With Regards To The Erudite Gagan Deep

Major General (retd) G D Bakshi – Please be Tolerant of Others Views as a Panelist on Television Debates

The metaphoric Bribe – Bomb dropped by the Chief of the Indian Army, has riveted both media and public attention in equal measure, ever since it rolled into the public domain. Television channels have gone into an overdrive and are working overtime to pick up the bits and pieces of this most intriguing story, involving the Chief, Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh and the Raksh Mantri. As of now the entire matter is hugely open to assumptions and conjectures, premised upon the claims, denials and acceptances of the main protagonists in this tragedy that has gripped the interest of the Nation. With the matter now being with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for an inquiry and probe into the matter, to elicit the truth and enable it to come to a closure in a definite time frame; will slowly put to rest some of the speculations which go around in the absence of established evidence. While that may be so, another drama which will be developing and simultaneously unfurling in the crowded rooms of the Metropolitan Court in New Delhi, when Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh’s defamation suit against the Chief and Others comes up for hearing, will occupy public gaze with even more excitement. However, the progress in this matter will be largely contingent upon the facts, which spill out from the CBI inquiry and will be available to the involved parties for legal arguments to expound their contention.

 For the moment, it will be prudent for the TV panelists not to second guess as to what did /did not happen, and not make any arbitrary judgments or else arrive at partisan conclusions while debating a view point. Those, who belong to the Army / Armed Forces must refrain from being unduly overbearing upon their co panelists and monopolize honesty as a trait which is exclusive to them alone. This does not come across as being equitable and maintainable, and thus deservingly invites remarks on the rebound that hurt the collective psyche of all those who wear / have worn a uniform. It must be appreciated in this case that, it is all the Army’s doing and no one else is remotely a party to this sordid fiasco of making an offer of an alleged bribe, verbally reporting it to the Raksha Mantri and thereafter develop cold feet and not pursue it to its logical conclusion. The bureaucrats who comprise these panels are very much within their rights and claims to professional probity and must not be insulted by any patronizing overture that paints a class or creed of people as being venal. Those that represent the Army / Armed Forces in such discussions willy nilly become its mouth piece, with the honorific of an expert ascribed before their names, and thus should refrain from being judgmental about others. The arguments must indeed be hard and strong but the manner and speech, soft and courteous.

Also, it will be well worth remembering that these debates are issue specific and the constraints of time demands of the panelists that, they make their point succinctly and with requisite acuity and focus. It is not possible to encompass and explain matters which are beyond the scope of the discussion and the debate, and make unsubstantiated assertions of a generic nature. While most panelists are experienced, mature and sufficiently knowledgeable about the subject under discussion, there are exceptions who betray this sentiment in one way or the other. It is this which needs to be avoided and controlled. The excitement and privilege of having an opinion must never become the cause for being condescending towards others. While we may continue to remain as savage as we wish to be about another’s view point, it also behoves of us to similarly tolerate others - and all this with the requisite social courtesy. The Nation is watching and the panelist represents the Army / Armed Forces. Therefore, discretion in the matter is imperative.

I do hope that this observation is accepted and taken in the correct spirit and not otherwise.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

+919410900051          

When is VK Singh Superannuating on Retirement?

When Will The Bag Of Tricks Get Empty?

It seems the controversies involving the Indian Army’s Chief will not end and probably get buried only, when he demits office. In an interview given by him to a News Channel, the General literally bowled a vicious bouncer and dropped a bombshell, when he revealed an attempt by a recently retired officer to suborn his integrity by insinuating an offer of Rs 14 crores, to push through a deal for procurement of trucks / vehicles for the Army’s equipment inventory. In these days of sensational journalism and round the clock Breaking News / Stories by electronic media channels, this was News Headlines which caught the attention of the politicians as also the entire Nation. That the matter was raised in the Lok Sabha and the Government put to the sword by the Opposition was no surprise. In a hasty attempt to firefight the embarrassment and save face, the Defense Minister has passed on the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe it and to get to the truth. This will take its own course and time and the Nation will have to wait for the outcome of the inquiry.

