RTI helped them foil builder from stealing their homes

It is easy to let go when one has to fight against a builders lobby. And it makes things more difficult if one is poor or illiterate.

For DB Parmar and Rajab Alam Sheikh, battling for two years to establish their identity as legal tenants inside the Kaurana building complex in Parel was frightening and rewarding at the same time. Both, victims of a builder’s highhandedness, would have lost their homes had it not been for their RTI application.

Their rooms, each measuring 12X10 ft, stand next to a three-storey building that is being demolished to make way for a highrise. Except the families of Parmar and Sheikh, 70 families have given in to pressure tactics of the builder and vacated their rooms.

“We have been living here since 1963,” Sheikh said. “Last year, the builder’s men told us to vacate our rooms.” They told us that we had sold our property rights to them, he said.

The two had taken a loan from an agent who appeared at their doorstep one fine day in 2007. Two years of high school education did not help them understand what was written in the papers. And they just signed it. “Almost four months after we started repaying the loan, Rs6,000 every month, the builder’s men came and told us to vacate our rooms,” Parmar said.

After discussing their plight with several people, Parmar and Sheikh realised if they could prove that they had been living as tenants for several years, they would not have to vacate the rooms.

Parmar worked at a doctor’s clinic for the past four years. And this doctor introduced him to an RTI activist. “We requested madam to write an application to Mhada, seeking all the information that was available on the Kaurana building complex,” Sheikh said.

The papers did not have their names. Instead it had the names of the architect and the builder’s wife. “But all was not lost as the voter list had our names. It showed Kaurana building as our address. Also, our ration cards had the same address,” Parmar said.

This information strengthened our case, Sheikh said. “We were ready to go all the way to prove that we were living in room number 2 and 5 for several years.”

The city civil court has given two orders in their favour. “We can not be evicted forcibly without being rehabilitated,” Parmar said. “And we owe it all to RTI,” added Sheikh.