Adarsh Activist
The Mumbai High Court’s order to destroy
the 31 storey premium building in SoBo, has implications far beyond. The
reverberations would be felt for decades, if the order is implemented, i.e. the
higher Courts does not rescind it.
Since cases in India take a long
time to move, move somewhere, it turns out that the HC had merely upheld what
Jairam Ramesh, the Union Environment Minister had decided way back to demolish
the building. At that time the order was considered to be too strong. As it
turned out, the story did not change, and the HC also ordered for a demolition.
The land on which the building stands would be reverted back to the state
government.
In a nutshell, the building was
constructed for defence personnel, but was “taken over” by civilians, mostly
politicians and bureaucrats or people linked to them, the usual PEPs. The
illustrious list of these ineligible members also includes the current Union
Railway minister.
People in influential positions
benefitted, and the prosecution agencies would be hunting them down. In fact
the list of people, mostly comprising of bureaucrats and politicians who would
questioned and charged, is a long one. In the defence space, the MOD would be
required to conduct its own investigations against its officers, most of who
may be retired by now, for criminal negligence of duty.
These cases would continue for a
few more years, and will face difficulties at various stages, of filing
comprehensive foolproof chargesheets, thorough investigations, and putting up
an ironclad case to the tjudiciary. Our investigative agencies have proven,
time and again, their inability to take these cases to the logical conclusion.
The mild cynicism is illustrated by one example from the Adarsh case itself, On 29 May
2012, a special CBI court granted bail to seven of the nine arrested accused in
the Adarsh scam since the CBI failed to file a chargesheet within the
stipulated 60 days from the time it took them in custody. Those granted bail
include Maj. Gen. (Retired-retd) A.R. Kumar, Maj. Gen. (retd) T. K. Kaul, Brig.
(retd) M. M. Wanchu, IAS officer and former Mumbai district collector Pradeep
Vyas, former Defence Estate officer R. C. Thakur, IAS officer P. V. Deshmukh
and former Congress member of the Legislative Council Kanhaiyalal Gidwani (the
chief promoter of Adarsh).
But
things are changing. Not necessary that the investigating agencies would
continue their past performance. Nor is it necessary that they would be allowed
to go slow. The reason for this optimism is extraneous to these agencies, as we
come to it, and has roots in the RTI Act.
Even in political terms. Between
the two political parties, the one which has already gone down the drain and
the other which is hell bent on chasing it, unmindful of itself getting inside
the drain in the process, the case had provided enough fodder for continued mud
slinging. The Maharashtra state was ruled by Congress, when the scam first
surfaced, and the then Chief Minister had to resign, taking few more senior
leaders down alongwith. But again this case, or the judgement is not about the
political implications. There is not much political mileage for the saffron
party either. The political damage has already been done.
So what does this judgement mean?
The story of flats meant for
Kargil war widows being usurped by absolutely unconnected civilians was first
unearthed more than a decade back using the potent tool of RTI. It is indeed
difficult to speculate whether this would have been unearthed and how long
would it have taken to unearth in the absence of RTI. Like many other scams.
Shortly after the RTI came into
force, activists Simpreet Singh and Yogacharya Anandji embarked on a quest to
expose how politicians, bureaucrats and military officials had flouted rules to
construct the building, change it from a six storey to a 31 storey structure
and acquire flats, which were meant for war widows, and with the icing, i.e @ below
market rates
"I remember that whenever I
went to the collector's office in Mumbai, the concerned person used to
disappear. But you had to get know the low-level employees who would let some
information slip," said Mr Singh.
"It took months, years, to get a clear picture. But as it became clearer
that things were fishy, our resolve got stronger."
It was early days of RTI, and
Government officials were very tight fisted when it came to releasing
information, which no doubt, was the key to their informal power. Procuring the
required information was but the preliminary step. Approaching the Government,
with the help of the press to influence public opinion, and then finally
judicial intervention, the activists have seen it all. Eventually petitions
were filed, Criminal PIL No. 34 of 2010 by KetanTirodkar, Criminal Writ
Petition No. 3359 of 2010 by Simpreet Singh and Criminal PIL No. 36 of 2010 by
Mahendra Singh.