Simultaneously, the media got into touch with the officer who is supposedly the one alluded to, by the Chief in his interview, Lt General (retd) Tejinder Singh Sarawat, a Guardsman. Tejinder, when pointedly asked by the news reporter whether he was the one who had made this cloaked offer of a bribe to the Chief, vehemently denied it and attributed it to utter false hood and a trumped up story. While, the aggrieved Tejinder is contemplating a legal recourse to defend his reputation and destruct the calumny once and for all, there is a complete narrative of ulterior emotions and motives lurking somewhere between what has not been stated upfront, by the persons involved in this happening. Tejinder like some other retired and senior officers is also one of the owners of an apartment in the now infamous Adarsh Housing Society. Like, earlier in the date of birth row, the matter about the offer of a bribe is now being debated and discussed in most media channels and we are yet again subjected to hours of rhetoric from the illustrious panelists who are pontificating on the subject one way or the other.

Preceding this Breaking News, was the story about the alleged use of ‘Off the air Interceptors’ to snoop and eavesdrop on the Raksha Mantri and the MoD officials, with its charges and counter charges occupying columns in the print media and then fading away, without an appropriate closure to it. Within about three weeks of that happening, here we are with another story deservedly craving public attention, owing to its seriousness and import. Assumptions are doing the rounds in the public’s perception of the reality and the Army is being hauled over the coals. The one man, who had taken the challenge of restoring the moral health of the Army, when he had assumed office in the wake of the ‘Sukhna’ and ‘Adarsh’ scams, is now the main protagonist of this bizarre drama unfolding in the public domain. The price the Army is paying for acknowledging the honor and integrity of its Chief is far too excessive and unjust. To me this man is an established egocentric, who is solely obsessed by his own mirror image of righteousness and cares a damn about the prestige and reputation of the Organization he leads. General Vijay Kumar Singh has by his questionable conduct made the institution of the Chief available to extreme skepticism and steeped in suspicion. What exactly is the unfinished agenda of this man, who smarts from the insult of the Supreme Court’s speaking order on his DoB controversy and is contriving to pay back the Raksha Mantri in equal measure, for not holding his hand on the disputed issue.

The larger question which begs everyone’s indulgence is the type of culture and system that obtains in the Army, which throws up such officers, who bring the Organization to disrepute and sully its glory. They are maniacal to prove their assertions and opinions and will go to any distance to do so, even if it means to ‘Burn the Picture for the Frame’. Imagine the damage and injury they cause to others who are placed under their military command and positional authority and thus contaminate several generations of the Army’s leadership. It is only by such a skewed hierarchical dispensation that the officers are weaned away from the courage of their convictions to mutate into spineless cronies who only value rank and its privileged accompaniments. The down slide which had besieged the Army’s leadership in its senior ranks has completely corrupted its professional milieu to bring it to such a pass as this. Imagine what a staggering shock it must be for those young and middle rung officers, who at some point of time in their military careers were evaluated by these stalwarts and looked up to them as role models. Hypocrisy pervades the military’s leadership and the confusion gets further compounded, when Chiefs and Lt Generals are discussed and judged with contempt by the people.

Much to the disappointment of many veterans and serving personnel, the moral cleansing which is required to be done in a comprehensive manner is unlikely to happen, because it cuts the very hand that feeds. The superiors consummate their venal demands through their subordinates, in a quid pro quo ensuring the success of the latter and the cycle continues unbroken. Probity and rectitude are virtues which are bandied about and the primordial vice of greed overtakes our better sense. I am more than convinced that, the reputation of the Army which has hit rock bottom in the recent past will now bounce back in an upward trajectory, only because it cannot go down further. We must surely be indebted and grateful to General V K Singh for this turn around about the Army’s reputation in the public’s perception and probably Bikram Singh will take the credit for that, by default.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

+919410900051               

Off the air interceptors used by the Army for eavesdropping upon MoD officials

IS THIS TRUE? – IT WILL BE EGG ON THE ARMY’S FACE

Like many others, I too had the chance to work with four ex Chiefs of Army Staff, viz General Padmanabham,  N C Vij, Joginder Jaswant Singh and Deepak Kapoor, while serving in the Army Headquarters, New Delhi. My appointment and the nature of my assignment often put me in a position to interact intimately and informally with these officers, owing to the interest they evinced in promoting the standard of sports within the Army and by extension the Armed Forces and the Country, in equal measure, respectively. It was during this period that the Army had launched itself into its mission Olympics, aimed at winning medals for the Nation in International Sports Championships, including the Olympic Games. The effort and commitment to do so, got the nod from the then Raksha Mantri Shri Jaswant Singh. A quantum leap in the budgetary allocation for establishing an Institute for sporting excellence in identified sports disciplines; and upgrading certain existing Sports Nodes to international standards of infrastructure and training was approved by the Steering Committee, constituted for the purpose. The results of this undertaking came about in an unlikely gestation period of just two years, when in the Athens Olympic Games an army man and a national athlete won an individual Silver medal, for the first time in a history of 100 years of participation. The country had something to cheer about in an otherwise dismal showing by our sportspersons and an ecstatic public vicariously lived the joy of a podium finish. Sport can be an author of its own mystery and dark theatre. It engages emotions; it exhausts players and audience, and leaves its pain / sting on us all.  The army had delivered on its commitment to the nation, like always, despite the sports system which obtains in the country. More than winning an individual Silver medal was the belief, which was imbued in the minds of the youth, that genetic disposition was not a factor in winning but training and preparation is; and an individual Gold medal followed in the Beijing Games.

