officials on their rent-collection rounds, have either been hooted out, or bought. And this is not the only case where the Repairs Board of MHADA has lost out on its revenue.

Scores of residents in many such tenements refuse to pay their paltry Rs 200 rent. As if this were not enough, there are around 1,400 trespassers, who have illegally occupied these structures. It is estimated that a sum of Rs 50 lakh is yet to be collected as rent by MHADA officials.

8220;It is true that there is rampant corruption in MHADA, though much of it has been brought under control now,8221; says the chairman of the Repair Board, Madhukar Chavan. After taking on as the head of the Board last year, Chavan has been instrumental in transferring corrupt officers and bringing in the much needed funds to the agency. Till last month, the agency has been able to collect almost 40 per cent of the pending rents, while a cumulative sum of Rs 50 lakh still remains.

In another unpopular move, MHADA has decided to forcibly remove tenants who are living illegally after having either forced their way in or as sub-tenants of legal tenants. 8220;I don8217;t think we can care much for such people on humanitarian grounds. I am losing precious rent,8221; says Chavan, adding that he would be continuing with forcible evictions despite the monsoon. Chavan claims that he has been able to drive out 1,000 trespassers from these tenements.

The Repair Board of MHADA has 42 transit camps in the city with a total of 20,000 tenements. It receives about Rs 35 crore as repair cess from the state government and an additional Rs 12 8211; 15 crore as assistance. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC gives the MHADA around Rs 3.6 crore as rent from its tenements, while around Rs 5 to 6 lakh accrues from buildings belonging to the repair board which have been reconstructed. The Board has reconstructed 400 buildings since its establishment and has a total of 19,000 buildings in the city.

Speaking about the need of transit camps to the city in the wake of the Slum Redevelopment scheme where slum dwellers have to be shifted to transit locations as their buildings are built, Chavan quoted the Afzalpurkar committee report on the scheme and said that one lakh tenements were required for it. 8220;While it would be difficult to construct that many, MHADA has given a total of 2700 tenements, of which 1500 belong to MHADA and 1200 belong to the tenements constructed under the Prime Ministers Grant Project PMGP.

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MHADA8217;s plans to have 10,000 more tenements is at present embroiled in a controversy with the state government deciding to award B G Shirke amp; Co a contract to build 5000 tenements at the Turbhe-Mandala area of Mankhurd. The deal, approved despite stiff opposition from MHADA officials and Chavan himself, will lead to a burden of Rs 200 crore on the agency and an annual expenditure of Rs 3.5 crore on the maintenance of the structures. 8220;While we shall be collecting rent of around Rs 200 to Rs 300 from the tenants, we shall have to spend about Rs 600 to Rs 700 per month on each tenement for its maintenance,8221; said a MHADA official.