Tenants refuse to vacate hospital property

Tenants, who live on the property that belongs to Prince Aly Khan Hospital at Mazagaon, alleged that hospital authorities are telling them to vacate their homes on the pretext of house repairs.

Tenants, who live on the property that belongs to Prince Aly Khan Hospital at Mazagaon, alleged that hospital authorities are telling them to vacate their homes on the pretext of house repairs.

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The tenants, and their families have been staying in the ground-plus-one houses for more than 100 years.

Hospital authorities had asked the six tenants of chawl no. 15 to sign an agreement asking them to consent to vacating their house for repairs. But the residents have found a map of the property through Right to Information (RTI), does not mention the chawl.

The land on which the chawls have been built are marked as hospital land.

Another document mentions a plan for demolition and development of the chawl.

“In the agreement, there is no mention of the time period during which the repairs will be carried out or when we will get our houses back,” said resident Hamid Khan. “Though we have been offered a place to shift, we found that it is not worth living."

Residents said the repairs can be carried out while the people continue living in the tenements. “Buildings are repaired without vacating people. Tenements can also be repaired the same way,” added Khan.

But hospital authorities said vacating houses is necessary to carry out repairs. “We have asked people to vacate because there is a risk of life if repairs are carried out with the tenants inside the house. Development and repairs are two different issues and the hospital uses its empty land for its own purposes. The hospital needs to modernise with changing technology and we need space for that,” said Narendra Malviya, chief executive officer of the hospital.