It was amidst this euphoria of realizing the Army’s vision and living the Country’s dream of achieving what had not been done as yet ; that I hung my uniform in 2008 after respecting and overcoming the challenge of the Technical Conduct of the 4^th Military World Games in Oct 2007. That, the Games went without a glitch and in clock work precision, earned for the Armed Forces international encomiums and a sense of immense professional satisfaction for me, personally. Having bid adieu to service after 38 years of individual highs and lows and a string of conflicting emotions, the resultant feeling was one of contentment and passionate fulfillment. It was in such a mood of consummate retirement that, the heart rending news about the ‘Sukhna Scam’, ‘Adarsh Housing Scam’ and the ‘Date of Birth Controversy’ which screamed loud and clear from every national and regional / vernacular electronic and print media respectively, jolted me from my happy state of somnolence. It was the Generals of the Army who were steeped in unbecoming acts, sullying its glorious reputation. In between, there were more embarrassing splashes in news papers / periodicals, of one or the other army officer, involved in reprehensible acts of corruption / moral turpitude. The impression, which got created in the media was either of brazen acquiring of money, sensual gratification or else a position of advantage / profit, to covertly benefit from, while in service or after retirement. Public perception had definitively changed and the Army’s image had taken a beating. The only saving grace in this was the comparison with similar doings of people in contemporary times and in public life, which had besieged Indian society. The Vote for Money, 2 G and the CWG scams made our actions seem as dalliances in contrast. Thus, the Army was by logic of reductio ad absurdum, saved further humiliation.

Just, when one was overcoming the intellectually regressive affects; of the ad nauseum debates on the prime time electronic media about General V K Singh’s DoB controversy, and had thanked the Supreme Court for giving it a closure on 10 th February 2012, one was proved wrong by another story which is fast developing and has the potential to become equally disgusting. We now have a smitten Lt General (retd) who once headed the Defense Intelligence Agency, occupying space in the pages of the print media, for putting up fabricated fiction in connivance with disgruntled serving officers to create a rift between General V K Singh and the Government. The off- the - air interceptors which are alleged to have been used by officers close to General V K Singh to eavesdrop on the conversations of MoD officials, can be a huge embarrassment for the Army should it be proved correct. This story leaves a lot of room for any amount of conjectures to be drawn in the matter, because the manner in which the dramatis personae of the DoB controversy went hammer and tongs to plead the Chief’s case in the media, I, much against my wish do smell a rat in this. The Chief was very poorly advised by his inner circle of advisors, who wanted to take two bites at the cherry with the intent of extending his tenure by another year. And, there is a very likely possibility of this same band of regimental / self seeking officers of having gone to any degree of ingratiating conduct for “their hero”. Lt General (retd) Tejinder Singh Sarawat, a clansman of General V K Singh, spent two years and six months with me in the same squadron in the National Defense Academy and it is being insinuated that he is the author of this canard of – Eavesdropping upon the MoD officials. Tejinder seems definitely cut up with VK Singh, for not whittling down on the inquiry on the ‘Adarsh Housing Scam’ in which he is involved as a beneficiary, and therefore the suggestion could as well be true and not fabricated fiction as maintained by the Army Head Quarters.

Should the truth in the matter emerge and it gets established that eavesdropping was indeed done by the Chief’s cronies to either find favor with him or else be his cat’s paw; in drawing the ultimate strategy to counter the Government’s defense in the legal stand off, it will be a huge trust deficit which will emerge between the Army and the MoD. I, fully empathize with Bikram Singh, for the legacy he will inherit from his predecessor, making his position all the more precarious to deal with critical issues requiring a certain degree of brinkmanship to deal with the parent Ministry. The Chief of Army Staff designate is already under tremendous pressure to reinvent his professional credibility and acceptibility, in an Army divided by opinions in righteousness, with V K Singh as a shining example at one end of the paradigm and an ex Chief who manipulated the line of succession to promote his own clansman, in a never before display of extreme parochialism, at the other. The straw which may break the back of the camel is this unfortunate story which is likely to gain acceptability should the allegations be established, and will further drown the Army’s reputation in the quagmire of murky and furtive actions, inviting serious future reprisals by the bureaucratic interface of the MoD.

