CLARIFICATION

With respect to the story, ‘Dadar’s 90-yr-old Prakash Mansion – Disaster in the making’ which appeared on Page 5 of the February 20, 2020 edition of The Free Press Journal, the sequence of some paragraphs in the story were inadvertently mixed up.

Dhruveer Singh’s quote should have concluded as follows:

“...None of the audits have said our building is dilapidated, only repairs are required, which we are taking care of. While we are waiting for redevelopment, plans for which may take more than a year to materialise, repairs are being done."

Moreover, Dhruveer claimed the tenants’ association formed is registered with the charity commissioner's office but is wrongly being portrayed as being representative of all tenants.

Dhruveer himself is a tenant of the building and claims, the landlord's consent to form

the association has not been obtained. Supporting his claims, resident Hidayat Hakimzade, who has two houses in the building, says the building is old and needs minor repairs, "like any other old building. After seeing instances of developers walking out of redevelopment projects over various reasons, we don't want this project to be given blindly to anyone and later, face trouble."

However, another resident, Rajendra Mehta, believes the landlord is not allowing redevelopment out of fear he might lose business. He said, "For the redevelopment, the landlord has to shut his restaurant. They are concerned about incurring losses, I strongly believe they are not allowing redevelopment."

Echoing a similar sentiment is Edward Nailer, 70, who alleged the landlord "has greased the palms of government officials so the building does not go for redevelopment." He said, "We live in fear, as the structure is over 90 years old. The landlord is not concerned as he does not live in this rickety structure, risking his life."