MUMBAI, March 8 -- A row has erupted over the notices sent to residents of 56 MHADA colonies for pending service charge arrears of Rs.440 crore. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has demanded the waiving of the notices while the state government has assured that a meeting to resolve the issue will be held with housing minister Eknath Shinde soon after the end of the assembly budget session. Shiv Sena (UBT) legislators Anil Parab and Sunil Shinde, who raised the issue, pointed out that MHADA had demanded that the arrears be paid with interest. According to them, some housing societies had received bills for amounts as high as Rs.40 lakh to Rs.60 lakh, which was impossible for middle-class residents to pay. Service charges are recovered by MHADA for maintenance of its colonies. "Many of the MHADA buildings for which these notices have been sent are in a dilapidated condition," said Parab. "Some buildings are going in for redevelopment, but this demand by MHADA is raising hurdles, as residents are unable to pay the amount and builders don't want to take on this liability." Parab added that the colonies were originally maintained by MHADA but the ownership had been transferred to the respective cooperative housing societies. MHADA earlier provided maintenance services at relatively low rates, he said, but now residents were complaining that the service charges had been increased despite a dip in the level of services. Parab and Shinde demanded that the government waive the pending service charges along with interest or introduce an amnesty scheme to provide relief to residents. They also urged the government to convene a joint meeting of the chief minister, housing minister, MHADA officials and representatives of the housing societies to arrive at a policy decision on the issue. In his reply, minister Shambhuraj Desai who was representing Eknath Shinde, gave an assurance that a meeting would be convened after the budget session to discuss possible solutions to the issue in the presence of the deputy CM, who also holds the housing portfolio. Desai also informed the house that a total of Rs.517 crore in service charges had remained unpaid between 2021 and 2026. Of this amount, only Rs.76 crore had been recovered so far, he added, while approximately Rs.440 crore remained outstanding. Desai noted that an earlier amnesty scheme had resulted in a loss of around Rs.450 crore to the government. "Waiving service charge arrears of Rs.440 crore would be a huge loss of revenue," he said. "So, to resolve the issue, a meeting will be convened in the presence of deputy CM Shinde."...