Housing scams are impossible

Illegal under-construction buildings in the jurisdiction of the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation. File pic/Hanif Patel

I have been following this newspaper's dogged reporting of alleged unauthorised constructions in the jurisdiction of the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation for a few weeks now. I have read the comments made by VVCMC officials, read multiple reports of how the hard-working Anti-Corruption Bureau of Thane immediately swung into action a few years after the buildings appeared, and have also looked at what activists have been saying for a while. The only conclusion I can arrive at is that there must be some sort of mistake. A clerical error, perhaps, or a few hundred misplaced files. There is no other explanation for how these buildings appeared almost overnight, as if by magic.

Allegations of any housing scam have always been hard for me to swallow because, as anyone living in Bombay knows, our municipal officials are among the most honest people in the country. They would never allow anything illegal to go past their desks. In fact, whenever allegations like these have surfaced every other year in the past, we have learned that they have been minor misunderstandings at best. When it comes to construction anywhere in Bombay, not a stone can be moved into a place it doesn't belong, which is why these reports of a scam seem so hollow.

It reminded me of another set of complaints made over a decade ago, involving a 31-storey building in Colaba. What followed were two years of depositions and judicial inquiries, after which it was revealed that 25 illegal allotments had been made, while the building itself had been constructed after bending rules related to land ownership, zoning, membership and floor space index. Naturally, I didn't believe those reports at the time either. Bending of rules? I couldn't even wrap my head around the idea, let alone entertain the possibility that it may have happened. Rules are never broken in this city.

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If you're wondering what happened to the officials accused of that scam from 2010, and whether the building continues to stand, I haven't checked Google lately, but am pretty sure justice must have been served. It must have been another minor error, so I won't be surprised to find that the war heroes and war widows that building was originally meant for, have been given their rightful apartments. Let it never be said that justice is denied in Colaba.

I believe we should stop publicising these reports because they serve no purpose. Officials tasked with overseeing housing in Maharashtra are obviously overworked and shouldn't be expected to check every single file that comes their way. If a few thousand illegal constructions crop up now and again, officials should be allowed to rectify their mistakes and move on because they are clearly working for the benefit of residents. Why not fine them around one hundred rupees per illegal construction and get on with business? Why waste the court's time and initiate expensive inquiry commissions when everyone can be forgiven sooner rather than later?

As for builders, we should stop demonising them too. I have never heard of a single builder bending the rules in decades, which is why they have always been renowned for their honesty. Trying to find a dishonest builder in this city is like looking for an incompetent employee at the BMC: they simply do not exist.

I also hope the government puts together a new committee to look at what earlier committees have revealed about scams that probably do not exist. In 2022, for instance, five developers were arrested for allegedly preparing forged documents and selling illegal apartments in Kalyan. In 2019, two former Maharashtra ministers were found guilty for their involvement in a multi-crore housing scam and sentenced to jail, while 46 others, including former municipal councillors and officials, were also given jail terms. That same year, the state housing department alleged that at least six builders had grabbed Floor Space Index (FSI) worth approximately R40,000 crore in our city. I am convinced those were just anomalies in an otherwise smooth and perfectly legal system.

Officials in charge of housing in Maharashtra should be celebrated instead of questioned because they do their jobs without ever asking for a bribe. For proof, simply walk into your nearest registration office to get a lease or purchase agreement verified. The honesty you will come across every single time will surprise you and prove that if people live in apartments or buildings that are deemed illegal, it is almost always their fault alone. Housing officials are always innocent.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira

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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper