“BRING your refugee card.” This is the only response Leelarai Daulatrai Sharma is getting for decades whenever he approaches the district administration for lease deed of his plot in the rehabilitation colony at Khamla. Born in a Sindhi family 61 years ago in Nagpur, Sharma is running from pillar to post for last three decades with all relevant documents proving his citizenship of India to get lease deed of his a 430 square feet Nazul Plot No 90 (Khasra No 42/1, Mouza Khamla, City Survey No 1248). A three-storey house of the family, which had migrated from Pakistan after partition between 1947 and 1954, stands at Sindhi Refugee Colony, Khamla. Though the Maharashtra Government, in 2018, had decided to grant freehold rights on the land given to Sindhi migrants who had come to India from Pakistan after Independence, Sharma is deprived of the benefit as he has no lease deed of his plot. Sharma approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis by writing letters requesting them to help him in getting the lease deed of his plot as he neither could sell his property nor make any structural changes in it. Moreover, he could not get a loan from any financial institution or mortgage his property in the absence of the lease deed. Taking a serious cognisance of his request; the Prime Minister’s Office directed the district administration to solve Sharma’s issue on priority. Similarly, Fadnavis, too, had written to the District Collector to release the lease deed to him.

 

However, the district administration allegedly turned a blind eye to the letters received from the Prime Minister, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. Sharma had also approached the Home Minister and Guardian Minister who also had written to the district administration directing to issue him the lease deed. However, the officers concerned at District Collectorate ignored the letters allegedly seeking monetary favours. “My father was a refugee. He had the refugee card which was lost. I’m a citizen of India. All my family members have Aadhaar cards, Voter Identity cards, PAN cards and a ration card. I’ve been paying the corporation tax and electricity bills regularly for years. I have my property card and even possess all necessary documents of the City Survey,” Sharma shared his plight with ‘The Hitavada.’ A few years ago, one of the District Collectors and a Tehsildar had asked the security guards to throw Sharma out of their chambers when he had approached them with folded hands to get his work done.

 

The touts and the middle-men are now allegedly demanding a huge sum of money to get the photo-copy of his father’s refugee card from the official records. With tears rolling down his cheeks, Sharma informed that his wife is a heart patient and suffering from diabetes and hypothyroidism. His 36-year-old daughter is mentally-challenged. His son-in-law passed away a while ago. He runs a small utensils shop on the ground floor of his house and struggles to make ends meet. “I want to install a small elevator at my house for my wife and mentally-challenged daughter, both of whom are obese and face difficulty to climb stairs. As we often have to visit the hospital, an elevator is a necessity for us. But the permission to install an elevator is denied by the authorities due to absence of lease deed,” he added. Sharma said some members of the Sindhi community, mostly belonging to the elite class, are happy as their Nazul plots are now being considered as freehold properties. “My case is entirely different. Some authorities say, I cannot make any structural changes in my house as it was built on an encroached piece of land.

 

The plot on which my house is built by my father was allotted to him by the government way back in the early 50s,” he added. Sharma said there are hundreds of Sindhi families with similar problems but the district administration has so far failed to redress their genuine grievances by asking them the refugee cards. “Sometimes, I feel like immolating myself in front of the office of District Collector after writing a ‘final letter’ to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who did a lot for the descendants of the Sindhi migrants in the country,” said the senior citizen. Meanwhile, it is learnt that District Collector Dr Vipin Itankar has sought clarification from the ministry on Sharma’s case but whether he and other members of Sindhi families would get justice remains a billion dollar question.