2010 Year of Scams

8/7/2019 2010 Year of Scams

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Scams, scams, scams. Wherever you look, there are scams. So many in.

say, as many do, that corruption rules India with a firmer hand than anyGovernment, you must be disgusted to see how everyone in power hasbeen looting India.

Indians are shaken as the last couple of months have been raining scams.After electing a strong Government led by Congress at Centre the common

Congress, i.e. Sonia Gandhi, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Indians have seen various scams but the present scams-ghotalas haverendered the Bofors scam of 100 crores or the scam of Harshad Mehta and

Ketan Parekh as mini scams.While the year 2010 comes to a close, we have seen one scam after anothertumble out and has exposed in Congress led UPA2 as an outfit which hasencouraged and epitomized Corruption.

The CWG scam is Rs.70,000 crore and growing. The 2G scam isRs.176,000 crore. Some one asked as to how many zeroes would be therein the above figures.

.the year of Ghotalas and Scams.

For the first time Indian has seen in a span of 10 days (i.e. in November,2010) the ruling party Congress/UPA has forced its 3 importantleaders/Ministers to submit resignations.

i) Shri Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister, Maharashtra was thrown out for“Adarsh Society Scam. The Chief Minister himself got allotted 4 flats in theposh South Mumbai locality in the name of his in-laws. The Housing Societywhich was meant for the Kargal War Hero/Martyrs.

◦ The scam involved 4 Chief Ministers of the Congress – Mr Narayan

Rane, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde and Mr AshokChavan.

◦ Later under the name of honoring the country's Hero's of KargilWar, flats costing over Rs.7,000,00,00 were given away to MinistersBureaucrats and their kin at throw away prices.

ii) Shri Kalmadi, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee ofCommonwealth Games was sacked as Congress Parliamentary Party

.

iii) Shri A Raja was compelled to submit his resignation for the 2G TelecomScam.

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Mehengai-Maha Ghotala – In spite of a robust foodgrain production,overflowing godowns, the prices of essential commodities went up by 50% to100% since the Congress once again came to power in 2009. The prices of

. .per kg. Price of onion which was Rs.6 to 8 per kg went beyond Rs.30.Lasoon/Garlic which was just Rs.15 to 20 per kg. in 2008-009 is Rs.300 perkg. now. Petrol prices have been hiked by Rs. 2.75 per litre last month.

It is now public. Courts have passed strictures on Public DistributionSystem/Ration Scheme. Thousands crores of foodgrain meant for poor

.Arunachal Pradesh has been arrested for the same.

In another shocking instance, the Govt. has now admitted to grave lapses inthe Export of Non Basmati Rice.

The government has admitted that public sector units (PSUs) did not follow atransparent procedure for non-basmati rice exports.

The matter has been referred to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) forits advice.

The government had banned export of non-basmati rice in 2008 to put acheck on rising prices in the domestic market.

However, it allowed export of a limited quantity to some least developednations, including African countries, on diplomatic considerations.

But the pre-determined terms of contracts between foreign buyers anddomestic suppliers (with small margins for the PSUs) led to “hugelydisproportionate profits accruing to private parties, namely the foreigngovernment nominated domestic suppliers in India”.

. , ,to the government’s exchequer due to the Telecom Ministry’s decisions onthe sale of 2G spectrum. Now the evidence has been furnished by the CAGto the President of India, it is clear that the matter must be thoroughlyinvestigated, through the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary committee

(JPC)

renovating the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was a whopping Rs 961 crore.

Compare these figures with the fact that the construction of a brand newstate-of-the art stadium in Nagpur cost only Rs 84 crore!

Various agencies are already investigating some of these charges. Atoothless Shungloo committee has been formed by the UPA-II governmentto investigate the allegations. This may end up doing more of a cover-up job

than bringing the guilty to book.

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What is required is that the government orders speedy investigationsthrough a JPC to ensure fast and punitive action against the guilty.

This year is ending with a ugly title that 2010 is a year of Scams and the lists rea en ng o ge onger as every ay passes y.

The Supreme Court has observed that the Prime Minister of India hasnot replied or has taken any action on a letter of complaint by a formerminister and other two Members of Parliament.