 General Joe ‘Vinegar’ Stilwell of the American army and the ‘Hump Route’ to China fame in the Second World War, wisely said “The higher one goes, the more of his backside he exposes”. Therefore, I only hope and wish that after all the madness which was enacted on the Tv by VK Singh’s supporters, to justify and support his foredoomed cause and make a complete mockery of the entire issue by taking sides and finger pointing at all others except themselves – this story dies as non maintainable for want of truth. But, should that not happen, then all those mature and wizened people who were always wary of V K’s obdurate course of action to resurrect his “Integrity and Honor,” which was never suspect earlier, will once more be proved right and the Institution of the Chief further denigrated, with his honor and integrity justifiably now becoming suspect. I, was once advised early on in my career by my professional mentor and role model, to always make a point but not to make it into an issue. And, I maintained that piece of counsel without ever compromising on my ‘Integrity or Honor’. There could be a lesson in this for the future leadership of our Army.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

+919410900051      

Olympics 1908

Olympics 1908 – London

After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in April 1906, Italy asked the IOC to re-allocate the Games of the IV Olympiad, initially awarded to Rome. A bid from London was accepted, and the British Olympic Association (BOA) hastily erected the 68,000 capacity White City stadium, which housed the cycling and running tracks, a swimming pool and football pitch. This magnificent setting hosted the wettest Games in history. The weather, and overpriced tickets, resulted in poor attendances. These were not the happiest Games with the controversies dogging them matching the showers in frequency and intensity.

After noticing there was no American flag flying over the stadium during the Opening Ceremony, US discus thrower Martin Sheridan refused to dip the stars and stripes before the Royal Box during the march past. Also missing was the Swedish flag, leading some Swedes to boycott the Games and athletes from Russian- ruled Finland were obliged to march behind the Russian flag. The Americans abandoned the tug-of-war when one of the British team members was found to be wearing spiked shoes to prevent them slipping. The Americans then boycotted the re-run of the 400 meters final, and a British athlete ran alone to victory. These were the last Games in which the host country had full jurisdiction over all the sports.

On the eleventh day of the Games the rain relented and in its place a heat wave coincided with the marathon. About 100,000 spectators, an unprecedented attendance for an athletic event packed the stadium. The route measured 26 miles and 385 yards; the additional 385 yards added to place the finish line directly in front of Queen Alexandria’s Royal Box. The winner, an Italian, Dorando Pietri was disqualified for being supported for 50 meters by officials after he fell, short of the finish line. Second placed John Hayes, a 22 years old American protested and became the winner. The loser Pietri had however won the hearts of the crowd and brought it to tears. He had become a hero and was offered the Queen’s Cup in consolation. The Queen summoned Pietri, who made his way to the Royal Box among rapturous applause, and presented him with a gold cup.

The final of the 400 meters included what was to be a controversial mix of three Americans and a Briton, Lieutenant Wyndham Halswelle, who had set an Olympic record of 48.4 seconds in the semi finals.  In the finals, Halswelle was elbowed out of the track and on to the grass, by an American, John Carpenter. The race stewards reported the manoeuvre and the race was declared void. The jury disqualified Carpenter and ordered the race to be re-run, two days later. Refusing to accept the disqualification, the two US athletes boycotted the event, and so Halswelle ran a solo lap in a modest time of 50 seconds.

In swimming, Henry Taylor a Briton like a Dickens’ character, orphaned, then raised by his brother, working in a cotton mill  and training at lunchtime and after work in any stretch of water available – canals, rivers or the public baths; thrilled the home crowd with wins in 400, 1500 and 4 x 200 meters events.

Games in Brief

Opening Date                          27 April 1908

Closing   Date                          31 Oct    1908

Sports Events                          23

Nations Represented              22

Athletes Participated             2035

Olympic Flame                       Not Lit

Olympic Oath                         Not Taken

Games Opened By                  King Edward VII of England

IOC President                         Baron Pierre de Coubertin

During the Opening Ceremony, the athletes filed into the stadium country by country, behind their flags. It was a first. The Games took place in two parts: the summer Games (for individual sports) and the autumn Games (for figure skating, boxing and team sports). The three sports opened to women were still very middle class disciplines: tennis, figure skating and archery. It was at London that the Bishop of Pennsylvania declared: “The important thing about these Olympic Games is less the winning than the taking part”. This quote was later taken up by Baron de Coubertin.

