Campa Cola residents list 14 conditions to BMC for handing over keys

Even as just a few hours were left for the residents of Campa Cola to hand over the keys to their illegal flats to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the residents have put forth fourteen conditions before the state government and the civic body, for handing over the keys. They have also demanded a written affidavit agreeing to these conditions.

“In response to your letter, the residents of the Campa Cola compound are ready to hand over the keys to your ward office provided the Municipal Commissioner and Chief Minister give us a written and registered affidavit addressing the following the points,” reads the letter submitted to BMC by the Campa Cola Compound Residents Association on Thursday morning.

On Tuesday, BMC had directed the residents of the illegal flats to hand over the keys within 72 hours or face “legal action.” The deadline to deposit the keys is at 5 pm today (12 June).

The letter demands, “that all illegal constructions in the city of Mumbai and Maharashtra will be demolished and no building will be regularised by nefarious means,” adding, “No law or ordinance will ever be passed by the present or the future government to regularise illegal construction and that any future or incumbent minister or official found guilty would be tried in a fast track court and severely prosecuted.”

The letter further asks that the conveyance of the plot should be done on the name of societies and the FSI available would be with the residents of demolished buildings. “The immediate family members of the builders who have cheated us be prosecuted for fraud/cheating, as the original builders are dead, and their property be attached immediately and sold to compensate the dis-placed residents,” it said adding that no redevelopment plans on the Campa Cola land will be passed by the authorities without the rights and consent of the displaced residents in future.

“In case our curative petition or any other judgement is decided by courts in our favour, the government will make sure that we are compensated at market rates,” the letter demands adding that a CBI inquiry should be initiated to know who initiated such a fast track judgement which took only three years from sessions court to Supreme Court.

Other conditions include the right on the parking places, all the stamp duty collected from residents should should be reimbursed with interest before demolition or handing over keys, all the loans outstanding to banks by the flat owners should be the responsibility of state. Also they demand initiating action against BMC officials, retired or working, for their involvement in allowing the building to be constructed beyond permission.

More than 100 families have lived in the housing complex for the past 25 years.

The seven high-rise buildings were constructed between 1981 and 1989 in the Campa Cola compound. While the builders were granted permission for ground-plus-five floors, some of the constructions were built with extra floors.