Hon Cm Sir, Is Being Builder, Crime Here In Our State?

Hon CM Sir,

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest”… Confucius

No need to introduce the great philosopher from China, whose words have guided even the modern mankind over the years & it’s his last method to learn wisdom is what I recalled when I was reading things about the recent accident which not only has taken lives of nine workers but shaken entire real estate! No, I am not justifying builders or those who are involved in that accident, being a builder by myself I can’t dare to do that at the same time I have personally full sympathy for the deceased in the accident. Just as an engineer by myself & nearly half of my life spent on construction site, I felt like writing to you, Hon CM Sir because I respect you as a human being & then you are in charge of both the departments involved in this incident i.e. Urban Development & Home; UD, as it controls everything related to real estate & Home which controls police, who are investigating the case of accident. I am not expecting any sympathy from media or masses or so called NGO’s for being a builder by myself or even for those who are right now being declared as absconding in the eyes of law & what is their fault? Agreed they have been part of the system which has taken lives of nine people but are they regular professional criminals is what I will like to ask you & if they are, then right from every person who is associated with the system we call society is part of the crime. Already in our country you & me both know, there is no value of life, especially when the life is of some common person, may it be a worker who fall down from that fourteenth floor or a passenger who was traveling by the bus which got washed down in Savitri river!

Sir, in this case the said builders are not first class or even tenth class criminals as often referred in the police language, they were just like me or any decent family people who till now were doing business which was supporting hundreds of families &  given home to thousands of families too while doing so! They have clear record like any common man with no crime not even jumping of signal, till now. It wasn’t their first project & neither have they started the said project or any of their projects on some govt land or river bed or in road & definitely they haven’t started the work without obtaining any permission! Now every media & political person is claiming that illegal work was going on, let’s ask the same people or media that haven’t they printed hundreds of square inch of their media with the advertises released by very same builders & for their own project, so when these builders releases advertises then no media asks for sanction plans or care to verify whether the project is legal or illegal & one accident happen, the very same media is behind to pain the entire builder fraternity as villains! And joke is on very same day of the said accident our dear State Govt declares on the floor of State Assembly in ongoing Session, its intentions to legalize every illegal construction in the State that has been built in past till present! Now who are guiltier Sir & what IPC charges should be applied to entire system which has taken such decision to legalize thousands of constructions which can take lives of millions residing in those structures?

Had these builders such hard core criminals, as the media & your police dept is claiming, then why they have even applied for the sanctions of the said floors where the accident happened in first place & reached till eleventh floors, with all sanctions in place? I agree to carry on with the work when sanction is not in hand is breaking law but have we ever analyzed why a builder that to reputed as those involved tend to take such risk? Well, again media will say “Builders care a hang for the law & think they can buy the law along with the system in which law exists”, fact is Law cares a hang for those who cares for the law! Here everybody knows everything about entire system which supposedly should be executing the law, may it be your UD which has many faces i.e. PMC to PCMC to PMRDA & we all know how it works. Again I am not saying all is that bad but then same is applicable to other side of system too, i.e. is builders! And when to avoid the delay if someone just speed up the work like entire Pune does in jumping red signal, the only focus of the accident has been kept as illegality of the floors!  I repeat I don’t say if masses are breaking the law that makes it legal & that’s why it should be pardoned, all I am saying is look at the intention & the reasons of why some reputed builder need to take the risk of breaking law & continue the work without sanction!

