Mumbai housing society members protest against corruption and demand accountability from registrar’s office

The battle only gets more interesting when a loosely affiliated group of resentful citizens are compelled to come together and become activists. On 28^th November, at 10.30 a.m. at the Azad Maidan, members of 40 to 50 co-operative housing societies located throughout Mumbai will be acting in precisely this manner, out of anger.

They will be organizing a protest march to demand accountability and to voice their dissatisfaction with the rampant corruption, malpractices and inaction in the registrar office. A member of a co-operative housing society in Dahisar said that they are tired of this department operating in flagrant disregard for every rule governing cooperative housing societies. The officers are so corrupt that it is unimaginable. The members have been fighting the registrar for a fair hearing on her own behalf for the past four years.

Along with her, a number of other members of various housing societies from Borivali to Goregaon to Dadar have been pounding on doors, as have the registrar, the commissioner for cooperation, and even the minister of cooperation. The majority of these officials and quasi-judicial entities are dishonest and work closely with the housing societies’ management committees.

A member of a cooperative housing society in Goregaon, who has been fighting this alone for three years stated that they get paid for stalling the complaints instead of initiating action. So much so that they get reprimanded frequently. They tell them that they can complain to anyone they want. Nobody is going to listen.

Upon meeting Minister Dilip Walse Patil recently, a few of these citizens were given the assurance that their concerns would be promptly investigated. That was definitely an eyewash. A Goregaon resident says that when they tried to follow up with him (Dilip Walse Patil), his personal assistant did not give them any appointment.

For the time being, however, the group has invited everyone living in Mumbai who has been similarly impacted and demands accountability from the Registrar’s office to come forward and take part. Following the march, a petition from citizens will be delivered to the Minister.

Shreyas Vange