Illegal Car Parking: People Are Not Safe at DPS Housing Society

Now Delhi Police and other law-enforcement agencies should take a proactive approach and prevent the accident before it happens because of illegal car parking at DPS Housing Society.

By Rakesh Raman

Amid multiple cases of corruption and lawlessness at the Delhi Public School (DPS) Cooperative Group Housing Society in Dwarka, the residents are now facing an increasing threat from illegal car parking in the building.

While the successive managing committees (MCs) of the Society are part of the parking racket, they have been blatantly defying even the court orders to allow other law-breaking residents to park their multiple cars inside the building.

The Delhi High Court has ruled that only one car per flat will be allowed in housing society parking lots. But the DPS Housing Society MCs have brazenly decided to ignore the court orders and now cars stand cheek by jowl in such a way that the movement in the building is completely obstructed.

Consequently, the risk of fatalities has increased manifold. People complain that the congested car parking in the Society has left no space for the entry of firefighting vehicles in the event of fire in the building.

Obviously, if cars are parked on the pathways meant for the movement of vehicles, it will not be possible for the fire brigade to bring the fire apparatus inside the building to extinguish fire.

As the resulting fire can cause major loss to the life and property of the people living in the building, it will clearly be a case of criminal negligence or causing death by negligence (Section 304A Indian Penal Code) for which the DPS Housing Society MC members and the additional car owners will be responsible.

Similarly, it will not be possible for the ambulance to enter the building because the additional cars parked on the lanes will obstruct its entry. In the case of any health emergency, people living in the Society may face serious consequences – and even death – because of the negligence of the DPS Housing Society MC members and the additional car owners.

The law states that “whoever causes death by doing any rash or negligent act shall be punished with imprisonment, which may extend to two years, or fine, or with both.”

Corruption Angle

But why have the MC members or office bearers of DPS Housing Society have thrown caution to the wind? Corruption is believed to be one of the main reasons that MC members have allowed illegal car parking endangering the lives of hundreds of people living in the building.

Picture this: Today, the price of a 1500 sq. ft. housing property in Dwarka is estimated to be Rs. 1.5 crore. In other words, the price per sq. ft. is Rs. 10,000.

Considering that car parking space is open (not covered like a flat), its price per sq. ft. will be around Rs. 5,000. On average, a car parking space covers about 100 sq. ft. That means, the price of one car parking space is an estimated Rs. 500,000.

By this formula, if the DPS Housing Society MC members are giving an additional car space to a flat owner, they are benefited by Rs. 500,000. Obviously, the MC members would like something in return to this arbitrary and illegal benevolence showered upon law-breaking car owners.

Now comes the corruption angle. If the MC members are breaking the law and allowing illegal car parking worth Rs. 500,000 per flat, it is safe to assume that they must be taking a part of the money back from additional car owners in some secret underhand dealings.

Although the parking problem has been persisting for about a decade, no MC preferred to solve it seriously. Rather, the MC members have been deceptively stonewalling the queries of residents / members who know the risks of illegal parking and are concerned about their safety.

The honest residents also urge the MCs to follow the ‘one car per flat’ rule to ensure equality among all the members. But the MCs have ignored all such requests as they have been working in a totally opaque and dictatorial manner.

While the police and law-enforcement agencies are supposed to investigate the case, nearly 30 members / residents – including the MC members – are part of this parking scandal.

The agencies must also ask these car owners about the sources of their funds to know if there are any cases of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. Disproportionate assets cases are normally investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department.

The disproportionate assets investigations are carried out in potential corruption cases and these are part of the the Prevention of Corruption Act, among other legislations. And the corruption possibility at the DPS Housing Society cannot be ruled out because it is already facing serious corruption charges.

In fact, DPS Housing Society is perhaps the only Society in Delhi where the Government of India’s top anti-corruption organization Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Directorate of Vigilance of Delhi Government have ordered an inquiry through the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS). The MCs have still not responded to the inquiry. And “Car Parking” is one of the seven major activities on which the government inquiry has been initiated. [ Read the inquiry letters given below. ]

RCS / CVC Inquiry Letter

Directorate of Vigilance Letter

Now Delhi Police and other law-enforcement agencies should take a proactive approach and prevent the accident before it happens because of illegal car parking. Besides thorough investigation into the car parking scandal, they must instruct the MC of the Society to immediately follow the law and allow only one car to be parked inside the building for each flat.

