Court to Check Coronavirus Infection in FAR Construction at Chandanwari Apartments
If the Chandanwari MC cannot prove in the Court and submit photographs and test reports of each worker, the Court is expected to immediately stop FAR construction at Chandanwari Apartments.
By Rakesh Raman
OPENING STATEMENT AND REQUEST
I request the wise and kind-hearted persons in each housing society to urge their managing committees (MCs) to stop FAR construction because like slow poison, this harmful construction is slowly killing your families – your mothers, fathers, children… and all of us.
As the construction work in different housing societies will keep getting delayed because of coronavirus, shortage of construction workers, pollution, and other factors, in many cases the people who are managing these construction projects will die before the construction is complete.
And they will also leave behind sick families, and their children will find it difficult to breathe after a few years because their lungs are continuously getting choked. Why do you want such a sick society around you? Let’s make our housing societies clean and livable, and live peacefully without any divide between us. If you want my help, you can always contact me.
Thank you
Rakesh Raman
COURT CASE
The Delhi High Court has observed that the extended construction [a.k.a. Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction ] which is happening in Delhi’s cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) can spread coronavirus (Covid-19) in the entire building.
In an ongoing case of Chandanwari Apartments (Chandanwari CGHS), Sector-10, Dwarka, the Court has asked the Society management to ensure that the Covid infection is contained, as the construction workers who come from outside can be the potential carriers of virus.
According to the Court order of June 12 [ Delhi High Court W.P. (C) 638/2020 ], the Society – through its counsel – has assured the Court that “due measures shall be taken to ensure that the residents are not put to any inconvenience or exposed to any threat to their health and safety, on account of the prevailing pandemic crisis, by the ongoing building construction which involves workers and other personnel from outside.”
As it is impossible to take measures that can stop the Covid contagion during such a massive construction activity, the Court has rightly asked the Chandanwari Society management to submit photographs of the measures that it has taken to stop the spread of virus. And the construction is obviously causing inconvenience to residents.
It may not be possible to take the infection-prevention measures during FAR construction and submit the related photographs in the Court along with an affidavit and the status report, as the Court has demanded from the managing committee (MC) of Chandanwari Apartments.
Now, after the Court intervention to check the Covid infection during construction, the measures that Chandanwari MC is supposed to take include 2-meter social distance of one construction worker from another, which is not possible in construction work. So, Chandanwari MC cannot fulfill this requirement.
And if the Chandanwari petitioners who want to stop construction take photographs of construction workers who are standing close to each other or they are not wearing masks and submit them in the Court, they can prove that Chandanwari MC has violated its commitment given in the Court. This should be a reason enough to stop construction and hold the Chandanwari MC accountable for this violation.
Moreover, as per the health guidelines, the Chandanwari MC is supposed to check the temperature of each worker everyday before they are allowed to enter the building. If these workers go out in the evening to come back next morning, the MC is also supposed to test each worker everyday for coronavirus. They can easily bring coronavirus in the building from the locations where they live.
The Chandanwari MC is also supposed to submit the daily coronavirus test reports of each worker who comes from outside to work in the building. The Court must consider all these factors to fully implement the preventive guidelines required to stop the contagion. A perfunctory order will not help stop the infection which can kill people who live in the building.
If the Chandanwari MC cannot prove in the Court and submit photographs and test reports of each worker, the Court is expected to immediately stop FAR construction at Chandanwari Apartments.
Global research shows that building construction is a major factor in the spread of Covid infection, and construction projects are being stopped to save the lives of construction workers and the people around the construction activity. [ Click here to download research document. ]
However, Delhi’s housing societies which are run by corrupt MC members are continuing the FAR construction activity because these construction projects give an opportunity to MC members to extort crores of rupees of public money.
FAR CONSTRUCTION AND CRIMES AT DPS CGHS
A similar FAR construction work is happening at DPS CGHS (Sector 4, Dwarka, Delhi) which is perhaps the most corrupt housing society of Delhi.
The DPS CGHS MC operates as a full-fledged criminal gang under the directions of gang leader M.N. Sampathkumar – who claims to be a former employee of Air India. The crime model that Sampathkumar (pictured) has developed is quite suitable to be used as a case study in the crime-prevention agencies of the world.
After starting the illegal FAR construction at DPS CGHS as the secretary in the MC of the Society, Sampathkumar quit his position from the MC. As multiple corruption investigations are running against Sampathkumar, he thought that he will run scott-free simply by quitting the MC position.
But that is not possible. He will have to face the consequences of his crimes and corruption even when he is not in the MC. And if he dies, his legal inheritors will have to face the investigations.
Sampathkumar has an open-and-shut corruption case against him, as he has admitted in the Court of Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) that corruption has been happening at DPS CGHS. His admission is available in the Court documents.
But when the Court ordered the inspection U/S 61 of the DCS Act to investigate the financial misappropriation and other crimes at DPS CGHS when Sampathkumar was the secretary in the MC, Sampathkumar conspired with his gang to get the inspection delayed.