In
2011, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said, “The
episode of Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society reveals how a group of select officials,
placed in key posts, could subvert rules and regulations in order to grab prime
government land - a public property - for personal benefit.”
In
January 2011, the Maharashtra government was forced to set up a two-member
judicial commission to inquire into the matter. The Commission’s terms of
reference were to investigate all aspects, including land ownership and
allotment, permissions given to Adarsh. As it turned out, this was the often
used ploy for delaying justice. The commission headed by retired High Court
judge Justice J A Patil, with N N Kumbhar acting as member secretary. submitted
its final report in April 2013 to the Maharashtra government but it refused to
table it in the assembly. Government of Maharashtra deliberately adopted delay
tactics and it was only after queries from the Bombay High Court that the
Government tabled the report purposely on the very last day of Assembly’s Winter
Session in December 2013.
The
report had indicted four former chief ministers of Maharashtra: Ashok Chavan, Vilasrao
Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil, 2 former urban
development ministers: Rajesh Tope and Sunil Tatkare and 12 top bureaucrats for
various illegal acts.
The
scam is notable for the fact that it was enacted over a period of ten years and
required the active involvement of successive officials in many crucial posts.
Rules and regulations across many departments and ministries both at the Centre
and the state of Maharashtra were flouted or bent to allow for the construction
of the building.
The HC
decision marks coming closer to the successful completion of a long drawn
struggle of a few committed activists who decided to take on the high and
mighty. They were convinced that serious irregularities were involved in the
making of Adarsh, and involved people need to be made accountable for their
actions.
Now,
demolition of a property, in my opinion, is probably not the best thing to do
as huge amount of resources have gone into making the building. Probably the
property should be put to auction and the proceeds go into the CM Drought
Relief Fund. This combined with strict punishment to all those directly or
indirectly involved, particularly those found of criminal dereliction of duty
may be the right justice.
But
the takeaway from the case is far bigger, with implications beyond imagination,
which may start fructifying after a decade from now.
Some
of the more blatant transgressions included: obtaining a NOC from the Army
towards construction of the building in a sensitive zone, getting the Mumbai
Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) development plan modified,
and obtaining another NOC for residential development in a Coastal Regulation
Zone, often through manipulation of records and misrepresentation of facts.
There
are certain aspects of the case which are unique to Adarsh, like defence involvement,
which is unlike other real estate development projects. But there are many
aspects of the scam which are common across many real estate projects; to name
a few, selling apartments before getting all the approvals, getting the
development plans modified and approved from Development Authorities like
MMRDA, construction not in accordance with the approved plans, obtaining
environmental approvals, getting approvals for construction in a Regulation
Zone.
This
scam would lead to a deluge of RTIs seeking information on various real estate
projects across the country; particularly projects where there are rumors of
violations like construction without complete regulatory approvals, or
construction on agricultural/forest lands, or construction along coastal/river
side which results in environmental damage. People want to know how the
approvals were given and on what basis. Skeletons will start falling from
behind closed doors.
"The
masters of the yesteryears who were conceived to be public servants continued
to behave like Mai Baap and considered themselves to be a class apart meant to
rule the public," says Hitendar Jain an RTI activist who had unearthed the
IRC Society scam, "Now, the RTI has made the Saheb Bahadur understand that
they are public servants meant to serve - We The Public."
We
can visualize an army of RTI activists filing criminal PILs across the country
aimed to bring to book the unholy trio of builder-politician-bureaucrat. They
will not just unearth the files, but take it up with the Executive, and the
Judiciary if required, and shall not rest until the investigative agencies have
done their job. They are here to enforce transparency and accountability.
The
real benefits of the RTI Act are now being enjoyed by the country, thanks to these
activists.
