Mumbai, Aug. 29 -- Residents of a housing society in Sion's Pratiksha Nagar have run from pillar to post for the past 12 years, trying to get compound walls erected around their buildings. Despite the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) directing a contractor in July to construct the compound wall, a nearby slum rehabilitation project has stalled the process. The Chaitanya Cooperative Housing Society in Pratiksha Nagar has 112 flats and four shops. Mhada's Mumbai board had conducted a lottery in 2011 and handed over the flats in the housing society to its new homeowners in 2013. Since then, society members have been following up with Mhada officials regarding the missing compound walls. One of the managing committee members of the society, Kiran Patel, said that society members had met several government officials of varying ranks, hoping to get themselves heard. Finally, in July, executive engineer Ankit Mose wrote a letter to BG Shirke Construction, a private contractor, explaining the situation. The board said that the residents had complained many times that the incomplete compound wall compromised the security of the society. The contracter however was not allowed to complete the pre-construction work. Behind the housing society, a slum redevelopment began earlier this year, and issues cropped up between the developer carrying out the slum redevelopment, the slum dwellers, and the society residents. The slum dwellers claim the compound space belongs to them, and erecting a compound wall there would block their access to the road. The society's residents worry the contractor is trying to include the compound area into the redevelopment project, taking away society land. The society's residents claim that for the last 12 years they have parked their vehicles outside society premises and nailed tin sheets to the building's walls to stop trespassers. Vinayak Adep, secretary of the society said, "Apart from the safety issue, we also fear that our D wing's pillars exposed to the slums will get damaged during the construction activity." Mhada's July letter mentioned this issue and directed the contractor to get police protection to carry out the construction. The Mhada Mumbai board's vice chairman and chief officer Milind Borikar did not respond to queries about what measures the authority plans to take and when the boundary wall's construction will begin....