Bombay High Court has expressed displeasure with the unstructured supervision by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on the redevelopment of buildings owned by it here and called for a circular or regulations on the issue.
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata on August 28 was hearing petitions filed by over 30 persons, who were originally residents of a BMC-owned property named ‘Bengali House’ in south Mumbai, complaining about non-payment of transit rent and delay in redevelopment of their building.
According to the petitioners, they vacated their homes in the building at Kamathipura in Byculla in 2010 but its redevelopment has yet to be completed. The bench said it was constrained to observe that this was an unacceptable state of affairs from every perspective where in cases of redevelopment of buildings owned by the corporation there is no structured development supervision in place.
It is an unacceptable abdication of municipal administration, duties and obligations, the court said. The court said while it cannot dictate a law on this aspect, it can commend the BMC at the highest levels to take the issue up on a priority basis and a structured system be put in place by means of a circular or some regulations that can be binding so that (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) MCGM-monitored development projects across the city progress on schedule and in an open, transparent and clear manner, the court said.
The bench directed for a copy of its order to be placed before the civic chief for consideration. The court said the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) have now developed fairly detailed and sophisticated systems to monitor redevelopments of buildings owned by them.