Milind Deora complains to Gadkari against Mumbai Port Trust

Mumbai: Former Congress MP from south Mumbai, Milind Deora, has complained to the Centre about the "ruthless manner" in which the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) is "harassing, hounding and evicting" its tenants and lessees.
In a letter addressed to Union shipping minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday, Deora said thousands of tenants in his constituency have been affected despite a 2004 supreme court order, directing settlement by granting them 30 year leases.
"MbPT which is engaging several lawyers in various courts are ultimately misusing public money to harass the very people who elect the government into power and also fill up coffers," he said.
Deora said many tenants have challenged the port trust’s resolution in the Bombay high court and 35 such writ petitions are pending disposal in the court. "I am given to understand that the supreme court too has made it clear that public authorities such as port trust are not entitled to charge market rates of rent or resort to unreasonable evictions," he said.
The letter pointed out that Mumbai’s eastern seafront is occupied by lakhs of people either residing or carrying out business. "These occupants are stakeholders in any proposed development and ought not be treated as "trespassers’," he said.