Then comes the workmanship aspect of the accident, agreed utmost care should be taken at any work level & value of life should have highest respect but then this isn’t something totally wrong doing & intentional killing! We all flow with whatever is going in the market, again it isn’t right but then it isn’t a crime definitely charged as murder. Even I am an engineer & I try to take every possible care at site with known workmanship methods which are proven over the years & still an accident can happen, that’s why it’s called as an accident! It wasn’t the first building or first slab at that project, nearly thirteen buildings with some fifteen odd slabs, meant total some two hundred plus slabs have casted over that single project with same workmanship & just a part has gave in, surely a criminal won’t wait that long & definitely won’t invest to lose everything by even intentionally murdering nine people! Few years back in PMC jurisdiction only an ongoing building has collapsed taking twelve lives, at that time the building itself was totally illegal & owner was political figure & even ex elected member of PMC itself. That time also so much hohaallah wasn’t there, reason we can easily understand as the builder wasn’t a known business house & then also it was decided to lay down construction practices, btw wasn’t it responsibility of UD? And if the workmanship is faulty & now we are saying the centering material for the slab i.e. supporting structure is of poor quality then what UD dept with its all sub arms like PMC & PCMC was doing till two hundred slabs have been casted with same centering material at this very site only? And trust me they are not doing anything different as you by yourself visit any building right from our Nagpur to Mumbai, even PMC’s very own buildings, you won’t find much difference in workmanship of what was going at the said accident site? So what are we waiting for to set the construction guide lines, if this workmanship has been found faulty?

Then comes the very basic question why these people haven’t been surrendered if they are not criminals & not guilty? Well simple, nobody believes in the law as it will deliver justice is the blunt answer! Why these people, tell me a single person who on his own surrenders to police or to the law, because as the Confucius says, our past has taught us that wisdom bitterly! And with our masses reactions on social media as well bashing from the media, I don’t think they have done anything wrong & then we know what kind of treatment our jails provides, especially to the common man! So no wonder the poor fellows are running for their life, though again in the eyes of law & media they are just wanted criminals for now!

Here, will share a small incidence with one of my very close friend in Information Technology, just to make you realize what law is in the eyes of common people & not just for builders! My friend is USA returned & started a business center giving up a decent job in USA. Two months back two men rented a cabin at his business center with all required information properly filled. And they left without paying for his five days rent after ten days; allegedly they said they are in business of hiring tourist vehicles. Few days back two policemen came at his business center summoning him to nearby police station, where he came to know that those two men have duped few people under assuring them business of tourist taxies. My friend told police that his rent also those guys haven’t paid, on this the police asked his CC TV footage which was overwritten as the capacity of CC TV gets over write after a month. Then the police charged my friend only, as accompany to the crime those two thugs have committed & proceeded for arrest, saying he hasn’t kept proper record of the same as per them. Whereas my friend told them his lawyers has told him the business center doesn’t come under rent act & yet whatever record of those two thugs he has kept he has handed over to the police, yet they said he will be arrested. Then my friend called me, I reached to some of senior officers who intervened & understood the issue & sorted out the matter by taking an undertaking from my friend, who was so frustrated that he decided to move back to USA at one stage with all his exposure with the local police! I think this one example is enough to describe what a person even after accident may it be car accident or site accident thinks about going to police & we both know many such incidences & there lays the answer to the question why they are running away from the law, is what I feel! On this background what first good thing I have done with my business is I have withdrawn my wife from my partnership firm as a partner few years back only & happy for that! As well have made an affidavit that I am sole responsible for any of act in the business where my grown up sons are partner as tomorrow accident can occur at my site also & I don’t want my young sons to start they business carrier with sentence served under IPC 403!

And now we are closing down the concerned persons involved all sites by giving every stop work notice from work to registration of the flats & profession; not even thinking about all the people who are common citizens only which are their flat holder & is it worth? It’s like closing down entire Mumbai Goa Highway after falling down one bridge! Again I am not saying don't punish the guilty ones but just see who is getting punished in the end & for what?

Sir my humble request is instead just declaring these people as hard core criminals or applying IPC murder charges, let’s take this opportunity to really improve the entire system which governs the real estate as that will make you true boss of the UD & Home. I am not a judge to give the verdict about guilt of those who are involved but if we want our genre next to build a society & not just concrete walls then we need to make them believe in the system first & what better time than this to prove Confucius wrong, that wisdom can be learn sweetly even with experience! Sorry if I have said something wrong but as a Nagpurian, if we don’t speak strait & frankly then who will! And that to somewhere within, I trust you can make the change we all want, so dared to speak, “maaf karana kuch jada bola hoga to boss!”

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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