Complaint to Make Amendments to DCS Act for Housing Society Website Rules
Complaint to Make Amendments to DCS Act for Housing Society Website Rules
I have sent the following complaint to authorities for suggesting amendment to Delhi Cooperative Societies (DCS) Act and DCS Rules to include the mandatory clause for cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) to make their exclusive society websites and update the websites regularly.
By Rakesh Raman
To January 10, 2024
Mr. Vinai Kumar Saxena
Lieutenant Governor (LG)
Delhi Government, Delhi
Mr. Raaj Kumar Anand
Minister, Cooperative
Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS)
Delhi Government, Delhi
Copy for Urgent Action to:
Secretary
Department of Law, Justice & Legislative Affairs
Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi
New Delhi
Subject: Amendment to Delhi Cooperative Societies (DCS) Act and DCS Rules to include the mandatory clause for cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) to make their exclusive society websites and update the websites regularly – including communications from and to the residents. This amendment is essential to ensure transparency and check increasing cases of crimes and corruption in housing societies.
Complaint by: Rakesh Raman
Dear Mr. Vinai Kumar Saxena and Other Authorities,
I am a national award-winning journalist and anti-corruption activist. Along with my other editorial and humanitarian activities, I have been running for the past 6 years a community-driven anti-corruption social service “Clean House” to help the residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in housing societies where millions of people suffer because of rampant corruption and lawlessness. In order to help the residents, I have created an online form that they use to inform me about their grievances.
This is to inform you that the cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) of Delhi have become dangerous centers of crime and corruption. The crimes in these housing societies are being committed by the management committee (MC) members or administrators in connivance with the corrupt officials of Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) of Delhi Government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Police, Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), and a few other departments.
One of the main reasons for increasing crimes in housing societies is the lack of transparency. The MCs prefer to work opaquely in order to swindle public money from residents. Although the RCS office has issued repeated directives for housing societies asking them to make their websites, the MCs and administrators blatantly ignore those directives. As a result, most CGHS residents are suffering and they have no forum where they could complain against the MC members. [ You can click here to watch a related video. ]
In order to stop corruption, the RCS office of Delhi Government has repeatedly asked all the housing societies to make their websites to increase transparency in their operations. But the criminal MC members and administrators of most housing societies refuse to follow the directions of the RCS office.
The RCS office has also created an online Google form for all societies to submit the website addresses and other details to the RCS office. However, the result is still depressing. Since corruption is increasing exponentially in housing societies which are mostly controlled by local criminals who operate as MC members, millions of residents are facing extreme harassment and persecution.
The corrupt MC members of different housing societies are committing a range of crimes such as cheating, extortion, bribery, illegal surveillance, environmental damage with unauthorized construction, illegal sale of car parking space, human rights violations, and so on. In this citywide crime and corruption enterprise, the MC members of housing societies are supported by corrupt bureaucrats mainly at DDA and RCS office of Delhi Government, and also by builders’ mafia. [ You can click here to watch a related video. ]
Although many Delhi bureaucrats have been imprisoned for their corrupt practices, rampant corruption is still happening at DDA and RCS offices. In response to the complaints filed by me, a few Delhi Government bureaucrats are facing corruption investigations at the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Cabinet Secretariat, and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India.
These bureaucrats – including IAS officers at RCS office – are operating as part of a citywide crime and corruption racket – termed as Widehouse Corruption Scandal – which is being run in Delhi by local criminals in connivance with crooked politicians, corrupt bureaucrats, complicit police officials, dishonest members of judiciary, and builders’ mafia.
While more than 20 top government bureaucrats, police officials, and members of the judiciary are involved in this criminal enterprise, at this stage some of them are facing investigations for their corrupt practices. [ You can click here to read the related case report that I sent to Delhi LG and other authorities. ]
[ Please click here to study the Widehouse corruption report and click here to watch a video to assess the damage that is being inflicted with this criminal activity. ] I am also a victim of this blatant criminality as my house is being broken with lethal construction.
