Tenants have no insurance against LIC’s bldgs

Owning 140-odd buildings located between south and central Mumbai the corporation, which provides insurance against death and disease, is one of the city’s biggest landlords. Tenants’ groups allege that it has been acting indifferent towards demands for repairs and whimsical while revising rent. Some claim that the LIC is trying to evict some tenants toaccommodate its own employees.

Pointed out Ranjit Madhavji, founder president of Public Premises Tenant’s Welfare Recreation Association (PPTWRA), the LIC was making a `mockery’ of guidelines issued by the Urban Development Ministry in 1992, which forbid the use of provisions of the Public Premises Act, 1971 (PPA) for a `commercial motive or to secure vacant possession of the premise in order to accommodate their own employees.’

After the nationalisation of the insurance sector in 1956, the LIC took over the buildings, many built before 1940. The lot also included buildings previously owned or built by private insurance companies. Ever since little has been done to maintain these structures. According to a tenant, permission for minor repairs or changes even within the house takes months or even years to be cleared.

Residents of Oval View building, for instance, had repeatedly drawn the corporation’s attention to the building’s poor condition but to no avail. The RCC reinforcements, pipes and walls areshowing signs of advanced corrosion.

However, point out tenants, the estate department officials are prompt in issuing clearance when a `non-refundable deposit’ is paid. To install an air-conditioner or a new window, for instance, LIC estate department officials allegedly demand a minimum sum of Rs 10,000 while for structural repairs, a tenant has to cough up Rs 20,000.

Tenants also severely criticised LIC’s periodic revision of rents, which is subject to an additional revision by 25 per cent every three years. The LIC has increased rents at whim, ranging from 700 per cent to 1,600 per cent. A resident of an LIC-owned building at Churchgate, for instance, was issued a letter in December 1997 stating that from January 1998 the rise in his rent would be from “Rs 302 to Rs 2,320 and will be revised at 25 per cent compound interest every three years.”

The arbitrariness is found in revision of rents too. A tenant of Bhatia Bhuwan, Dadar, has paid basic rents revised three times between August 1997 and July1998. The original Rs 50.35 rose to Rs 469.33 in January 1998, then slipped back to Rs 181 in July this year.

The LIC has justified this hike claiming that its rentals are low in a city whose rental rates rank among the highest in the world. S K Sakhuja, LIC Regional Manager (Estate & Office Services), said the corporation was “only following its corporate policy.” Claiming to be abiding by the PPA, he refused to comment further as he “had only recently joined office.”

The LIC, a corporation that boasts of a life fund of over Rs one lakh crore, does not think it necessary to contribute towards building repairs and maintenance. “The building inspectors are worse than the Gestapo,” says Ramesh Chavan, a tenant. “They enter the flats only in the afternoons when women are alone at home and bully their way into checking the premises.”Minister of State for Housing Raj Purohit said the LIC practises `double standards’ and warned that the state government would not hesitate to intervene on behalf of thetenants. “As tenants, the LIC is fully protected by the provisions of the Bombay Rent Act, but when it comes to being landlords, it throws its weight around,” he added.

In a recent meeting between the PPTWRA, LIC representatives and the minister, tenants had apprised Purohit of the LIC officials’ high-handedness. In the minister’s presence, the two regional managers including Sakhuja and the estate department official were at a loss for words answering the allegations. The minister asked the LIC officials to provide valid answers to its tenants’ queries before August 13.

“There should be no injustice to tenants who come under the PPA. It is the duty of the landlord to carry out the maintenance work,” Purohit told Express Newsline. Moreover, he added, while deciding on any increase in rent, LIC, as landlords, are bound by the provisions of the Rent Control Act.“When other public sector units have accepted the guidelines to the PPA, why doesn’t the LIC?” asked Madhavji. And even as LIC officers seemhardpressed for answers, LIC tenants wonder when missing overhead water tanks, poor electricity supply and missing doors and windows to their bathrooms and toilets will be the exception, rather than `policy’.