Save the Families and Their Human Rights in DPS Society
Because it Will…
– Weaken the existing building structures
– Cause accidents because of the massive construction activity in the same building where people are living
– Put residents’ lives at risk because of the construction that will run for years
– Cause health hazards for people (men, women, children) with increased level of dust and pollution
– Cause multiple ailments like asthma, skin inflammation, lung infection, headache, and others
– Disturb sick and elderly residents as well as students who will have to bear noise pollution because of the constant construction hammering
– Disturb children as they will not be able to play in the internal parks because of the construction material and risky equipment in the building
– Violate basic human rights of people who want to live in a peaceful environment
– Increase the chances of corruption at the government as well as housing society levels, as these will be high-value construction projects
Government should not pursue and allow any such building extension projects as they are going to be hazardous to human health and lives.
I invite all of you from Delhi, other parts of India and abroad to join me in this effort aimed at saving human lives and human rights. You may please contact me at my E-mail.
Thanking You
[ Also Read: How Pollution Makes Delhi a Poisonous Gas Chamber ]
The related case of DPS Housing Society is described below.
Important Announcement
Now the DPS Housing Society case is being updated on a new Webpage. Please click here to see the latest updates.
Update: April 13, 2015
Victim of Delhi Pollution
Dear Government,
The rapidly increasing pollution may not have any adverse effect on the elite, but millions of commoners are already facing a slow death on the polluted Delhi roads and streets.
And now to further exacerbate the already alarming situation in Delhi, group housing societies are carrying out unchecked construction activity to extend their existing buildings while people are still living in those buildings.
The additional dust pollution in the inhabited housing complexes is like adding fuel to the fire, as people are already experiencing enormous health risks because of environmental pollution.
Is this new construction activity in the existing buildings legitimate, given the fact that the pollution level in the city is already nearing the hazardous levels? If not, then the government must play its role to inquire into the matter that how the permission for additional construction was given to existing housing societies and if any corruption has occurred in such permissions.
Consequently, if you find that these are illegal constructions then all of them must be demolished and the people behind such cases must be punished according to our laws. This will also dissuade those housing complexes who want to emulate the wrong practice of others who have done additional construction and put people’s lives to risks.
I expect your response by email letting me know the action being taken at your end to deal with the pollution menace. And I also suggest you to appoint skilled people in your departments who could handle digital media and reply to citizens’ emails and other communications.
To further explain the hazards of pollutions in Delhi, I recently wrote an article. You may please go through it.
[ How Pollution Makes Delhi a Poisonous Gas Chamber ]
Request for an early and positive response.
Regards
Update: April 9, 2015
A letter signed by many residents of the DPS Housing Society along with individual letters from the Society members opposing the proposed construction activity in the DPS Society building was sent to the President of the Society.
The letter also carried various other suggestions for the Managing Committee to run the Society operations in a transparent and honest manner.
All these documents have also been sent to the Registrar Co-operative Societies (RCS) of the Delhi Government. Click here to read the letter.
Save the Families and Their Human Rights in DPS Society
Update: March 22, 2015
Today, many residents of the DPS Housing Society went together to once again inform the Managing Committee (MC) that they are not interested in any kind of building extension or construction activity in the Society building, among other issues.
The residents also handed over their joint representation / letter to the President of the Society. Click here to read the letter.
Update: March 18, 2015
DPS Housing Society Case: Letter to Minister of Urban Development, Government of India
As the Minister of Urban Development, Government of India, is supposed to decide about the building extensions / floor area ratio (FAR) in the Group Housing Societies of Delhi, today I have written an e-mail to him. I have stated that the government should not allow any kind of construction in the existing Group Housing Societies.
I have sent the copy of the e-mail to Vice Chairman, DDA and the Chief Minister of Delhi.
You may please click here to read my e-mail.
Update: March 8, 2015
DPS Housing Society Case: 10-Point Proposal
As the Managing Committee (MC) of DPS Housing Society is working in a shady manner and refuses to acknowledge the residents’ representations including the 4-page letter dated January 27, 2015, the summary of the said letter is being put on this regular Webpage in the form of a 10-point proposal.
This proposal also includes the fact that the Minutes of the Meeting letter dated February 25, 2015 prepared by the MC for the meeting that took place on February 8, 2015, is not valid.
Click here to read the 10-Point Proposal.
Click here to read the residents’ letter dated January 27, 2015
Update: March 3, 2015
DPS Housing Society Case: Letter to Lieutenant Governor
As the office of the Registrar Co-op. Societies (RCS) of Delhi government has been ignoring the requests of the DPS Housing Society residents, today (March 3, 2015) I wrote an e-mail to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, requesting him to instruct the RCS as well as DDA office to take action in this case.
