The Supertech towers are demolished, leaving behind grave questions of accountability of many undetected partners in crime. Considering that Indian cities are expected to double their population by 2050 with many new megacities added, one cannot afford to repeat such a calamity. Our concerns on accountability of city and district authorities, politicians, Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 regime and the disaster management authorities brings them all critically under the scanner of law. These crimes are well planned, starting from land grabbing and consummating in illegal constructions.
It is not so difficult to fix accountability for such crimes. Despite political embeddedness, administrative decisions go on files and have to adhere to the principle of “proper channel”. A mere graduate in public administration can seek those files and expose roots and wings of corruption history. The executive makes visible efforts in language, expression and in defining indispensability to walk past a good law to serve corrupt practices. Then why do altruistic political masters and the courts take so long to prevent a pervert in law and watch this progress with eyes wide shut. The questions that emerge after Apex and Ceyane,the 40-storey twins, going down in dust are: why NOIDA and the builder were allowed time by courts to continue with their unholy nexus without in the first instance slapping a mandatory injunction? Why even the Chief Minister who has acquired extraordinary powers to demolish preferred to wait for five years till the act acquired an imagery of chivalrous victory over a long standing evil of past governments? Why the Central government, which has many key ministers holding property and residence in NOIDA, did not prefer to act in “public trust” for preventive action? Does it still need rocket science, Rs 20 crore and immense damage to environment to fix accountability? There is logic in the argument that the cost should have been equally shared among all stakeholders towards reparation of this crime. Did the edifice of justice miss out on the law of equity and a demand for equitable remedies which strongly suggest this line of reasoning?
It was mockingly laughable to see people rejoicing and drumming in celebrations as the twin towers fell. A sensitive citizen was wondering how all those creatively involved in their construction like labourers, designers and architects, who unaware of the politics built the towers brick by brick through their hands and mind. Their ingenious project gone down in dust and people celebrating! They were nowhere involved in an illegal construction which is a grave error of justice. As a product of “unholy nexus” as judges said, a connivance of District Magistrate, Enforcement Directorate, ward councillors, MLAs and MPs of those areas are party to the crime, primarily for squeezing benefits in cash or electoral returns.
The story of Supertech Towers is a story of unbreakable camaraderie all across the NCR, in cities of Gurugram, Faridabad, NOIDA, Sonipat and Panipat. The ED team comes every six months for a ritual demolition of their stairs or varandahs which are reconstructed in a day. The authorities also slap sudden sealing of shops in flourishing and sprawling community markets run by smaller and subsistence businesses. While this throws off subsistence businesses, the owner controlling these illegal buildings continues to whip out rents and feed administration regularly till his ownership brings back his rent business. These transactions are subtle, yet follow a pattern and cannot escape even an illiterate’s eye. In 2004, when I was writing a research paper on corruption at the office of District Magistrate in Gurugram, a naïve young boy collecting cash bribes at the property registration office touched my feet in respect for a teacher and outpoured most classified information on the subject. Shockingly, there was auctioning of the office of District Magistrates in Gurugram which returns highest revenue to the State treasury. In 2004, as per the information shared, it was around Rs 2 crore to get posting in this city of affluence. Where do these government officials with modest salaries manage this amount from?
An allotment of 48,263 sqm land took place on plot 4 of Sector 93A of NOIDA ON 23 November 2004. The first lease between the parties was executed on 16 March 2005 and the next day, possession certificate was handed over to the builder. Just one year later, on 21 June 2006, a revised plan for an additional area of 6556.51 sqm was approved. The second revised plan to enhance Floor Area (FAR) was again approved in 2009, but before this was approved by NOIDA on 26 November and before NOC Fire was granted on 11 September, the builder had already started constructing the twin towers. Interestingly, the Completion Certificate granted to the previous 14 towers was given in September 2009, showing green area in front of these towers, though the twins called T16 and T17 had already raised their heads by wiping off all greens. Yet, in defiance of all norms, the third revised plan for “Ground plus 40 floors” to an unprecedented hazardous height of 121m was granted and quickly a completion certificate was issued in 2012. During this time till 2012, two Chief Ministers, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati, governed the state and this rich city. In 2012, comes Akhilesh Yadav, but the scum had by then obstinately solidified. In 2017, when Yogiji got the throne of UP, the most liked bureaucrat Rama Raman, a 1987 batch favourite of all Chief Ministers, continued to occupy decision making in NOIDA as its CEO, but more than that the official Meena Bhargava DGM Planning who played a crucial role in the twin tower saga was top of the political favourites accused of Rs 300 crore scam, so much so that despite being transferred thrice, she did not move out and the police also refused to lodge any FIR against her at Kasna police station till 2021.
If anyone deserves to celebrate the tower demolition, it’s the civil society that struggled for over nine years at courtrooms, facing threats back home and uncertainty in courts. A strong willed civil society, a liberated social sector and an enlightened judiciary are the only answer to illegal constructions and flourishing graft in every city.
Amita Singh is President, NAPSIPAG Centre for Disaster Research; Senior Professorial Fellow Institute of Social Sciences; and former Professor, JNU (Law, Governance and Disaster Management).