Over 7,000 developers today participated in a peace march in neighbouring Thane city organised by real estate developers' body CREDAI as a mark of respect and solidarity to MCHI Thane President Suraj Parmar who allegedly committed suicide.
CREDAI also closed its construction activity and administrative operations today.
"The developers walked against the corrupt and inefficient government system to bring justice to Parmar and ensure that necessary steps are taken by the government to stop corruption and bring ease of doing business. Besides this, operations at sites came to a standstill," Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI) said in a statement.
The developers marched up to Thane Municipal Corporation where a letter was handed over to the (municipal) commissioner requesting authorities to look into Parmar's suicide, it said.
CREDAI further said an appeal was also made to resolve indictment of the system and highlight issues such as endemic delays in getting approvals, deliberate delays in implementing government policy, among others.
"CREDAI has consistently sought rationalisation of approval processes and single-window system and the demand has been approved in principle by a number of committees. However, action is yet to be seen," it said.
The realty body also appealed to the government to develop an atmosphere of trust that will enable a spirit of partnership, to ensure that such episodes never recur and the 'ease of doing business' can become a reality.
On October 7, Parmar, CMD of the Cosmos Group allegedly committed suicide as he was fed up of alleged harassment from various government departments and their repeated demands for bribes.
After the incident, a delegation of builders led by Thane Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde, MLAs Pratap Sarnaik and Mangalprabhat Lodha met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded action against those named in the suicide note.