[ You can click here to watch a related video: दिल्ली में मेरा घर क्यों तोड़ा जा रहा है? ]
In order to stop corruption, the RCS office has repeatedly asked all the housing societies to make their websites to increase transparency in their operations. According to the government notification issued in 2021 by the RCS office, the step has been taken to ensure transparency in the working of the societies and to access their data online. The notification also asserted that the website creation is mandatory / compulsory for each housing society.
In 2015 also, the RCS office had directed the MCs of societies to submit their website address to the RCS office within 45 days from the date of the notification. The RCS office also warned the MCs that if they failed to comply, actions as per law may be initiated. However, even after 8 years of this notification, the criminal MC members of most housing societies blatantly refused to follow the directions of the RCS office. They have brazenly defied the government’s regulatory advice.
Only a handful (estimated 5%) of housing societies have their websites and even these websites are not being updated with relevant information because the MCs openly cheat the society members. Astonishingly, the RCS officials do not forcefully ask the housing societies to make and update their websites.
It is also shocking to note that the RCS officials do not have any record of the number of housing societies and those which have made their websites. In response to an RTI application that I had filed, the RCS office did not give me any information about the housing societies and their websites. As there is no accountability for them, the RCS officials blatantly defy the Right to Information (RTI) Act. [ You can click here to read my complaint against RCS officials for violating the RTI Act. ]
In other words, the RCS officials are not inclined to enforce their own regulations because they are being apparently bribed by the corrupt MC members or administrators of housing societies who prefer to hide their criminal acts. Thus, the top RCS officials are operating hand in glove with the MCs of housing societies to run this criminal racket.
Although a total transformation is required at the RCS office for its officials to work honestly and efficiently, it should begin by implementing the website regulation for housing societies. If a housing society does not make its website immediately and update it regularly, it should be construed as a criminal offence on the part of the MC members for which they must be prosecuted under the DCS Act and / or various sections of IPC (Indian Penal Code) related to cheating, fraud, and conspiracy to harm others.
Note: There is almost no cost to create and update a website while there are software platforms available that allow you to create and update your website free of charge.
Besides other relevant information such as financial transactions, appointment of vendors, internal and external communications, the website should allow the members to register their complaints online. And all communications between the members and the MCs should be available on the society website.
If the MC of a housing society fails to update the website regularly and upon receipt of a complaint from a member, the RCS office should immediately initiate criminal proceedings against the MC members and these MC members should be dismissed.
As the complaints are increasing from the society members, the RCS office should also revamp its own website and make an online form for the residents so that they could file their complaints against their MCs or even RCS officials. All these steps must be taken immediately in order to weed out corruption from the RCS office as well as the housing societies.
REQUEST FOR ACTION
While I request you to thoroughly study the entire document including the blue-hyperlinked files, you are requested to take the following action:
1. Make comprehensive amendments to Delhi Cooperative Societies (DCS) Act and DCS Rules which must make it mandatory for cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) to create their websites.
2. Prescribe the punishment with possible jail sentence to MC members or administrators in housing societies who fail to make and update their websites as directed by the RCS office.
3. Describe the format in which the housing societies should make their websites – particularly including the provision of uploading all documents of communications / complaints from residents and the response from MC members.
4. Depute dedicated RCS officials to handle website-related complaints from residents in order to take immediate punitive action against MC members and administrators.
5. Add any other related clause to ensure transparency in the working of housing societies so that crimes and corruption in these societies by MC members and administrators could be stopped.
Note: Since this is a digital document, please click the blue hyperlinks to download and study additional documents to understand various aspects of the complaint.
Availability: I will be available for online / video conference meetings to explain different aspects of the complaint to law-enforcement authorities and government agencies.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also runs the community-driven anti-corruption social service “Clean House” to help the housing society residents of Delhi.