The very fact that Sampathkumar and his gang members are refusing to show the Society’s financial documents to the inspection officer appointed by the Court, is an admission of guilt by them. It simply means that massive corruption has been happening at DPS CGHS under Sampathkumar’s gang and the estimated amount of corruption money is Rs. 20 crore.
Although Sampathkumar’s gang (a.k.a. S-Gang) – including gang members Sampathkumar, Shukla, Vaish, Bala, Swami, Taneja, Tyagi, Naseem, and Dua – got the RCS inspection delayed, the inspection has not been stopped by the RCS Court.
Similarly, India’s top anti-corruption department Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has asked the Vigilance Department of Air India to investigate the illegal activities of Sampathkumar. [ Click here to see CVC document. ]
Since Sampathkumar and his gang members are part of a city-wide criminal racket being run in connivance with builders’ mafia, I have been informed by the law-enforcement through a letter dated 16.03.2020 that the case has been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). I could not follow it up because of the coronavirus lockdowns during the past 3 months.
I had submitted a complaint of more than 80 pages including documentary evidence and facts about this criminal racket in which Sampathkumar and his gang operate. On the basis of this complaint, the case has gone to the CBI.
EVIDENCE OF CRIME AT DPS CGHS
Obviously, the evidence is given to the police and law-enforcement agencies, and evidence is not given to thieves and dacoits. Therefore, I have given the evidence to investigating agencies which have started investigations against Sampathkumar and his gang on the basis of the evidence that I have provided.
Moreover, refusal to show the financial records of an organization that deals with public money is also an evidence in corruption cases. Sampathkumar and his gang members (MC of DPS CGHS) refused to show the financial records to an officer appointed by the court. If Sampathkumar is honest, he should let the financial inspection ordered by the RCS Court take place.
Now there is a possibility that Sampathkumar will bribe the CBI officers to get the inquiry delayed. But he will not be able to get it stopped because I have all the letters that the government has written to inform me about the progress of investigation against Sampathkumar and his gang.
Although Sampathkumar believes that he is a professional criminal who can hoodwink the investigating agencies, he fails to understand that the government records in which his crimes appear cannot be destroyed. I have all those records with me.
The current delay in getting Sampathkumar and his gang members prosecuted is presumably because of the coronavirus pandemic as these days most government officials are not attending offices regularly. But sooner rather than later the long arm of the law will catch Sampathkumar and his gang members.
Immoral Act: Now, the MC members in different housing societies must realize that with FAR construction they are endangering the lives of people who live in the building. They must stop this construction immediately, because such construction is not only a crime but it is also a cruel, immoral act against their own families and their neighbors.
While the Delhi High Court has taken the right decision in the case of Chandanwari Apartments to stop the Covid infection during FAR construction, now the onus is on the petitioners to collect sufficient evidence that proves the violations in the Society.
The Chandanwari petitioners who want to stop FAR construction should also add an argument about the violation of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, which has been enforced across the country from March 2020 in order to limit the spread of coronavirus disease during the Covid-19 pandemic in India. Thus, in all probability, the construction at Chandanwari Apartments should stop. The next Court hearing is on 30.06.2020.
Threats and Slanderous Attacks: In order to intimidate and silence me, Sampathkumar and his gang members have been issuing a number of threats to me. Their threats to me include false police complaints against me, threats of physical harm to me, expulsion notices, legal notices, and false, slanderous attacks on my social as well as professional status.
I have also been facing increasing threats including death threats for my editorial and anti-corruption work. Recently, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India issued a notice to the Commissioner of Delhi Police to protect me and my rights as a journalist.
Rakesh Raman
About Me (Rakesh Raman)
Rakesh Raman is a national award-winning journalist and founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation. Besides working at senior editorial positions with leading media companies, he was writing an exclusive edit-page column regularly for The Financial Express (a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group).
Nowadays, for the past 10 years, he has been running his own global news services on different subjects. He runs various environment protection, education awareness, and anti-corruption campaigns, and also publishes research reports on different subjects.
He runs an exclusive anti-corruption social service “Clean House” to help the suffering residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in housing societies where millions of people live. He also has formed an environment protection group called Green Group in Delhi.
Recently, he has started a community-driven “Covid Connect” service, which is a free online platform that serves as a virtual connection between the residents and the Delhi Government in order to inform the government about the hardships that the residents are facing during the coronavirus pandemic.
He creates and distributes a number of digital publications that cover areas such as technology, law, environment, education, politics, corruption and transparency. He is also publishing “Covid Health Bulletin” digital magazine that covers global coronavirus news and views.
Recently, he has formed the RMN POLCOM GROUP which is offering its custom content development and research services to political parties and political research organizations around the world. He has created an “Open Government” model for the Delhi Legislative Assembly to ensure an effective public oversight of the government activities.
He has published the “Delhi Disaster Report 2019” which sheds light on the humanitarian crisis in India’s capital New Delhi because of administrative and political downfall in the city-state. He has written the draft for Delhi Housing Societies Bill, 2020 which is being proposed for implementation through the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development.
Contact
Rakesh Raman
463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4
Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, INDIA
