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RWAs, fight it out!

Demolition of the mighty twin towers in Noida on Aug. 28 should give nightmares to real estate developers, who violate building norms in collusion with corrupt urban body officials, and nudge RWAs to blow the whistle against them

Dr. Rakesh Goswami

On the afternoon of a sultry Sunday (August 28), people across India watched (from surrounding rooftops and on television) two 100-metre-tall structures reduce to a huge pile of rubble in a matter of a few seconds. For those who couldn’t tune in, videos of the spectacle circulated on WhatsApp groups and were posted on social media platforms. More than 3,700 kg of explosives – a mix of dynamite, emulsions and plastic explosives – brought the two towers, called Noida’s Twin Towers, on ground in what is called the waterfall technique, after the country’s top court found the construction violative of the norms.

Before setting off the explosions, the authorities moved more than 5,000 residents of nearby societies away from the twin towers part of the ‘Supertech Emerald Court’ housing society in Sector 93A of Noida in the National Capital Region (NRC); nearly 3,000 vehicles and about 200 pets were also shifted out of harm’s way. Gas and power supply of the adjoining buildings was snapped and a 27-km stretch of the Noida-Greater Noida expressway was closed to traffic.

At 2.30 p.m., a series of controlled explosions brought down the twin towers, Apex and Ceyane, like a pack of cards, demolishing the joint venture of corruption between officials of the Noida Authority and a real estate developer. For people watching the razing on television and smartphones, it was a spectacle of a lifetime. But for homebuyers, it was the victory of a nine-year-old long legal battle. The demolition vindicated the stand of the homebuyers, who went to court in 2012 alleging violation of norms, and won the battle first in the Allahabad High Court and then in the Supreme Court. The top court said that the construction violated the minimum distance requirement and was built illegally without taking the consent of the individual flat owners as required under the Uttar Pradesh Apartment Act, before ordering demolition. But even after the apex court’s order for demolition of the twin towers in August 2021, the denouement took a year due to technical difficulties.

Sometimes the legal process in our country is a test of patience and perseverance but eventually it proves that no one is above the law. The fight of a Residents’ Welfare Association against Supertech Limited is a classic example of this. The real estate developers in collusion with the Noida Authority built the towers on the place earmarked as a garden in the original plan.

But this is not the victory of one RWA alone – this is the victory of every homebuyer who puts in his or her life’s savings into a house and is cheated because authorities are busy destroying urban planning and making a mockery of rules. In state after state, we see the urban bodies being in nefarious complicity with the builders to alter the master plans, more specifically to erect buildings on the areas marked for greenery, and to cheat homebuyers. The legal fights are long and all RWAs aren’t as cohesive and steadfast as that of the Emerald Court housing society.

The demolition of the twin towers has raised several questions, which should not be lost in the debris. First, when will the guilty officials of Noida (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) be brought to justice? This should not take another nine years. Secondly, and more importantly, why do such buildings come up despite red flags by alert citizens?

When the Noida sanctioned the building plan of the ‘Supertech Emerald Court’ housing society in the year 2005, it allowed construction of 14 towers, each with ground and nine floors. But with the passage of time, the developers managed to get the plan revised, adding more floors and two new towers. In 2012, the Noida fixed the height of the twin towers at 40 floors. When brought down, Apex had 32 floors and Ceyane, 29. Residents of other towers said the massive heights blocked sunlight and fresh air and violated the building norms.

This did not happen overnight. Obviously, when the plans were being revised, flat owners were raising red flags but the complicit officials had deaf ears. They then took the fight to the Allahabad High Court in 2012. It took them nine long years to demolish the insouciance and arrogance of the dirty nexus but the good thing is, it ended in victory for them.

The dramatic visuals of the twin towers going down in a matter of a few seconds will haunt the real estate developers for many years and may already be giving nightmares to the ones who have similarly violated norms at other places. We all know that there is rampant corruption in urban bodies. Officials agree to ignore violations for a price and people involved in illegal construction have the misconception that once constructed, even illegal buildings aren’t razed – they are only regularized. Demolition of the Supertech twin towers will destroy that misbelief, too.

But the biggest takeaway of the legal battle against this illegality is this: the common man on the street is more powerful than the mighty and corrupt companies. This message should nudge other residents’ bodies to fight it out against building violations in their areas and deter other real estate developers from indulging in such corrupt practices. That will be the real victory of the Emerald Court RWA.

The writer is regional director of Jammu centre of Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

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