Mumbai:
While ordinary people usually have to run from pillar to post for days on end to get gumasta (establishment) licences issued from the BMC, an RTI has revealed that with the right connections, one can get civic officers to issue licences even on Sundays and on August 15.
The BMC also approved the signature of a woman, thereby confirming that she was alive in 2006, who had died in 2002.
These facts came to light when Shakeel Patni, who has been fighting against a higher FSI being given illegally to a development under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme in Andheri, started filing RTI applications in 2006 to expose alleged irregularities in the project.
Patni alleges that Asif Furniturewala, Vali Sharif and his wife Zahida Vali Sayyad, who are developing the Meer Hussain Tangewala Chawl near S V Road in Andheri under the SRA scheme, have forged documents of people to get establishment licences under their name.
By doing so, they have pushed the project from being one for the 59 legal residents to one for 108 residents.
They submitted documents for 91 residents, out of which 32 are allegedly bogus. Some residents were placed under the commercial category and gumasta licenses were obtained on their behalf from the BMC to ensure that the developers get a higher FSI.
"I have been fighting this case for years on behalf of the local residents and have found that the documents were forged," said Patni.
The society has been formed under the name of Ashyana Co-operative Housing Society and the SRA gave the developers the final go ahead in 2009.
FIRAfter documents received by Patni under the RTI Act (copies with MiD DAY) indicated that the developers had forged electricity bills and ration cards in order to get the establishment licences, Patni filed an FIR with the D N Nagar police in 2009. A case of cheating, forgery and extortion was registered.
PSI Sameer Gilani, D N Nagar Police Station, said, "A committee constituted by the SRA is looking into the case. We cannot stop the work until they give orders."
"Asif Furniturewala is absconding, Vali Sharif Sayyed and his wife Zahida Vali Sayyad have moved the High Court for anticipatory bail and the hearing is on July 27," added Gilani.
Patni alleged that the developers offered him money to stay mum. "Local goons have come to my place often to hit and scare me. I even get extortion calls," said Patni.
BMC PRO Saudagar Jadhav and the developer Vali Sayyad refused to comment on the issue.
IrregularitiesKhursheed Sayyad Rafique, the mother of chief promoters Vali Shahid and Zahida, who is shown eligible for residential premises and whose thumb impression verified by the BMC was taken in 2006, died in 2002.
A copy of the death certificate is with MiD DAY.
Raziya Qureshi, Juned, Shiakh Mushtaq Ahmed Abdul Karim, Safiya Qureshi, Islamullah Shafiullah, J Dawood, Zulfiqar Nazir Ansari, and Shaikh Mohd Rafique are shown eligible for premises but the documents submitted to
the BMC have been forged.
Noor Mohd Khalil Qureshi received a gumasta licence from the BMC on Sunday, a holiday for the civic body.
The gumasta licence for Shaikh Abbas Yar Mohd was issued on August 15, 1992 a national holiday.
Area"The developers had been sanctioned an area 74,000 sq ft, out of which 18,000 sq ft is extra due to the forged documents of 32 people," said Patni