The Brave Pedestrian

Mumbai, 14 th July, 2016: I would not have believed it if I had'nt seen it with my own eyes. For many months, my client Tukaram Sutar had been insisting that the Jogeshwari Municipal Corporator Ujwala Modak was giving political support to the non-performing redevelopment builder and former managing committee members of his cooperative housing society... but I was skeptical. I asked him, "Where is the evidence? Has this corporator ever spoken or written letters to us, or interfered in our society's matters? No!" However, three days ago, when I found myself confronting Ujwala Modak at the society's hearing at the office of the Deputy Registrar of Cooperation (K-East Ward), Wadala, I realized that Mr Sutar was right. At the hearing, Ujwala Modak's conversation with Cooperation Department officials indicated that she had been meeting and phoning them for favourable orders.  After our heated argument, corporator Modak helped the society's chairman Mr...

1st May, 2015, Mumbai: Many strangers call me every week from different parts of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane etc., tell me how their society is being herded by some builder towards redevelopment, and take some free advice about how to proceed further in their battle. Everywhere, the same story is being acted out: builders have pocketed the office-bearers by giving them inducements, and with their active cooperation, are in the process of seizing control of the entire property. Some general body members act like stooges of the office-bearers, and shout down the persons who ask questions at society meetings. But the bulk of general body members are like sheep being herded to the slaughterhouse; they are deeply worried, but they are afraid to take a stand at any given point of time. Every week, Maharashtra's cooperation department receives a dozen complaint letters from aggrieved society members, pleading for action against the office-bearers and the builders, who are subverting the...