Trader loses plot, may be fighting lost cause

MUMBAI, MAY 27: Twenty-five years is a long time for a person to pursue a dream. It is worse if the dream is his only source of income. B...

MUMBAI, MAY 27: Twenty-five years is a long time for a person to pursue a dream. It is worse if the dream is his only source of income. But when one is at the mercy of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA officials, there is no escape. No amount of judicial intervention works. That is the lesson learnt by one Habib Rehman and his wife Razia, who have been knocking at every door, including those of politicians, Bombay High Court and newspaper offices, begging that some pressure be exerted so that MHADA gives him two shops due to him after he lost his to a road-widening programme way back in 1977.

In the process, Rehman has become dependent on his children who help him hawk odd goods for a livelihood. There is discord in his house as he is viewed as a failure for not playing his cards right and for being unable to insist on and obtain what is rightfully his. What he got is a file of correspondences and promises. Today, he stands in danger of losing whatever has been promised to him.MHADA officials have backtracked on the promise of giving him two shops on a 60-feet-wide road at Dadabhai Nowroji Nagar, Andheri, for which he has already paid a rent of around Rs 1,600.

Incidentally, the letter offering him these shops was given in 1996. Rents were paid and papers of allottment received, but no pitches or shops of 225 sq feet were made available. Subsequently, on July 3, 1998, MHADA offered him two premises for free, a shop and a residence at a slum redevelopment scheme at New Sangam Nagar at the same D N Nagar in Andheri. A letter was given to him for the promoter of the project to include his name as a member of the society. To no avail. The promoter, according to him, told him the arrangement for his membership in the society had to be done by MHADA. And MHADA officials have not moved in that direction.

8220;The promoter will give him a place wherever it is possible,8221; says the land manager of MHADA, Verghese, 8220;we cannot say anything in the matter.8221; That leaves Rehman in the lurch.8220;He can always come back to us if the promoter is not giving him a place,8221; Verghese adds. What about the 25 years he has lost in seeking what is due to him? 8220;These things happen. We cannot do anything. There was no space to give these people as shops when their shops were demolished on SG Road, Kurla in 19778230; There are hundreds of others who have not got their shops like him,8221; the MHADA official said.

Having lost his shop for a city project, Rehman now finds himself at the mercy of the promoter of the society. 8220;I have been told by the promoter that they will make me a member only if I give a signed paper saying I will accept whatever they give me. How can I do so? Don8217;t I have a say in this matter?8221; he asks.

According to Rehman, Vergese himself said the main road shops will not be available and a shop will be given to him on the approach road to the society towards the rear end. Even that has gone. 8220;No main road shops could be allotted, since those had already been given to others by thepromoters,8221; says Verghese, 8220;maybe they are offering him a shop in the inside road.8221;

But Rehman says it is not even an approach road. He is being offered a shop in a 10-feet-wide lane between two buildings in the society. 8220;What am I supposed to be selling to feed my children? Chocolates? Who will come to my shop in a lane?8221; he asks.

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Rehman now plans to take legal action. Law has always been on his side. After filing a case against MHADA earlier, he obtained a favourable judgement where Justice S M Daud noted that he had documents to show he and his wife owned the two shops, Janata Cold Drink House and Habib Plastic Shop which were demolished in the road-widening project. In his order of 1988, Justice Daud directed that MHADA give him alternative accommodation. An order that has still not been implemented.