The office of the Lieutenant Governor took a quick action and has forwarded my request to the Registrar Co-op. Societies and VC, DDA. I, on behalf of the residents of DPS Housing Society, thank the Lieutenant Governor and his officers for this prompt action.
At the same time, I request the RCS office and DDA to study the entire case (described below) and constitute a government enquiry committee to investigate the inappropriate decisions taken by the present as well as previous Managing Committees of the DPS Housing Society so that the guilty could be caught and punished.
Click here to read my today’s e-mail to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
Update: February 27, 2015
DPS Housing Society Case: Letter to DDA Vigilance Department
As the DPS Housing Society Managing Committee members are hell-bent to begin the high-value unauthorized construction activity in the Society by taking approval from DDA by fair means or foul, today I have sent an e-mail to the DDA Vigilance Department so that DDA should not give permission for this illegal construction project. Click here to read the e-mail.
Update: February 20, 2015
The Public Grievances Commission (PGC) of the Delhi Government writes to the Office of the Registrar Co-operative Societies (RCS) to take action in the case related to D.P.S. Co-op. Group Housing Society. You can read the PGC letter.
The case is described below.
Dear Government,
You must be knowing that the D.P.S. Co-op. Group Housing Society, Dwarka, New Delhi has become a veritable pothole of mismanagement and corruption under the successive Managing Committees (MCs) of the Society.
Although the Registrar Co-op Societies (RCS) had initiated an enquiry against the DPS Managing Committee through its letter No. F.47/Coop./1350/GH/SW/2011 dated 04.05.2011. However, the RCS office failed to carry this enquiry forward and it is just stuck in government files. Click here for the enquiry letter.
Now the situation is going from bad to worse, as a new Managing Committee has been formed in the Society without voting (unopposed) because no honest person wants to contest the Society election.
With its eyes on easy money, the new Managing Committee – formed in November 2014 – has already started exploring high-value construction projects in the Society, which are illegal and will put the lives and health of residents (including men, women, and children) to extreme risk.
Therefore, I request the RCS office to complete the pending enquiry against the DPS Society Managing Committee. And also give strict instructions to the current Managing Committee, asking it to stop playing with the public money and the human rights of the people in the DPS Society who want to live in a peaceful, corruption-free environment.
The recent representation of the DPS Society residents to the Managing Committee is given below. The scanned copy of this representation along with the signatures of the residents is attached here.
Please go through the representation and save the families living in the DPS Society from the tyranny and torture of the Managing Committee.
Thanking You
To January 27, 2015
The President and Managing Committee (MC) Members
DPS Co-operative Group Housing Society (DPS CGHS)
DPS Apartments, Plot No. 16, Sector 4
Dwarka, New Delhi 110 078
CC: Registrar, Co-op. Societies, Old Court Building, Parliament Street, New Delhi 110001
Subject: Residents’ Suggestions to the Managing Committee of DPS CGHS
Dear Managing Committee Members,
We, the residents of DPS Society, welcome all of you as members of the new Managing Committee (MC) formed in November 2014. We also wish you all the very best to perform honestly during your ongoing tenure keeping the spirit of cooperative concept intact.
We were eagerly waiting for this moment of change with the hope that the new MC team will bring us relief from years of mismanagement of the Society’s affairs and resultant distress to us. However, after going through your letter informing us about the Special General Body Meeting on February 08, 2015, we are sorry to state that we have further gone into a state of depression.
We do understand that at this stage you have only listed the agenda points, which are still to be debated in the meeting of February 08, we thought it appropriate to bring them to your notice as the tenor of communication in your letter is highly authoritative as if you have already taken decision on these points without bringing them for an open-minded debate.
Although almost all the agenda points that you have stated in the said document lack intellectual discipline, here we would like to highlight a few points which are extremely disturbing.
Page 1: Agenda Point No. 02 (4 A): State of Accounts
You have stated that “the period covered under the report is 01 April 2014 to 31 December 2014” and “The handing / taking over was done in October 2014 and the expenses incurred are routine.”
These are vague statements, which do not give a clear picture of the accounts handling. You need to define and implement an end-to-end transparent procedure for spending the money of the Society’s members so that the ongoing random decisions to spend money could be stopped immediately.
In this regards, it is important to mention here that mere balance sheets or income-expenditure statements are meaningless in the absence of proper financial procedures and related documents.
So, you are requested to stop giving these vague statements and provide financial details to residents with proper documentation support for the money that you have spent.