The BJP demands setting up of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) tolook into these scams.

Bharatiya Janata Party The Congress has broken all recordsof corruption in the recent past whichwas painful for the country. People ofthis country have the right to demandanswers from the Prime Minister’sOffice.

The CBI (Central Bureau ofInvestigation) enquiry into the CWGscam was not enough. CBI lacks thetrust and authority to punish bigwigslike Suresh Kalmadi, Delhi Chief

ministers Jaipal Reddy and M S Gill,

who were the political leadershipinvolved.

The Prime Minister should explainreasons for the lengthy delay on his

sanction of prosecution of formertelecom minister A Raja on thespectrum controversy.

Congress means corruption and the CBI is a trusted arm of the party. The nation wants to know wh no action had been taken so far a ainst

Prasar Bharati CEO B S Lalli, who allegedly overruled the objections byfinance department and gave Rs 246-crore telecast rights of the CWG to anentity, which produced a fake registration number and had no service taxnumber.

The Prime Minister and the Congress leadership owe an answer to the ublic in this re ard.

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KIRIT SOMAIYANational Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party



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Easily the biggest ever Scam occurred in the Country.

The 2G spectrum allocation scam has caused the

national exchequer an estimated Rs. 1,76,000 crore..

the scale of money that has been swindled, it is easilythe biggest scam that this country has ever seen.

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Congress Govt./ Prime Minister Responsible for Lacs Crores Loss to the Country

n any organ zat on w et er t s r vate, u c or t e overnment epartment,

there is a specific structure laid down for execution and implementation. The Headof any Organization reviews on a regular basis the functioning of the entiredepartment and gets inside into working of the department or the division. Ultimatelythe CEO of the Organization is responsible for running and maintaining the day today operations as well as implementation of policies.

The ma or findin s in the re ort of Com troller and Auditor General of India CAGIclearly show various gaps in policy implementation inspite of the fact that rules andprocedures had been laid down.

The Department of Telecom did not implement the Policy approved by Council ofMinisters in October 2003. How can the Department of Telecommunication value

the Spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices? Why the Ministry of Finance was not associated when by the Cabinet decision of

2003, the Ministry of Finance was authorized to participate in the discussion ofefficient allocation of Spectrum and Price discovery? Why Ministry of Finance itselfdid not become proactive and why this issue of allocation was never placed beforeCabinet for a review?

It is surprising that the High Powered Telecom Commission which includesmembers from Ministry of Finance, Commerce, IT Dept and Planning Commissionwas not iven an o ortunit to deliberate on the merits of TRAI recommendationsat the time of grant of 122 UAS Licenses in 2008.

Even the views and concerns of Ministry of Finance were overruled. Surprisinglyadvice of Ministry of Law and Justice was also ignored. It is proved beyond doubtthat such important decisions taken by DOT without deliberation and discussion atan inter ministry FORUM.

Hon’ble Prime Minister’s suggestions were not followed. When PM himself is theultimate authority and the concerned minister reports to PM, where is the question ofsuggestions? As a matter of fact PMO Office as a responsible final authority shouldhave instructed in no uncertain terms the DOT to follow strictly the guidelines and tosee that they are implemented. PMO office is not a consulting department forsuggestion but responsible for final implementation.

The stake involved in the whole processes of implementation and allocation of

implemented by one person when the proper structure, policies and guidelines werelaid down.

Even similar approach from PMO office was made in Commonwealth Games whenMr. Kalmadi was given total authority without any review from time to time basis.

It is surmised that the responsible persons associated including Prime Minister,PMO, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Law and Justice, TRAI were only onlookersand helpless spectators. Actually they knowingly allowed happening of the MegaScam & loss of Lacs of Crores to the Country’s exchequer. These are the seriousconcern about the system of various government departments and there is anurgent need to fix responsibility and enforce accountability.

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A Raja, sitting Union Cabinet Minister has been found to be directlyinvolved and tapes of his conversations with corporate middlemen areavailable.

The entire investigation being carried out by CBI has been scuttled to, .

The issue dates to 2008 when nine telecom companies were issued scarceairwaves and licenses for second generation (2G) mobile phone servicesat Rs1,658 crore (less that $350 million) for a pan-India operation.

