Land Lords: Impromptu meet on road to discuss Rent Act

Supposed to start at 5.30 pm, the meeting was delayed by half an hour due to the confusion caused by the turnout. This didn’t go down well with members of the audience, some of whom had come in as early as 4 pm. Worried that the heckling might reachalarming proportions, the speakers were hastily assembled on the dais, and Mohan Gurnani, president of the federation, began the meeting with an apology. “Frankly, we didn’t expect such a turnout. We didn’t know how to accommodate so many people,” he said.

The windows were thrown open, as were the doors, only to be shut later because the central air-conditioning couldn’t be switched off. The authorities had refused permission to let the people stand in the hall, though the rule was slightly relaxed later. When the meeting finally started, the audience was in a belligerent mood.

The gravity of the situation dawned on the audience when Aspi Chinoy, a legal expert on the subject, claimed that inaction on the part of the government would lead to disaster, while any wrong action would result in a catastrophe. If the government failed to amend the standard rent provisions of the Act by March 31, it would cease to exist, but if it chose to go by the Model Rent Control Act, rents could shoot up by nearly 21times.

Moreover, as per the model act framed by the Parliament after one-and-a-half minutes of discussion, any person paying a rent of more than Rs 3,500 wouldn’t come under the protective umbrella offered by the Act. He exhorted the audience to awaken the government. “If you don’t make it act the right way, it will surely act the wrong way. That is the problem,” he added.Chandrashekar Prabhu, former MLA, painted a picture of conspiracy behind the episode. He claimed the planners were trying to copy the American concept of downtown-suburb relationship, wherein people would commute from suburbs into the city every morning and by late evening, the city would resemble a ghost town.

This being the season for apologies, the prominent demand of the audience at the meeting was to make political parties “pay for their betrayal of tenants.” A strange suggestion was made that any political activist on the campaign trial be pulled by the shirt and asked to make his stand clear on the issue. This would bevideographed. Though such an extreme step was dismissed, agitation was clearly on the agenda.

At the end of the meeting, the address of the Chief Justice of Supreme Court M M Punchi was read out for people to send telegrams. Judging by the general mood, one may not be surprised if they are sent in torrents.