Delhi LG Vinai Saxena Fails to Stop Crimes in Housing Societies

Delhi LG Vinai Saxena Fails to Stop Crimes in Housing Societies

If Saxena cannot work efficiently to resolve public grievances, he must resign and let some honest and efficient official handle Delhi affairs.

By Rakesh Raman

Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Saxena is such an incompetent bureaucrat that he shows complete disregard to the mounting problems of Delhi citizens.

Today, millions of people – particularly who live in Delhi’s cooperative group housing society (CGHS) flats – are suffering because of crimes being committed by the management committee (MC) members or administrators who control the housing society affairs.

As a journalist and social activist, I have been running the “Clean House” anti-corruption online social service for the past 6 years to help CGHS residents who are victims of crimes of their MC members.

While the MC crimes include corruption, intimidation, unauthorized construction, extortion, etc., I allow harassed residents to file their complaints through an online form. After knowing the facts of the case, I formally inform the authorities with the hope that the aggrieved members would get relief.

Since the MC members or administrators misuse public money of the residents to bribe government officials, no action is taken against them. With full impunity provided by the government functionaries, these criminal MC members or administrators commit crimes and defy law blatantly.

In this criminal enterprise, the corrupt officials of Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) of Delhi Government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Police, and a few other departments are involved.

As the crimes led by MCs in housing societies are increasing, I approached the LG office to seek LG’s intervention to stop the crimes and save the lives and rights of residents. 

When I spoke in the LG office on May 17, 2024, I was told that LG staff members Rahul Saini and Ms. Harleen Kaur will help me as they are responsible for matters related to the RCS office and DDA respectively. I was also asked to send a formal email to bring the issue to their notice.

I sent the following email the same day (May 17) with the request to have a video conference with the LG office to explain the delinquency of corrupt officials at the RCS office and the DDA. 

The email that I sent is given below.

Subject: Complaints of Residents

Dear LG of Delhi and other Officers in the LG Office,

I am a national award-winning journalist and founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation in Delhi. Along with other editorial and social projects, for the past 6 years, I have also been running a community-driven free online anti-corruption social service “Clean House”. 

This service helps the residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) where millions of people suffer because of rampant corruption and lawlessness. 

I am writing you this email to have a video conference with you to explain the delinquency of corrupt officials at the office of Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) of Delhi Government and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). 

The lawless RCS and DDA officials blatantly defy law and ignore residents’ complaints. The LG Listening Post and the PGMS are totally ineffective systems. You are requested to completely overhaul the RCS and DDA processes and deploy honest officers so that citizens’ grievances are addressed. 

Note: Please DO NOT simply forward this email to some other department. Rather, take action in your own office immediately. 

Thank You

[ You can click here to read my email and response from the LG office. ]

The LG office acknowledged my email and – in turn – informed the other concerned officials. But despite my request, the LG office bureaucrats did not hold the video conference with me and simply forwarded my email like a post office to some other departments, while I had specifically advised against this type of careless forwarding of my email.

Moreover, the problems in housing societies that I wanted to highlight through my online interaction with the LG office still persist. It shows that LG Vinai Saxena – who is the administrative head of Delhi – is shirking his responsibility and not resolving people’s problems.

These days, when a number of Delhi ministers including the chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal have been jailed for their alleged involvement in corruption and money laundering scandals, LG Saxena’s responsibility toward citizens increases manifold. 

If Saxena cannot work efficiently to resolve public grievances, he must resign and let some honest and efficient official handle Delhi affairs. The immediate need is to completely overhaul the RCS office and the DDA by removing corrupt officials from these departments.

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.