Message From MD October – 2019

Dear friends,

The month of September witnessed extraordinary efforts, hard work and initiatives by all our team members in all aspects of the business. The market sentiment was very negative due to the MARADU DEMOLITION VERDICT. To overcome such massive negativity, we need to have the courage and conviction that can conquer the impossible.

Strictly going by the law, no one can challenge the verdict, but a humanitarian approach could have been adopted at the time of framing those orders. We sympathise with the apartment owners who are going to lose their shelter and their neighbours who are going to be the victims of pollution due to massive demolition. We all know that there is a cash deficit in the market, but now I feel the real deficit is that of TRUST. The victims and witnesses will definitely lose TRUST in the industry, business model, on the people behind projects, and on the government and the judiciary.

Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless had published a study in 1998 on the impact of the immediate effects of losing one’s home and witnessing the demolition of others’ houses on the mental health of Palestinian adults and children. The loss group consisted of 47 adults whose homes were demolished, the witness group of 24 adults who witnessed the house demolition, and the control group of 33 adults. The groups were compared for their anxiety, depression, and paranoiac symptoms. In addition, 38 children in the loss group, 36 children in the witness group, and 50 children in the control group were compared for their psychological symptoms. The results showed that the adults who were exposed to house demolition showed a higher level of anxiety, depression, and paranoiac symptoms than those in the witness and control groups. The children in the loss group showed a higher level of psychological symptoms than the children in the witness and control groups. The witness group differed from the control group in having more depression among women and more psychological symptoms among children. Women suffered more from anxiety, depression and paranoiac symptoms than men in the loss and witness groups but not in the control group.

I am very sad to quote the above, but there are other studies and researches which prove that demolition is more dangerous to the environment than any illegal structure. Debris and storage of demolished buildings are a bigger threat to the environment. To conclude, the social, economical, environmental, psychological and humanitarian impacts of demolition are very bad and long-lasting.

Definitely we must admit there is violation of rules, suppression of facts, irresponsibility of government officials, lack of political will power and leadership, inefficient way of handling legal matters, failure to present facts before court and lack of humanitarian approach towards the victims. Why can’t we think aloud to avoid future issues created by demolition? Why can’t we think of introducing a heavy penalty on all stakeholders for an anti-environmental act? It’s heard that developed countries implement a penalty known as GREEN FINE. Why can’t we do the same?

Environment has to be protected and construction activities have to be sustainable. Earth has to sustain for centuries and for future generations. We should look at the limited resources not with a greedy eye but only with a needy eye. Laws are created for the well-being of the society and not for wielding power over their minds. But as entrepreneurs, we feel that we are all mastered and marginalized, and the governance and courts are too high up to hear our voices.

October is here. Let’s talk about Gandhiji for a while. Seventy-one years ago, the father of the nation was shot dead. Mahatma Gandhi’s laborious struggle to keep the nation together while vehemently fighting against the British is widely celebrated. The end was tragic, especially since the newly independent India could have done with his wisdom and vision. What if Gandhiji had lived on?

If he had remained alive, the Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and media of the Indian State might have become less a master and more a servant of the Indian people, empowering them might have become a mainstream rather than a marginal exercise, and the hierarchies that continue to mark India’s society and polity might have become less steep. The effects of the contrary are what we are currently witnessing at Maradu.

Best Wishes for a great month ahead!

Warm regards,
Sunil Kumar