As many as 122 circle-wise licenses were issued and that by giving theairwaves cheap, that too in the controversial manner of first-cum-first-served basis, the exchequer had lost billions of dollars. The cut-off date forapplications was also arbitrarily advanced.

Later, based on the auction of airwaves for third generation (3G) services,which got nearly $15 billion to the exchequer, and that for broadbandaccess, which fetched over $8.5 billion, the notional loss was estimated at$38 billion to the exche uer.

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But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself defended Raja's decision andsaid that all that his communications minister had done was to im lement apolicy already in place and none of the norms were flouted.

However two examples on the 2G auction exposed the big lie..

A new player, Swan Telecom, bought licenses for 13 circles with thenecessary spectrum for $340 million but managed to sell a 45-per cent stakein the company to UAE's Etisalat for $900 million. This swelled its valuationto 2 on w t out a s ng e su scr er.

Another new player, Unitech, paid $365 million as license fee but sold a 60-per cent stake to Norway's Talenor for $1.36 billion, taking its valuation tonearly $2 billion, again without a single subscriber.

Similarly, another licensor, Datacom, later became Videocon Mobile and nowhas lar e stake b Baharian Telecom. The other com anies are Tata TeleIdea Cellular , Loop Telecom, Shyam Telelink and Spice.

The Supreme Court had asked the solicitor general why the prime ministerhad not responded to the representation by the opposition to sanctionproceedings against Raja.

The final blow came after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India saidthe entire process of spectrum allocation was undertaken in an arbitrary

manner and that the advise of the industry watchdog was ignored andmisused.

Over 70% of 2G licence winners did not meet eligibility criteria: CAG

e omptro er an u tor enera as o serve t at more t an70% of the 122 second-generation (2G) telecom licences issued by formertelecom minister A Raja in 2008 were to companies that did not meet thebasic eligibility criteria.

As many as 85 licences out of the 122 new licences issued to 13 companiesin 2008 were granted to those companies which did not satisfy the eligibilityconditions prescribed by the DoT.

All 85 licences were given to companies which did not have the stipulatedpaid-up capital at the time of application, the Comptroller Auditor General(CAG) report highlights while detailing the ineligibility of applicants.

Twelve companies that collectively won 85 licences, including Unitech, Loop, ,

department of telecommunications (DoT) followed its own rules set in 2005.

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DoT had specified a broad set of eligibility conditions for companies to applyfor Unified Access Services (UAS) licences.

The Ministry had received a record number - 408 applications. However, theministry through a press release pre-poned the cut off date to September 25,

2007 against the earlier deadline of October 1, 2007, allowing only 232applications to qualify.

The report stresses that the process followed by DoT while introducingaccess to dual technology to the existing telecom operators lackedtrans arenc and fairness. E ual o ortunit was denied to other similarlplaced operators who could apply for use of dual technology, only after theformal announcement of the policy.

Cases of Favoritism

The CAG report mentions that six new entrants — Unitech brand nameUninor, Swan name changed to Etisalat, Allianz since merged with Etisalat,Shipping Stop Dot Com name changed to Loop Telecom, Datacom namechanged to Videocon and S Tel — were required to roll out the services inthe 90 % service area in metros and 10% district headquarters (DHQ) inother service areas within 12 months of the date of award of licences.

The audit found that though these six new operators obtained the initial 4.4Mhz s ectrum in 81 service areas durin the eriod A ril 2008 to Januar2009, none of them had rolled out their services as per the provisions of the

UAS licences in any service area till 31 December 2009. Further, DoT also failed to recover liquidated damages and penalty of Rs

679 crore from these operators for inordinate delay in rolling out theirservices till 31 December 2009.

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Magnitude of the Scam

The loss to the treasury is appx. Rs 1.76 lakh crore from sale of 2Gspectrum , as estimated by the CAG.

It could have wiped out almost half of the Central government’s budgetedfiscal deficit of Rs 3.81 lakh crore.

The amount, would have helped reduce the Centre’s interest burden of Rs249 lakh crore and fiscal stress on its finances.

