File complaints if denied flat for being non-vegetarian, says MCGM

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on Thursday took a stand to stay away from the controversy of vegetarians versus non-vegetarians and has asked the Mumbaikars to directly go and complaint in the concerned police station against the developers denying them to give flats.

The decision was taken in the civic improvements committee on Thursday by chairman Prakash Gangadhare who said, “The MCGM is not responsible for taking care of the residents who will come up with the complaints against denying of flats to non-vegetarians. One can go to the nearby police station.”

One of the members of the improvements committee, Raju Pednekar, said, “People should rise above communities and act as one rather than discriminating.”

The incident came to light last year in November when Sandeep Deshpande, MNS leader, tabled a proposal in the civic body to revoke permission to developers who refused to sell flats to nonvegetarian people. However, civic chief Ajoy Mehta said that the MCGM cannot dictate people’s eating habits nor can tell anything to the builders as there are no such provisions in the Development Control Regulations (DCR).

All the members of the civic improvements committee have demanded that the decision should be sent back to the civic chief to take a call instead of taking a call of directly approaching the police station. Dilip Landhe, one of the committee members, said, “The MCGM should interfere and take a stand on this issue. There should be no discrimination on any ground which include food preference, religion, caste or even region.”