The vexed issue of reconstructing 19,000 old cessed buildings, considered the most significant social issue concerning the city, figured prominently at a public meeting on Saturday. The core group of social organisations which organised the meet has drafted a detailed proposal on the issue following a month-long debate. The proposal will be presented to the state government within a week.

Experts in the city came down heavily on the need for private builder intervention and unlimited FSI granted for reconstruction of old buildings and advocate more participation by tenants. The citizens' draftproposes a tri-partite participation of citizens, the state government and the tenants/occupants of the old buildings. ``It is a difficult issue but needs to be resolved systematically and seriously. We will galvanise support from people ward by ward since the government has a tendency to sit on matters forever,'' said N V Khote of the Mumbai Nagrik Vikas Manch, who prepared the proposal. He has also suggested that tenants be rehabilitated on a maximum of 180 sq ft area and to avoid additional density at the site only 20 per cent extra FSI be allowed.

Experts including architect P K Das, former municipal commissioner Jamsheed Kanga, former IAS officers and city engineers felt that tenants of cessed buildings be allowed to form co-operative housing societies and take the land from the landlords on lease or acquire it on ownership basis and reconstruct their building. These suggestions stem from the fear that with commercial developers stepping in there would be largescale displacement of original tenants.The experts agreed that the reconstruction work undertaken so far by Mumbai Buildings Repair and Reconstruction Board has failed to yield results or have been hijacked or misused by vested interests.

According to the state housing department nearly half of the 19,000 structures are in a dilapidated state with serious threat of collapse. The board has managed to reconstruct only 650-odd old buildings in the last 30 years.

Das warned that the trend of utilising FSI as a trading tool would prove harmful to the city in the long run. Environmentalist Debi Goenka and Kisan Mehta among others pointed out the burden on the infrastructure due to the provision of unlimited FSI usage.