Page 2: Agenda Point No. 04: Water Supply and Bill Payment
Although you have mentioned that “water bills amount is varying between Rs. 70,000 to 1.3 lakhs,” you have failed to mention whether it’s weekly, monthly, or yearly. You need to be extremely careful while compiling such formal and important documents. Particularly, you need to stop this ongoing careless culture in your system where residents’ money is involved.
Moreover, when you are mentioning about water charges, you also need to clearly state the procedure for selecting the water vendors and the procedure for measurement of the supplied water.
There could be a likelihood that because of your faulty water measurement procedure, the actual quantity of water that we receive is less than the quantity being shown in your papers.
If this is the case, then residents are getting cheated because they are paying for water that they don’t consume. You need to explain this point very clearly.
Page 5: Agenda Point No. 11: Building Extension, Repair, etc.
We can understand the objective behind your curiosity to carry out this high-value work. However, we would like to inform you and other members / residents of the DPS Society that you are misleading all of us by giving false information about the building extension project.
The following facts will reveal how you are trying to mislead the DPS Society members:
1. The DDA permission for area extension is only for new group housing societies – not for already constructed buildings like ours. DDA states: “the existing societies cannot be allowed to extend the structures as this would undermine the strength of the building and put people’s lives at risk.”
Even for new societies, DDA states: “if even a single flat owner disagrees, the proposal would have to be shelved.”
2. In this regard, the present and the past DPS MCs have been ignoring the advice of Mr. H. L. Kaul who is a qualified civil engineer and resident of our own society (Flat No. 121). Mr. Kaul has repeatedly suggested that the building extension project can be hazardous to residents’ health, lives and property.
3. Incidentally, Mr. Kaul is also among the three persons whom the MC has selected to give expert views on this project and now he is also among the seven members of the new MC, which was formed in November 2014. Then why are you ignoring the views of a qualified person like Mr. Kaul and trying to discuss about extension project in the meeting?
4. There are many other reasons which suggest that you should immediately stop even discussing this project, because it’s not only hazardous to human lives but it’s also illegal.
5. On page 6 (Point V) of the said letter, you have mentioned about “No Obligation Clause” from members who are not interested in this extension project. This is a highly objectionable statement, as you are trying to impose your ill will on other members of the Society. You are not supposed to use such dictatorial language in your communications.
Why do you expect all residents to accept your disturbing building extension proposal when it involves a whole lot of inconvenience related to construction activity, pollution, hindrance in human movement, and a great risk to healths and lives of children and adults?
6. Moreover, on the same page 6 (Point VI) of the said letter, you have vaguely mentioned about spending Rs. 7 lakh. We want to inform you that you are not supposed to spend even a single rupee of residents’ money without taking formal, explicit permission from all the members / residents of the Society.
7. As the building extension project is illegitimate and wrongful, we also advise you that you should not try to get it cleared from various government departments by using any unlawful methods.
8. Similarly, whatever repair work is needed in the building will be first decided by the three-member committee that you have formed. Then you will get formal approval for the repair work from all the members / residents of the Society while informing us about the process that you would follow for the repair work.
Moreover, we offer the following suggestions for the smooth management of the Society’s work.
1. Instead of focusing on projects that involve huge expenses, the DPS Society MC should work to bring social and administrative discipline in the Society. This will include streamlined system for car parking, gardening, children’s development activity, cooperative culture, and so on.
2. You need to clearly define and implement the procedures for holding Special General Body Meetings and recording members’ views.
Instead of approving or disapproving any agenda point by just asking in the meeting, you must take formal, explicit feedback from the residents / members because the meetings are mostly chaotic and noisy. This is to ensure that only those decisions are implemented that are formally approved.
3. You need to create a Website for DPS Society and put all the information on the Website. The information will include your procedures for accounting, selection of vendors, criteria for vendor selection, each member’s name, etc. who approve or disapprove a decision, regular information notices regarding Society functions, etc. This step is urgently required to run the Society in a transparent manner.
As regards Society Website, we would like to inform you about the recent instructions of Delhi Cooperative Tribunal (Government of NCT of Delhi).
The Delhi Cooperative Tribunal says: “Because of absence of transparency in the day to day work of societies by the managing committees, the litigation is on increase. Members of the societies are not aware of the proceedings conducted by the managing committee. This is high time for all the societies to have their own websites.”
Although there are many other steps that are required to be taken for the smooth functioning of the Society, for the time being, we request you to consider the points that we have stated above so that we could honestly introduce a true cooperative culture in our Society.
Thanking you,
Members, Residents of DPS Co-operative Group Housing Society, Dwarka, New Delhi 110 078