The amount is equivalent to the entire defence budget for 2010-11 andalmost one-sixth the size of the Union Budget.

It is also more than thrice the Centre’s education budget of Rs 49,904crore and is two-and-a-half times the Rs 70,000 crore loan waiver thatUPA-1 gave farmers.

This amount would have given the country much needed schools, hospitals, .

The amount seems staggering when compared to the Rs 1.5 lakh crorecapital expenditure set out in the 2010-11 Union Budget.

It is nearly 50% more than the Centre’s total subsidy bill, including those onfood, fuel and fertilizer, which is budgeted at Rs 1.16 lakh crore and isnearly seven times the health budget of Rs 25,154 crore.

Issues involved in the 2G Scam

The modus operandi of the scam is anopen secret and the role played byDepartment of Telecommunicationunder Mr. Raja have been indicted by

(CVC), Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI), Comptroller & Auditor General ofIndia (CAG), Directorate General ofIncome Tax (DGIT) and the High Court

of Delhi on different occasions.

works, more or less, as a department ofthe Central Government.

Here it is investigating a case againstthe corrupt policies and actions of theCentral Government. More over CBIas a very a recor n po ca y

sensitive cases as is clear from the

adverse comments of this Hon'ble courtitself on different occasions.



This is a case which is extremely politically sensitive and has caused hugeembarrassment to the Central Government. It also involved a sitting cabinet

without which the Government cannot survive. And what is most intriguing is the stony silence maintained by the Prime

Minister on this issue. The PM was covering A Raja for over one year – Why?? The Nation demands an answer…

Modus O erandi of the Scam..

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), under Mr. A Raja, thenMinister for Communications & IT, has given away scarce national resources(spectrum) at throw away prices to private companies.

In January 2008, the DoT had awarded 122 Universal Access Service (UAS)licenses with spectrum on first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis at the rate of

s , . crore per pan- n a cense w c was e pr ce scoverein the auction of spectrum in 2001.

By 2008, the value of thisspectrum had multipliedmanifold. The Governmentgot a total of only Rs 9,014crore as license fee from

these 122 licenses, whichwas much lower than themarket price of thespectrum. This has causedan estimated loss of about

s 1,76,000 crore to t eThe modus operandi of thescam was:

Granting spectrum at 2001 prices when there was a nascent market rather

than at contemporary market prices in 2008 when there was huge demand.

Inviting companies who were not in the telecom business to put inapplications for licenses for 2G spectrum.

Resorting to the announcement of arbitrary cut-off date (01.10.2007) tostop legitimate applicants from applying, thereby creating sellers (who werenot in the telecom business) and buyers (genuine telecom companies who

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could not apply or were left out due to the manner in which cut-off date wasimplemented).



Granting licenses on the basis of "first come first served" rather than through.

Changing the cut-off date illegally to award precious 2G spectrum only to ahandful of applicants (120 out of 575).

Favoritism and manipulating multiple recommendations of the TRAI toaward licences to a favoured few companies.

and garner large sums.

Ignoring specific directions of the Law Ministry to seek the opinion of theEmpowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on the matter.

2G versus 3G Auction – Comparison..

• ecen y, e spec rum was a oca e othe telecom operators.

• The matter was referred to a GoM and atransparent auction was held.

• The national exchequer was richer by awho in Rs. 1 lakh crores and no o eratorcomplained of any favoritism done to any

competitor and no one was claiming that anypublic official made money.

• Exactly the opposite happened in the 2Gspectrum allocation in 2007-08 and the

, ,crores and few, mostly unknown, companiesbenefitted out of non-transparent deals.

RAJA’S BLATANT CORRUPTION

Secretary, DoT

• ecre ary o , a ur a wr en an n erna no e recommen ng aonly legally tenable option would be to hold transparent auction. This wasrejected by A. Raja.

Finance Secretary

• Finance Secretary Dr. Subbarao wrote to DoT on 22.11.2009 questioningthe conce t of first-come-first-served and sale at 2001 rices. His concerns

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were dismissed by DoT.



Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

a rperson, wro e e ers o o . e s a e a wou e un a r

and misleading if any decision and consequent action is initiated withoutidentifying and implementing the linkages elsewhere in therecommendation. It is reiterated that the authority should be formallyconsulted if there is any deviation from the totality of therecommendations."

