Ask Derisa Builders Pvt Ltd what's the secret behind the 150-year-old Fernandes Chawl in Khar Road.
Dead men tell no tales. But dead women do give signatures. When they do, what you get is a Rs 300-crore redevelopment project.
Ask Derisa Builders Pvt Ltd what's the secret behind the 150-year-old Fernandes Chawl in Khar Road.
Formally known as St Anthony's Cooperative Housing Society, the gaothan (traditional East Indian settlement) is spread over 922 sq m of prime location and Derisa needed a majority from society members for redevelopment.
The society has 47 members. "Out of the 47, only 20 backed Derisa. Others didn't approve the builder," said Anita Pinto, one of the residents. But for Evralda Ivor Dmello, director of Derisa, and her staff, that was no hurdle. In fact, when they submitted the final list, they had the consent of 57 members!
Among them were Thersa Almera and Mary Fernandes. Almera had passed away in 1994 and Fernandes in 2000. dna has the death certificates of both issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
"In the agreement, Derisa showed the two as signing the consent in 2007," said Pinto. "They also forcefully obtained signatures of members' siblings and even showed their own staffers as members," she said.
"Ours is a goathan area. The tiles here dates back to 1865. This is a heritage site. The developer fraudulently showed it as a slum to get additional floor space index and undertake redevelopment project under the Slum Rehabilitation Area (SRA) scheme. This is unlawful and done in connivance with SRA officials," she alleged.
"Once we came to learn that the developer has secured the signatures of even dead people, we asked the SRA, collector and the police to investigate. The Khar police submitted its report on March 28, 2016, where it was revealed that the developer had obtained dead people's signatures.
"We complained to local BJP MLA Ashish Shelar and even wrote to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding action against this unscrupulous developer and to cancel the Letter of Intent (LoI) immediately. However, nothing has happened," said Aftab Siddique, chairman of the 33rd road Khar Advance Locality Management (ALM).
Shelar said that he had wrote to the collector and SRA to verify the allegations, before approving the project.
Aftab has been running from one government department to another to stop the illegal demolition of Fernandes chawl.
"I was surprised when the collector, SRA and the police came together to help the developer. Otherwise, these departments pass the buck. Fadnavis should immediately intervene and stop the demolition. Otherwise, residents of Fernandes Chawl will take to the street," Pinto said.
Evralda Ivor Dmello, director of Derisa, told dna that the allegations are baseless. "The police, collector and SRA have given orders in our favour. So there is no question of stopping redevelopment work," she said.
When asked about the dead people's signatures and the police report, her reply was that the police had given the report under political pressure.
SRA chief Aseem Gupta said that the SRA has no right to interfere in 33/38 eviction process. However, if the court directs and there are irregularities, the SRA will can surely take action.
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