PS - : Material researched from the Olympic museum in Lausanne

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

+919410900051

Regulator Required in Real Estate in India

The Woe of The Residents of Arborea Luxury Homes, Dehra Dun

Preamble

About ten years back when Uttarakhand was carved out from the geographical territory of Uttar Pradesh and Dehra Dun designated its Capital, albeit temporarily, there was a flurry of real estate business and construction activity which continues to remain and prosper. The large swathes of mango / litchi orchards and agricultural land in the municipal limits and adjoining villages respectively, were converted into residential / commercial property by the MDDA, putting a premium upon land and making property prices sky rocket. The city of Dehra Dun became a haven for real estate sharks and to accommodate the growing demand for more dwelling units and commercial infrastructure, property owners inked joint development agreements with developers and builders to meet the requirement. The elsewhere present housing / living culture of residential apartments embraced the city and multi storied residential complex sprung up in and the periphery of Dehra Dun. The landscape of the city is changing fast and the open spaces of yester years have become concrete monstrosities. The price for non sustainable development. This comes at a cost and impinges upon a symbiotic relation ship with nature, affecting the quality of living. The city will fast be bursting at its seams with an implosion of burgeoning building infrastructure, necessitated by the trappings of State Government Offices, making its presence in the midst of residential / commercial areas. To make matters worse, the narrow width roads which earlier catered to the needs of the town and its modest manageable traffic are now in a state of virtual chaos, making movement of vehicles and their parking a cause of much anxiety. Road rage, which earlier was an unknown emotion to Doonites, has now grasped public psyche to throw up untoward behavior by people, at grave cost to the safety and dignity of its senior members, who are its distinguishing feature.   

Conscient Infrastructure Pvt Ltd

It was in this ground reality that M/s Conscient Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, a company having its registered office at K-1 Green Park Main, New Delhi, went into a joint development agreement with about ten land owners south of village Tarla Nagal on Shastradhara – Mussoorie Diversion road, to build and develop a housing project, Arborea Luxury Homes. The project is beautifully located on a commanding piece of land overlooking a rivulet and in proximity of the Sai Baba Temple on Rajpur road. Conscient Infrastructure Pvt Ltd has an envious reputation in the development and building of commercial and residential structures and has to its credit lacs of constructed floor space successfully completed, mainly in the National Capital Region of Delhi. Moreover, the Managing Director of the Company, Mr. Lalit Jain being a man of conviction, who abides by the dictum of business best practice and is under girded by an ethical attitude remains the company’s USP . With an assurance such as this and Mr. Lalit Jain’s reputation as promulgated in the marketing brochure and website, a testimony of honesty and uprightness in business dealing, prompted many an unsuspecting buyer to invest in Conscient Infrastructure’s maiden housing venture in Dehra Dun, thoughtfully named Arborea Luxury Homes.