DoT under Mr. Ra a not onl i nored the letters but selectivel hand-picked from TRAI's recommendations, implementing different ones atdifferent times and modifying them suitably to suit some favoredcompanies.

These actions are also ultra vires as per fifth proviso of Section 11 of TRAI

Act which states: “ If Central Government having considered thatrecommendation of the Authority , comes to a prima facie conclusion thatsuc recommen a on canno e accep e or nee s mo ca ons, s a ,refer the recommendations back to the Authority for its reconsideration.“

However, in this case it never happened.

Law Ministry

• Law Minister HAD informed Mr. Ra athat the 2G matter deserved to be

placed in front of Empowered Groupof Ministers. Raja rejected thisspecific direction by calling it "totallyout of context."

•decided the auctions for 3G spectrumwhich has yielded about Rs. 60,000crores.

Prime Minister

• Prime Minister (PMO) states that 2letters were written to Raja on02.11.2007. PM raised concernsabout first-come-first-served andasked him to consider auctioning ofthe scarce spectrum.

• But Raja wrote back to PM rejecting

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his directions.



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COMMON WEALTH Games or Game to loot Common Man’s Wealth ?

After two months of damning and embarassing revelations of poorhygiene, serious health risks and of unsafe buildings and infrastructure,the Commonwealth Games ultimately got over, thankfully, without anymajor mishaps and full credit goes to our athletes- who, inspite of havingto prepare in inferior training conditions and facilities, lifted theirperformance and earned for themselves and for the country a recordnumber of over 100 medals.

The Govt. of India and the Organising Committee tried to to desperatelybask in the glory of a jazzy Opening and Closing Ceremony – organisedby an Event Management company and costing the nation over hundreds

of crores, and the performance of our athletes, and declared the Games asuccess.

The BJP too wanted the games to be a success. That they should be thebest ever. BJP has always stood by our sportsmen. Remember it was AtalBehari Vajpayee who insisted that the Games must come to India in 2003.

But now the time has come to ask some serious questions over thebunglings of the games.

“rampant corruption”, The court has criticized the Indian government onits preparations for the international sporting event.

“In this country, payments are made without work being done. The newlyconstructed bridge collapsed like a pack of cards,” the Bench said. “Rs70,000 crore is involved. There is rampant corruption.



Kalmadi aides spill the beans to CBI Con ress MP and Commonwealth Games Or anisin Committee Chairman

Suresh Kalmadi seems to be in trouble. Former commonwealth games

officials TS Darbari and Sanjay Mohindroo, two of his trusted aides nowunder CBI custody, are accusing him of being responsible for all financialtransactions.

However, Kalmadi has till now maintained that he is not responsible for anyfinancial irregularity and scam in Commonwealth Games.

"I am ready to face any kind of probe," Kalmadi has been saying.

The statement is bound to haunt the man who projected himself as the faceof the Commonwealth Games. With his handpicked aides - Darbari and

Mohindroo - now in CBI custody, the focus is shifting quickly towardsKalmadi himself.

Mohindroo have claimed that all financial dealings in the Queens BatonRelay or any other Commonwealth Games project was cleared with dueapproval of Kalmadi himself.

They also claimed that even the payment for setting up video screens inQueens Baton Relay was released with the final permission of Kalmadi.



The spotlight now may shift from the Suresh Kalmadi-led Organizing Committee(OC) to the Sheila Dikshit government, with a tax probe into Commonwealth

Games (CWG) sleaze finding indications of payoffs to its officials from contractorshandling the Games projects.

Scrutiny of the documents seized during the October 28 Income Tax (I-T ) raids onGames vendors and contractors have thrown up evidence of a money trail leadingup to officials belonging to the Delhi government, NDMC and MCD along with those

.

The payoffs are linked to contracts for supply of sports accessories and laying ofsynthetic track surfaces, streetlighting , streetscaping, beautification and otherinfrastructure projects.

The seized documents reveal that some of the payments were made on a monthlybasis. In some other cases, payoffs turned weekly as the projects nearedcom letion and a ments were released.

