He was speaking at a meeting of tenants organised by the Federation of Old Buildings Co-operative Housing Societies and Tenants' Association at K C College this evening. He said the Shiv Sena-BJP government never wanted to protect thousands of tenants in Mumbai but it only favoured a few landlords. ``The government introduced the rent control bill in the Legislative Council instead of the Legislative Assembly. Thus the bill is as good as kept in cold storage. Moreover, the bill introduced by the alliance government has certain clauses which are dangerous for tenants,'' he said.

Deora further said the earlier Congress regime had introduced several tenant-friendly schemes which helped tenants to own their rented houses. He said tenants should be more active aboutsolving their own problems and they should not rely on politicians. Taking advantage of the crowd which had packed the auditorium to capacity, Deora said they should vote wisely to safeguard their interests.

Speaking earlier, Anil Goenka, president of the federation, said the government was trying to fool tenants by introducing the Maharashtra Rent Control Act but keeping it operative only for a year. He accused the government of introducing clauses to help landlords and builders in the Rent Control Act. He said the appeal filed by the federation against a 1997 Supreme Court judgement directing the state government to increase the rent being paid in Maharashtra, will come up for hearing in the next 10 days. He appealed to tenants to join in the federation's legal fight against the government and landlords.