Arborea Luxury Homes

The project which started in 2008 is still incomplete, even as owners / occupants moved in commencing from March 2011. The complex which has 12 towers of four floors each with two apartments on a floor and in two categories viz Premium and 3 BHK comprises 96 apartments. Of these, about 30 have been taken possession of and about 18 are presently occupied. The property which was exorbitantly priced at its launch in comparison to the then prevailing market rates, is slowly emerging to be a damp squib, given the problems the owners are living with every day. There are major design and construction flaws which are an architectural and workmanship blunder respectively, making the presumptuous claims of Conscient look pathetic, to say the least. It defies one’s common sense that in a place like Dehra Dun where monsoons are intense and remain for four months, no sunshades have been provided over the windows and the balconies. Thus, making the carpet area of the apartments vulnerable to rain water, and causing tremendous inconvenience to the residents. In addition, the water proofing of the buildings is suspect and probably sub standard. Not only that, the sliding glass windows and doors and kitchen door and window have not been provided with fly proofing arrangements, which precludes air circulation, when these are closed to prevent flies and mosquitoes from flying into the apartment from the outside. The living space gets suffocating and unhealthy. The standard of plumbing is a nightmare and seepages from concealed pipelines are an eternal problem which the residents have to contend with on a regular basis. Moreover, the drain in the dry / utility balcony is perpetually chocked and the slope in the bathrooms is inadequate for water to flow out on its own. And this primarily because of the cost cutting shenanigan of the architect by providing insufficient thickness to the flooring, which does not enable sufficient circumference pipes to be embedded and a slope to be given. The stupidity is compounded further by not providing a trap door to clean and clear the chocking kitchen drain, there by necessitating the breaking of the concealed drain chute, every time a blockage occurs. The quality of the material used in the modular kitchen is probably of the lowest end in the market and remains an apology for it. A clear case of commitment deficit. The energy consumption of most occupied apartments was inordinately high in January 2012 (varying between Rs11, 000 to Rs 5,000), leaving a big question mark on the integrity of the electric meters and the associated equipment, including the soft ware installed for the purpose. Given the construction design of the apartments and an all glass look, security assumes an added importance in the complex. However, this seems to have been either ignored or else overlooked, as the staircase to the apartments is easily accessible from the side of the ground level planter, even while a biometric access door has been provided to control and restrict unauthorized entry from below. Inanity at its best. It could not have been more comical than this, when one learns that though there are numerous power points for a TV connection in all the rooms, one can watch only one channel at any one time, even on different set top boxes. Invest on 3 to 5 TV sets to watch only one channel programme. Brilliant!

In an ingenious move to force the maintenance services to be provided only by a business partner of Conscient, M/s Massoorie Himalayan Resorts Pvt Ltd (Mco), the owners were / are forced to sign a Maintenance Agreement on a non judicial stamp paper, bequeathing this right to it. The monthly maintenance charges which are very steep Rs 3,400/- per month, leave the owners with very little choice in the matter. It is needless to speak about the quality of the service provided for the money charged, as it is lamentable. The security service engaged by Mco is inadequate and professionally challenged, keeping the residents in a state of perpetual anxiety about their well being. The arboriculture of the complex is in keeping with the poor understanding of what it implies and one gets to see a surfeit of palms planted all over in a drab monochrome, of only green.

The commitment made by Conscient Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in the Allotment and Maintenance Agreement are far from fulfilled and leave much to be desired. Some of these, which are non existent as of now, are -:

a)      Clubhouse with Pool Table and Card Room, Spa with steam, Top of the line Gymnasium, Swimming Pool, Wi Fi inter net Connectivity

b)      Provision of Cafeteria, Mini Convenience Store, Kid’s Play Area

c)      Insurance of the Building  

High Handedness of Conscient Infrastructure Pvt Ltd

The owners of apartment(s) in Arborea Luxury Homes, convinced that they had been short changed by the grandstanding claims of Conscient, decided to form a duly registered Resident Welfare Association (RWA) to represent their interests, collectively. Having done so and formed a Society under the rules as encapsulated in the Society Registration Act 1860, the RWA wrote to Conscient and tried to engage with them in a spirit of mutual understanding and bonhomie, to engage and resolve the existing issues, to the satisfaction of all. This evoked a rather imperious response from them and they refused to recognize a duly registered Welfare Association. It is indeed a travesty of our business ethics that there is no regulator in the real estate sector who can intervene and initiate punitive action against defaulters. While the consumer and civil law courts exist, they are very time consuming and the compensation which accrues to the deponent / aggrieved party is not commensurate to the angst it causes to the aggrieved party.

There fore a stratagem which can be effective in such cases is to hurt the builder / developer and in the instant case Conscient Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, by making holes in their acclaimed public reputation and bringing them to a state of commercial / repuation grief. When the word goes around that a builder / developer has not delivered on what was promised during the Agreement, their professional standing takes a beating which they can ill afford.

When people get wise about the various subterfuge, which this breed of people employ in marketing their product and at the outset inveigle the buyer with false promises of delivering quality , will there be a possibility of things improving and getting better for the customer / consumer. The courts of Uttarakhand may well sit on judgment of such cases, wherein the customer in the real estate sector has been unjustly cheated by builders / developers, who continue to make huge sums of money at the cost of the naïve and credulous buyer. The media must support the cause of the buyer who has always been at the receiving end of such intriguing and unfortunate transactions. Those who are planning to buy property in the various Housing Societies, which have sprung up and are coming up in Dehra Dun in the future, need to be wary of what they are getting into. Be rest assured that all the allotment and maintenance agreements which are required to be signed by the buyer are disproportionately loaded in favor of the builder / developer and would require legal intervention for redressal.

Brigadier (S D Dangwal)

+919410900051