Linkages of some important functionaries of the government may not be ruled outwith the taxmen suspecting benami ownership of some of the firms that hadbagged key Games projects.

The direction of the probe may cause embarrassment to Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit ,who had asserted in October that ‘‘ real corruption’’ was limited to projects worth Rs1,600 handled b the OC.

While the second round of I-T raids focused on infrastructure projects executed by

agencies such as the Delhi government, MCD, NDMC, DDA and CPWD, during thefirst raid a week before on October 19, the focus was on firms that had suppliedoverlays to the OC.

Its efforts to handpick projects for CAG audit may have landed the Delhigovernment in a bigger soup.

Delhi government sources say they have now been asked by CAG to furnish detailsof all projects undertaken between 2005-06 to 2009-10 — a far cry from just the 25projects that the chief secretary had suggested CAG should look into to finish theirprobe on time. Audit officials, according to sources, have also asked for the projectpaper of MCD’s controversial coffee home-cum-toilet project — in which public landworth several hundred crores was handed over to a private agency for a period of

— .

“There are dif ferent explanations as to why the Governm entof India spent Rs.70,000 crore or m ore to host the

Commonwealth Games (CWG). To the cynical, it was an

incent ive package for the country’s burgeoning, publ icsector- driven ‘cash and carr ’ econom . To olitical

animals, it was aimed at boosting the prospects of Sheila

Dikshit, the Delhi Chief Minister”.- Swapan Das Gupta , Journalist



Commonwealth Games cost shoots up 17.5 times fromoriginal estimate – cost Rs.70,000 crores

When India won its bid for the 2010 Commonwealth Games 7 years ago, theevent instantl became an emblem of national resti e. But an o ortunitto burnish its global image has instead become a national embarassment.

The litany of problems plaguing the games – collapsed footbridges, filthydorms, cartoonish corruption – have not only made headlines around theworld. They have left Indians to wonder why a country so promising in somany regards is incapable of organizing a signature event when the eyes ofthe world are focused on it.

The games have also been blighted by widespread allegations of briberyand corruption with CBI and CVC stating in July that they had discoveredirregularities in contracts for 16 Commonwealth Games-related projectsincluding the athletes’ village swimming pool, training hall, and athletic trackamong others.

Cost of renovation of Nehru Stadium went up to Rs.961 crores. Cost ofrecently constructed Nagpur Stadium – Rs.84 crores, Dharamsala Stadium – Rs.48 crores, Indore Stadium – Rs.40 crores.

Commonwealth Games – Scams Smam Co – Sponsorship Scam – Rs.213 crores were set aside for Smam

Co. for Sponsorship deals. Irrespective of whether the sponsors come ornot the company shall get 15 to 23% commission. Following the uproar, thecontract was cancelled.

OC spent Rs.26 crores for Kitchen equipment, Rs.670 crores for Tentequipment – all under the heading of Overlays.

In July 2010 CBI and CVC stated that they had discovered irregularities incontracts for 16 CWG related projects including – athletes village swimmingpool, training hall and athletic track among others.

CVC Report, . .

Directed CBI to register corruption cases against officials, contractors.

Almost all the organizations executing works for Commonwealth Gameshave considered inadmissible factors to jack up the reasonable price to

justify award of work at quoted rates citing urgent/emergent circumstances.Despite higher rates , poor site management, delays and qualitycompromises have been observed.



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The recent reports of corruption in Commonwealth Games have adverselyaffected the country’s image. The amount of funds spent on renovatingstadia for Commonwealth Games provide a prime facie evidence of largescale corruption in the organization of Commonwealth Games.

The figures available on the Commonwealth Games website reveals that thecost of renovating the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium was Rs.961 crore; the

.Rs.262 crore and the Karni Singh shooting ranges Rs.149 crore. A total sumof Rs.44,459.48 crore was spent on renovations.

The cost incurred in the renovation of Ferozeshah Kotla cricket stadium inDelhi was Rs.85 crore. For the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in Hyderabad

was Rs.80 crore and construction of a new state-of-the-art stadium inNagpur cost Rs.84 crore.

facilities. Unlike the Delhi cricket stadium that was built afresh, the Nehrustadium was only renovated.

