Letters: Flat-out fishy

The Adarsh housing scam in Mumbai is hardly the first and is definitely not the last. After the war, the Indian armed forces requisitioned several flats in south Mumbai for their officers. In the early 1960s, several owners requested S K Patil, then Congress strongman and party treasurer, to help release some of these flats. Patil agreed to release 10 flats provided he was given one flat. All the other owners compensated the one whose flat was given to Patil. The flat was on Babubhai Chinai Road, near Yogakshema LIC building. In fact, during the 1970s and 1980s, many army/naval officers nearing retirement tried to get an allotment of a requisitioned flat so that they could squat there after retirement and force its release to them. I am aware because my father, who occupied one such flat in a building named Sealand on Cuffe Parade, was asked to exchange his own flat for another in the army area by an officer who had such intentions. My father refused.  

T R Ramaswami, Mumbai