Distressing Waste of CSR Funds by L&T Realty

L&T Realty – Businesses that are able to manage resources in a way that allows for optimum efficiency are well-known and highly praised. They are able to generate enormous revenues thanks to this skill. Because it is believed that businesses will significantly advance society by utilizing CSR in their social endeavours, the concept of CSR is fascinating. It is regrettable that businesses don’t always follow this rule, though. In actuality, they frequently view their social activities as a checklist item that must be checked off in order to fulfil their duties under the Company’s Act.

L&T Realty CSR Installed Curb Stones

The purpose of the curb stones is to shield people using the walkway or pedestrians from oncoming cars. They are also intended to provide the road with structure. Earlier this year, plastic curb stones in the colours of white and blue decorated the Parel highways. But right now, they are buried in a garbage heap.

As part of their CSR, L&T Realty removed the curb stones made of stone from Parel in January 2022 and installed safety curb stones made of plastic instead. This was done to improve the aesthetics of the road and to safeguard the numerous patients and their loved ones who were standing outside hospitals in this region on the footpath while waiting for their turn to receive treatment.

These curb stones will be in the trash in less than a year due to disintegration. The CSR project by L&T Realty, which substituted synthetic curb stones for the stone-made ones, turned out to be a complete waste of time, effort, and resources.

In addition, the reporting of this activity as CSR has additional irregularity. Only the activities listed in Schedule VII, which the corporation must describe in its CSR report, can be deemed CSR in accordance with the CSR Law. According to L&T Realty’s CSR report, the company invested Rs. 70 lakh on this CSR project, which falls under the heading of slum area improvement. The assertion by the corporation is false because there are no slums in the area where the curb stones were placed.

The safety curb stones installed as part of L&T Realty’s CSR effort became a topic of discussion when The CSR Journal contacted them. We questioned the business on the following topics:

Where have the safety stone curbs that the firm installed vanished to?

There are no slums at all in Parel, the location of the CSR effort. Why was the project filed under the slum area development category by the company?

These inquiries by The CSR Journal have not yet received a response from L&T Realty.

The Municipal Corporation of Mumbai authorities claim that the plastic safety curb stones broke soon after they were put in place. Many onlookers who got caught in them suffered injuries. Additionally, the water that used to collect in these shattered blocks served as a mosquito breeding ground, increasing the likelihood that malaria would spread through the neighbourhood. BMC made the decision to remove the curb stones entirely after receiving numerous complaints about them.

The Tata Cancer Hospital, KEM Hospital, and Wadia Hospital are just a few of the large facilities that are close by to the footpath where these curb stones were set in Mumbai’s Parel neighbourhood. These hospitals get patients from all parts of the nation.