3 Senior CWG Off icials Arrested - Queen’s Baton Relay

• Three senior Delhi Commonwealth Games officials have been arrestedover financial irregularities and the case has been handed to thegovernment’ s financial anti- corruption watchdog.

• Joint Director Generals T.S. Darbari and M. Jeyachandran and Dy.Director General Sanjay Mohindroo were suspended after a comm it teesubmit ted its report on alleged charges of corruption during last

’ ’year s ueen s a on e ay aunc n on on an ave eensubsequently arrested for their alleged role.

• An email from Mohindroo showed him dictating taxi rates to a vendorin London who was hired to provide cars and ot her services duringthe Queen’s Baton Relay funct ion in London last year

• The vendor in question – Ashish Patel – and his f i rm, AM Cars – have adubious financial record. Instead of asking him for rates, Mohindroo. .

even when compared to hiring a BMW or Mercedes with a driver inLondon.

• Darbari is ast the centre of a Customs case which accuses him ofillegally trying to import a ring worth nearly 20 lakhs from Dubai intoKerala. He was also sent t o Australia for the Queen’s Baton Relaythere.



Emmar MGF gets Rs.700 crores bailout from DDA

• . , ,(DDA) signed agreement with private corporate Emmar-MGF under PPP todevelop CWG Village. Under original agreement the Govt. was supposed toget Rs.321 and 389 flats from Emmar-MGF

• In the name of urgency a big scam of more than hundreds of crores tookplace amongst the Govt. authorities – Urban Development Ministry, Govt. ofIndia, Delhi State Govt. and Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

• In the name of Commonwealth Games, the Con ress Govt. a reed to

COMMONWEALTH GAMES VILLAGE PROJECT

purchase flats from this private company at the rate of Rs.11,000/- per sq.ft.• The Controller & Auditor General of India in its report No.CA 23 of 2009-10

has passed strictures against this manipulation.

MINISTRY OF URBAN DEVELOPMENTEXTRACT OF ANSWER TO LOK SABHA

QUESTION NO 2155 OF 06.08.2010

DDA has signed an agreement with Emaar MGF for development ofCommonwealth Games Village under Private Partnership Participants (PPP)mode. As per the agreement, DDA is to receive Rs.321 crore and share of 1/3

flats out of a total 1168 flats.

DDA had given financial assistance to Project Developer by way of purchasingflats from the project Developer’s share. Since the project had come to a virtualhalt because of cash flow problems and serious difficulties were being faced bythe ro ect develo er in raisin resources from the market as well as fromfinancial institutions because of economic recession and in view of therequirement of timely completion of the project, it was decided that DDA maypurchase 333 under-construction flats from the project developer’s share.

An Inter-Agency Evaluation Committee was constituted by the Lt. Governor of

National Capital Territory of Delhi in order to work out a reasonable price for- .

project cost per sq.ft. of plinth area. Based on inputs of IndependentConsultants engaged by the Committee and Financial Experts and after addingthe developer’s margin and cost of capital, the cost of completed flats wasworked out. On the basis of input of Price Evaluation Committee andNegotiation Committee and considering the offer of project developer, it wasdecided that DDA may go ahead with the purchase of flats at the rate of

. , - .



The Supreme Court remarked that it cannot shut its eyes on the “rampantcorruption”, The court criticized the Indian government on its preparations for

the international sporting event.

The court cited the collapse of the new foot-over bridge near JawaharlalNehru Stadium like a “pack of cards” as an example of the quality of theinfrastructure work done for the Games.

“In this countr a ments are made without work bein done. The newlconstructed bridge collapsed like a pack of cards,” the Bench said. “Rs70,000 crore is involved. There is rampant corruption.

While the Central Vigilance Commission has raised 16 cases of corruption inCWG preparations, the Enforcement Directorate is probing irregularities andcorruption in three cases of money transactions.

successful bidder who got the contract after quoting the lowest amount wasallegedly allowed to tamper with figures post-auction so that he could rake inmore money than he had initially hoped for.

The number of works under the CVC scanner has now risen to 16 withrevenue implication of more than Rs 2,500 crore. Chances of fresh additions

" " .

