Christian, Muslim occupants of Khar’s Aman building ask whether their sense of comunal harmony was just a pipe dream.

Ayub Khan

The name ‘Aman’ is a nice fit for this building on 5th Khar Road -- it has had a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian family occupying its first two floors for many years. But information gathered by the building’s owner from the local civic office this week has shown that the sense of communal amity may have been superficial.Documents procured by the ownerthis week under the Right to Information Act have revealed that the family of Chogmal Jain -- who occupy the ground floor along with a Christian household -- got a separate water line sanctioned by the municipal corporation for their flat because they did not want their water coming from the same source as that of their Muslim and Christian neighbours.While Jain on Wednesday claimed his faith had nothing to do with his dedicated water line, the then engineer with the water department in H West ward clearly mentioned “religious reasons” in his two-page sanction note. “The owner of the premises has extended the connection to a suction tank. The tenant is not getting water through a direct line due to extension of water connection to the tank. The applicant (Jain) is not ready to accept its (tank’s) supply due to religious reasons,” says the note.Aman building was constructed in the 40s. It was a ground-plus-one structure with Jains and the Christain family occupying the ground floor, while the Khans occupied the first floor. The three houses had two water lines -- one for the Khans and other for the occupants of the ground floor. The line for the ground floor was split into two sub-lines carrying water directly to the two houses.In the 80s, Khan added two floors to the building and sold four new flats on these floors. With number of occupants in the building rising, he decided to construct water storage tanks on the ground floor and the terrace. The two lines which were earlier carried water into the flats directly, were diverted to the tanks.The Jains, however, were not comfortable with this arrangement. A compromise was arrived at and an outlet was created from the new BMC line coming into the building before it reached the two storage tanks. A pipe was attached to this outlet to supply water to the Jains.But there was a problem – since the storage tanks had booster pumps and rapidly pulled in water, the Jains on most days had to do with a trickle.Chogmal Jain applied for a separate line first in 1999 and then again in 2002. The sanction came in 2003. Khan claims he was not informed about this and the BMC did not seek his clearance before accepting the Jains’ request. “We wrote several letters to the BMC to find out how the line was sanctioned without clearance from my side. The civic body should have obtained an NOC from us before giving the new line,” said Khan.After his queries were ignored, Khan used the RTI to seek all documents and correspondence pertaining to the new connection. Last week, the papers were handed over to him. What the papers revealed was a big blow to the building’s Amar-Akbar-Anthony story. “It has come as a huge shock to us that a family that has been living with us for around 70 years has had a problem drinking water from the same tank as ours,” said Khan.Jain, however, maintains that he sought a new connection because he wasn’t getting adequate water. “We have always had a direct line supplying fresh water to our house. All of a sudden the owners diverted that line to the tank as a result of which we had to suffer. We did not want to take water from the tanks as we were used to fresh water supply from BMC’s direct line. Moreover, we were worried that the tanks were being controlled by the owner and they would harass us for water. Hence we applied for a separate line.”He also denied applying for the connection on religious grounds. “I don’t know why the engineer sanctioned the line on grounds of religion.”