Rogue Group at Delhi Public School (DPS) Housing Society

Now some of these habitual lawbreakers have formed a rogue group which also commits other illegal activities such as filing false police complaints against the peaceful residents who oppose their misdeeds.

In one of the shocking incidents, a Kashmiri migrant Davinder Singh Wazir who lives in the Society has recently alleged that the MC members are constantly harassing him because he has raised his voice against their corruption.

In his complaint to the Delhi Police, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and other government departments, Wazir has urged the police to file a First Information Report (FIR) against the DPS Housing Society MC members, including Neeraj Vaish, R. Bala Subramanian, M.N. Sampathkumar, Ms. Leela Swami, Sandeep Taneja, Manguram Tyagi, and Ms. Naseem Afshaque.

Now, this rogue group led by the DPS Housing Society MC members is also planning a life-threatening extended construction project in the building which will damage the environment and will be extremely harmful to men, women, and children living in the Society. The harmful repair / construction project being proposed by the MC members aims to extort lakhs of rupees from each flat owner and the total project cost will run into crores of rupees.

In order to support this shady repair / construction project, the MC members have also fraudulently sourced engineering reports, etc. from external firms – such as M/s Vivek & Arti Architects and Spline Engineers & Consultant Pvt Ltd. – without following any statutory guidelines. This project was initiated by the previous President of the Society, M.M. Shukla, who mysteriously resigned from the post last year without completing the term.

At present, all the illegal activities are being spearheaded by the MC President Neeraj Vaish and Secretary M.N. Sampathkumar who has a dubious job record at Air India where he claims to have worked.

Now the trouble – for which MC members are responsible – has increased to such an extent that residents want to sell off their flats and move out. But it is said that new buyers are reluctant to buy flats in DPS Housing Society or they want to buy at very low prices.

Property experts suggest that the continuous fights between different groups of people at the DPS Housing Society and the inability of the different MCs to run the Society work honestly will further bring down the prices of flats.

Meanwhile, some thoughtful people have started a signature campaign to take the signatures of the Society residents / members to get the present MC dissolved through the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) and get a government administrator appointed to streamline the working of the Society.

As the members of successive MCs and their supporters are posing a serious threat to the peace and tranquility of the atmosphere at DPS Housing Society, the RCS office must expel them from the Society under the prescribed RCS rules. Their expulsion must include forfeiture of their shares which should be deposited to the reserve fund of the Society.

Moreover, the police and law-enforcement agencies need to interrogate the following persons:

Current MC Members of DPS Housing Society:

1. President: Neeraj Kumar Vaish
2. Vice President: R. Bala Subramanian
3. Secretary: M.N. Sampath Kumar
4. Member: Ms. Leela Swami
5. Member: Sandeep Taneja
6. Member: Manguram Tyagi
7. Member: Ms. Naseem Afshaque

Past MC Members of DPS Housing Society:

1. President: M.M. Shukla
2. Vice President: Neeraj Kumar Vaish
3. Member: Geeta Gautam
4. Member: Leela Swami
5. Member: R.K. Saggi
6. Member: H.L. Kaul
7. Member: K.L. Narayanan

Past MC Members of DPS Housing Society against whom the Government inquiry has been initiated through the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) and directed by the  Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Directorate of Vigilance of Delhi Government. The MCs have still not responded to the inquiry.

1. President: R. Balasubramanian
2. Vice President: K.V. Varghese
3. Secretary: Neeraj Kumar Vaish
4. Treasurer: Sandeep Taneja
5. Member: Leela Swami
6. Member: Manjit Kaur
7. Member: Gaurav Kumar Sood

Others in Shady Committee(s) as per MC documents:

Dalip Rozekar, Lal Singh Thakur, O.P. Khanduja, Madhukar Akhilesh, Sunil Chopra.

More names of people and firms will surface during the interrogation of the MC members and their supporters.

The complete case is described at the following link:

[ Humanitarian Crisis Persists at DPS Housing Society in Delhi ]

Disclosure: I have written this report not only as a journalist, but also as a victim of the fraud and intimidation happening at DPS Housing Society. I am facing repeated threats from the MC members and their supporters because I am raising my voice against corruption, environmental damage, and human rights violations.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a government’s National award-winning journalist and runs free school for deserving children under his NGO – RMN Foundation.