New rules give a slimmer of hope as the Civic body makes agreement mandatory to protect tenants rights in the best way possible. The Government of Maharashtra must think and act to save lives of poor people living in dilapidated buildings. On this count and in view of the fact there are thousands of such buildings in Mumbai and suburbs remain insecure for occupation. However, the state of the buildings which are on the verge of falling down due to their life span has already expired, and still the people live there taking risk of their own life. Time-bound redevelopment of such dilapidated buildings is a must, otherwise, we will see more lives being lost in Mumbai and suburbs due to building fall during the ensuing monsoon season. It is indeed a very sad and shocking incident. Obviously, those who died continued to stay in an illegal building despite municipal warnings, only because they had no other option. It is time to revamp 619 old buildings immediately. Where is affordable housing these days. My heart goes out to the families of the victims dying in such accidents.
CK Ramanathan
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
