SRA SCAM? Slumdwellers allege builder forged documents to accommodate illegal tenants
A case of cheating by the builder in Slum Rehabilitation scheme in Andheri has been exposed by slumdwellers on Monday. Forum for Slumdwellers Welfare, an association of such residence alleged the builder forged documents of 79 people and sale them flats in saleable component in Andheri’s S V road area. The builder prepared fake documents of these tenants including ration card and electric bill. The deputy collector (encroachment removal) of Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority (MHADA) alerted Kherwadi police station to register the case through written letter. Official from MHADA confirmed that fake documents had been prepared by the builder and a writ petition filed in Bombay High Court.
Sultana Began, the victim of the builder, while speaking with mediapersons said that she had been cheated by the builder and did not get monthly rent from the builder as assured by him before demolishing the Talav Market chawl, near the fish market in Andheri.
"We were living in the chawl for the past 45 years. One morning, we came to know that the builder had got permission to redevelop it under SRA scheme. He managed to notify chawl as slum and got permission of redevelopment. He reclaimed the lake and built two buildings. The first one is ground-plus 7 floors and another is ground-plus 14 floors,” said Begam.
Sunil Sharma, convener of the association, said, “There were originally 21 residents, however, the builder included another 79 names of tenants in annexure II of beneficiaries by preparing illegal document.
Nawaj Khan, another victim, said that they had raised the issue with deputy collector of MHADA in 2012. The deputy collector verified documents of each and every tenant shown beneficiaries of the SRA scheme. He found 79 people had suspicious documents. The deputy collector had submitted his finding report to additional collector who had forwarded the report to secretary, housing, After a period of almost five years, the deputy collector wrote a letter to Kherawadi police station on March 2, 2017 and informed senior police official to lodge a complaint of cheating against the builder.
An officer of resident tehsildar rank, confirmed that his office had verified 107 tenants and had recommended the disqualification of 78 tenants on the ground that their documents were specious.
“We found electricity bills and and ration cards fake and hence had recommended to disqualify them,” said an official.
Deepak Kapoor, Chief Executive officer (CEO) of SRA, did not respond to calls and test messages.