How Illegal FAR Construction Stopped at DPS CGHS Dwarka
How Illegal FAR Construction Stopped at DPS CGHS Dwarka
Crime and Corruption Cases of the Management Committee (MC) of DPS CGHS, Sector 4, Dwarka, New Delhi 110078
September 19, 2021
By Rakesh Raman
Now people – including the citizens and government officials – in almost the entire city of Delhi know that the management committee (MC) of DPS CGHS in Sector 4 of Dwarka is perhaps the most corrupt MC which has been facing government action for a number of criminal cases.
As a journalist and social activist, I have been complaining about the criminal activities of the DPS CGHS MC members to the authorities. As a result, these MC members have been facing investigations and penalties from the law-enforcement agencies in a number of cases.
The criminal activities of the past and present DPS CGHS MC members include corruption, fraud, cheating, bribery, intimidation, illegal surveillance, breach of privacy, illegal car parking, labour / human rights violations, illegal appointment of vendors, environmental damage, defiance of court orders, obstruction of justice, and so on.
The illegal floor area ratio (FAR) construction activity that the DPS CGHS MC members had started a couple of years ago was stopped last year (2020) by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), as I had complained about this crime to various authorities.
While the FAR construction in occupied cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) is a criminal activity which is depriving people of their fundamental / human right to live in a clean and peaceful environment, I had filed a detailed petition with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India to protect the rights of people by stopping FAR construction.
Moreover, FAR construction is part of a citywide corruption racket being run by local criminals who operate as MC members of housing societies with support from corrupt bureaucrats, complicit police officials, and builders’ mafia. In order to get FAR-related corruption stopped, I had filed a case with evidence to Lokpal which is the top anti-corruption authority of India.
ILLEGAL FAR CONSTRUCTION AT DPS CGHS
In response to the complaints filed by me, the DDA stopped FAR construction at DPS CGHS with a strict warning to the MC members that if they failed to comply with DDA’s prohibition order, another legal action will be initiated against them.
Earlier, in 2019, a couple of DPS CGHS residents had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court to get FAR construction stopped in the Society. But they could not win the case because most lawyers, judges, and courts behave erratically, as they lack domain knowledge in specialized areas such as pollution and environmental rights.
As I have been doing a vigorous followup to get the illegal FAR construction at DPS CGHS stopped and unauthorized construction demolished, the DDA informed me a few days ago with its letter dated September 14, 2021 that it has stopped the construction with an order dated July 30, 2020 under directions from NHRC and Lokpal.
Subsequently, the DPS CGHS MC members filed a case at Delhi High Court to get the construction resumed, but they lost the case as it is a criminal activity in which the corruption money is estimated to be crores of rupees. [ Case W.P.(C) 6564/2020: Delhi Public School Co-operative Group Housing Society Limited (DPS CGHS) versus Delhi Development Authority. ] [ You can click here to read the Delhi High Court order dated 27.01.2021. ]
The Delhi High Court order indicates that the DPS CGHS MC members were doing unauthorized FAR construction. But instead of taking the right lesson from the court order and stopping the construction permanently, these MC members filed an appeal at Tis Hazari Appellate Tribunal for MCD (ATMCD) which handles appeals related to unauthorized construction.
Since I have been asking the authorities to get illegal construction demolished at DPS CGHS and start criminal proceedings against the accused MC members and their accomplices including construction companies, the cunning DPS CGHS MC members filed the appeal at ATMCD just to make the case sub judice so that the demolition and other legal action against them could be delayed.
I presume that ATMCD cannot direct DDA to allow FAR construction at DPS CGHS as it has already been declared illegal by DDA. I will separately approach ATMCD and higher judiciary so that the illegal construction or any kind of related building repair does not take place at DPS CGHS and criminal proceedings get started against MC members and their accomplices.
I am in the process of asking the authorities to file a separate case against the accused DPS CGHS MC members, as they have conspired with a few other members of DPS CGHS and private companies to extort money from residents for an illegal activity of FAR construction as well as repairs under the garb of FAR construction. My objective is to get all of them jailed.
FAR CONSTRUCTION AND CORRUPTION
Also, in response to the complaints filed by me against FAR construction and related corruption, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, has initiated an investigation against top bureaucrats who have been supporting FAR projects directly or indirectly.
The DoPT which acts as a government watchdog to monitor and control the conduct of senior officers – particularly the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers – has initiated the corruption investigation against Mr. Anurag Jain (IAS), DDA Vice Chairman; Mr. Devinder Singh (IAS), Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) of Delhi Government; and Mr. Pankaj Kumar (IAS), District Magistrate (North-East) who are the prime / latest accused in this case.
However, the investigation is also supposed to cover more officials at DDA and RCS offices, their predecessors, other government functionaries, police officials, owners of construction companies / builders’ mafia, and corrupt MC members of housing societies.
I have mentioned in my complaints that the accused officials and MC members in this case are involved in extreme corruption and extortion crimes in Delhi’s housing societies as well as in unauthorized construction projects worth crores of rupees.
Recently, I have also urged Mr. Anil Baijal, Lt. Governor (LG) of Delhi; Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister; and the Chief Secretary of Delhi Government to suspend the services of these bureaucrats as they are facing formal corruption investigation. The case is in progress.
Now, I am urging the authorities to get the DPS CGHS building restored to its original state after demolishing the illegal FAR construction that has already happened. Besides other penalties, the building demolition and restoration expenses will be paid by the DPS CGHS MC members and their accomplices.
MAIN ACCUSED IN THE DPS CGHS CASE
The main accused in this case are the DPS CGHS MC members, their supporters in construction crimes, and the construction companies which are responsible for FAR construction. The names of the accused are:
MC Members: Neeraj Kumar Vaish, M.N. Sampathkumar, R. Balasubramanian, Ms. Leela Swami, Sandeep Taneja, Manguram Tyagi, and Ms. Naseem Afshaque.
Members in Construction Crimes: Dilip Rozekar, M.M.Shukla, C.B. Swami, Pranav Kulshreshtha, Ravinder Sharma, O.P. Khanduja, Manish Bisht, Kaushik Banerjee, Narender Kumar, L.S. Thakur, Gaurav Sood, Sunil Bansal, Dr. Alok Varshney, Vineet Dua, Kashmera Randhawa, and Vikas Sharma.
Construction Companies: Vivek & Arti Architects, Om Star Constructions, Design N Design Architects, Team Professional Consultant, and others.
Their addresses have been given to the law-enforcement agencies. I have stated that if an accused person dies during the prosecution, his/her legal heir will be liable and face the legal consequences.
Threats to Me: In order to intimidate and silence me, the accused DPS CGHS MC members and their accomplices are sending multiple threats to me. These include false police complaints against me, threats of physical harm to me, expulsion notices, legal notices, illegal demand for money, and slanderous attacks on my social as well as professional status.
But I am not deterred and I will keep fighting truthfully against their crimes and corruption to get the culprits arrested and imprisoned.
You can click here to know the details of crime and corruption happening at DPS CGHS.
[ You can click here to watch a related video – How to Stop FAR Construction in Delhi Housing Societies – which is also given below. ]
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
He also runs the “Clean House” anti-corruption service which works like a community court to report about crime and corruption happening in Delhi’s group housing societies.
