BMC officer Vinayak Vispute & the builder dispute…
Many times it happens with a government officer and at government offices. A big person, who is say suppose a builder, has some or the other work at the BMC offices regularly till their projects take off and are completed. Many times, these builders send their representatives/liaisons at the Ward level or even at Head offices to get their clearances as they are well equipped with the procedures, timelines and various other ‘formalities’. But very rarely a builder himself comes to the BMC ward office and insists on getting his files cleared at various levels. I remember Mangal Prabhat Lodha before becoming the Minister moved table to table for his own file. This saved him efforts, time and money. But then, that was back then. Being a builder and that too in these days wherein ego and attitude is these peoples middle name, arrogance and air about themselves comes naturally to some of them. They don’t like to wait in queue for their turn to meet the officer, they expect that once the ‘chitthi’ of their name or their visiting card goes inside, the officer should leave everything and welcome this builder with open arms and do their work before the tea is completed. By the way, you will not see a ‘seasoned’ builder do this. Be it the Ajmera, Rustomjee, Raheja’s, Lodha, etc…these all are seasoned players. Few projects here and there for these new crop of builders, and they have their ego’s skyrocketed. And with easy access to equally goonda neta’s and their cronies, 90% think they themselves are Ajay Ashar.
Mr Vinayak Vispute happens to be heading the H-West ward and holds additional charge of Estates too. This man has to report to the Santacruz/Khar BMC ward office in the morning and in the second half he has to be at the Head office. One day a very powerful builder (in his head) who happens to know a couple of small-time reporters of English media, had some sort of small work with Vispute, as his projects come under him under the Estate department. The Builder who got his ‘khabar’ from his paid tattoos of the BMC that the file has reached Vispute, decided to pay a visit to Vispute without appointment. But unfortunately due to immense rush at the office, Vispute made this builder wait. When his time came to meet Vispute, instead of speaking about the work Vispute was greeted with “how can you ask me to wait, clear my files immediately, unnecessary you are holding my files, most of the work is done by juniors, why don’t you just sign it’? type of dadagiri. If you all know Vispute, he is a very down to earth, silent and to the point man. Vispute obviously was a bit shattered listening to such a volley of statements made at him. Shocked, he calmed himself down and averted a really bad situation. But then statements turned into unnecessary threats of dire consequences and that Vispute will have to undergo various media trials and letters to all authorities, if he does not clear the file immediately. Vispute in his argument said that he has not said a NO to clear any file, but if god forbid, anything goes wrong and he signs it without reading the file, then that’s it. He and the MC are in deep trouble. So reading the entire file is mandatory to him. But adamant and without giving any thought, the next day this irritated and agitated builder got a letter drafted on some bogus letter head of a developers organisation which is not in existence, by the way, and circulated it. Now all this is Vispute’s side of the story. I will also tell later why I didn’t feel like asking the builder his version.
The unfortunate part follows. A letter accusing Vispute started doing the rounds on WhatsApp groups by this builder. The builder also added Additional Municipal Commissioner’s to that group in which the Builder was taken to task by a senior IAS officer and reprimanded by her. A news item did come in one of the English dailies accusing Vispute and maligning his image. Obviously Vispute got disturbed. He met all his superiors at the BMC HO narrating the incident and occurrence of it. Normally in such situations when accusations are made against any officer by a person, a ‘show-cause’ notice is issued by the BMC. But nothing has happened in this case as BMC knows this builder is known to do this in the past. First scare them and later get his work done is his way of getting things done. Pressure tactics, nothing else. Then Vispute, also approached the senior most bureaucrat in this Government, his guru, who told him to immediately file a defamation case and approach the police to file an FIR against this builder who was unnecessarily damaging the reputation of Vispute. In fact, the senior most bureaucrat offered help to call the DCP or Additional CP to brief himself. But known as a good man, Vispute did not go ahead with this and instead, he did what was not expected, readers. He decided to stay calm and let it pass. AND by the way, Vispute had already cleared the file of this builder before all of this tamasha.. Not that Vispute is scared or anything, in fact he has all the proof of how he was threatened and blackmailed in his phone via messages and calls. Vispute believes in Karma. Now the reason for me to not listen to this builder’s side of the story was because earlier too senior officers like Mahale, Ghadge, Suryavanshi and Bhatt have been troubled by the builder in the same way. So he is a habitual complainer and offender. Let’s not give him importance was the mantra of Vispute and quietly do the work. As a matter of fact, now I urge the Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani to blacklist this builder and stop clearances of all his projects for some time till this builder promises in writing of no more such cheap tactics to get files cleared.
Vikrant Hemant Joshi.
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