Mumbai: BMC-run school being used as a godown, RTI response shows

The five rooms in the Juma Masjid trust building that were used for a school, which shut down in 1983

Five rooms in a building at Nagpada, owned by the Juma Masjid trust which rented them to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for use as a school for kids, are being illegally used as a godown. The information was revealed in a reply to an RTI query by a local activist. The BMC's education officer has asked for action to be taken against the person allegedly using the premises.

According to RTI activist Shamshad Ahmad, who is an alumnus of the Jehangir Boman Behram Marg School located in the Juma Masjid trust building at Morland Road, the five rooms were rented to the BMC for the school, which later closed. When he visited the school some time back, he found the rooms were locked, but a person was using them despite that as a godown.

He claimed that the BMC's recent reply to his RTI query says that civic officials wrote eight letters to the eviction department from 2018 to 2021 regarding the school, but no action has been taken yet. He claimed the BMC has said in the reply that the rooms are locked from outside, but still being used.

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Activist speak

Speaking to mid-day, he said, "The rooms have been rented by one Yusuf Binna. According to my knowledge, he has been pocketing the rent of over R2 lakh by subletting them. When I asked the BMC to take action, they replied saying that they had directed the concerned department to evict him. I also wrote later to the concerned department but nothing has been done yet. The BMC should remove the illegal occupant and start the school again."

"We had given the five rooms on rent to the BMC in the 1970s to run a primary Urdu school and it was shut down in the year 1983. Till date the BMC owes the trust Rs 16 lakh," said Shoaib Khateeb, chairman of the Juma Masjid trust.

"We have written several letters for the rent but the BMC has not given us a single rupee. Now we have learnt that the five rooms have been rented out illegally by some person. We demand that the BMC hand over the property to us, so that we can open a dialysis center or medical center to help people," said Khateeb. Asked why the trust did not take over the rooms after 1983, he said he had joined it around 2017 and was unaware of what happened before. He also claimed to have written to the BMC in July about the issue. BMC Education Officer (primary) R Tadvi, said, "This should not happen. I will inform the Building Department and order them to take action immediately."

‘Occupant' speak

Yusuf Binna who is a businessman, claimed he has documents for the rooms, but if the trust wants them back, he is ready to return them. He did not clarify why he was using the rooms with the locks on them, but said, "The BMC's tenancy right is over. The property was handed over by the BMC to a person named Farid Welder who was my business partner and has passed away. I have my own import business, and I am using the property. If the Juma Masjid trust is the owner of this property and wants to develop it, I have no objection."