According to the CVC probe, the bid papers were tampered with andchanges were made in the bidding amount taking it closer to the nearestrival so that profit margins could be increased.

• The budget for the CWG has undergone several revisions since India wonthe bid for the Games in 2003. From an initial projection of Rs. 1,899 crore,

estimates of the total cost of the Games now range from Rs. 30,000 to Rs.70,000 crore.

• From Rs. 45.5 crore in 2005-06 to Rs. 2,883 crores in 2009-10(RE),allocations for the Commonwealth Games have witnessed an

astounding 6,235% increase in the Union Budget. In the 2010-11 Union Bud et the Commonwealth Games have been

allocated Rs. 2,069.52.

• The allocation for CWG projects in Delhi’s 2010-11 Budget is Rs. 2,105crore.

Its like Ganga dwaar pe aayi hain..sab log haath dholo..



Differing Budget Estimates

At the bid for the CWG , the estimated cost for hostin the event was ivenas Rs, 1899 crore.

In May-June 2006, it was reported that the cost of the Games hadescalated to Rs. 3,000 crore.

In April 2007, the union Cabinet approves the Budget for CWG at Rs. 3566crore.

n u y , n on n s er or ou a rs an por s, an an arAiyar, estimated the total cost of the Games to be Rs. 7,000 crore though healso stated that not more than Rs. 2,000 crore should be spent on theGames

March 24, 2010 : CWG Director General, V. K. Verma, said on, that theentire estimated cost of the Games was Rs. 10,000 crore.

Now, the Ministry of Youth and Sports estimates it at Rs. 11,494 crore, Govt.of Delhi estimate is at Rs.16560 crore totallying to Rs. 28054 crore.

The Ministry of Tourism estimates the total cost at Rs. 87,000 crore.



.

Bharati CEO Shri B.S. Lalli for Rs.246 Cr. fraudulent contract toSIS Live?

2. What are the connections of Mr. Kanishak Singh, a close aid ofMr. Rahul Gandhi with the Emmar MGF Promotors and isinvolved in CWG Villa e Scam?

3. Can you deny the fact that the provisiion of Rs.126 Cr. In theplan budget of Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports for OVERLAYSin the year 2009-2010 was revised to 687 Crore – Manipulative

Contract ?4. Your s orts minister has admitted in Ra a Sabha that all cost

escalation in the CWG projects were approved by the UnionCabinet. Isn’t it an admission of Criminal negligence on part ofthe govt. which you are heading?

5. Who is responsible for approving an advance of Rs.1669.42 crto the Organising Committee?

6. Whom will you blame for the dismal turnout for the CWGevents and the ticketing mess?

7. Your govt. claims to have initiated action against contractors,officials and some firms connected with CWG projects. Whatabout action against the political masters who connived in theCWG loot?

8. What about Rs.300 cr your govt. allocated to Delhi Universityfor CWG project which in turn handed it over to a pvt.

Construction co. What is the total cost of actual work done?9. What is our res onse to irre ularities and corru tion cases

relating to cost escalations and manipulations in Queens BatonRelay, SMAM scam etc.?

10. The Group of Ministers (GOM) held 48 meetings on CWG.Cabinet discussed dozen times and sanctioned cost escalationfrom Rs.1899 cr to Rs.70000 cr. Are you not responsible forthe CWG mess?

28



29



30



31



A tale of Deceit – How Govt.

Machinery was manipulated byCongress Pol it ician &

Bureaucrats and they insultedK il W Hargil War Heroes.

3232



-amongst the politicians and the bureaucrats in order to grab prime land in Mumbai.

The land scam is related to allotment of Land at Colaba that was in possession ofthe Army and after the Kargil War, few army personnel started demanding the landfor the building of flats to "accommodate and reward the hero's of Kargil operationand those who had laid down their lives for the protection of the motherland".

defence personnel. Presently the list stands at 103 out of which only 37 membersbelong to army and that too only 3 members are related to Kargil war.

Few of the Bureaucrats & Ministers / Leaders who have fraudulently sneakedthemselves or their relatives (Benami) into the list of members and today own flatsare:

Ruling Congress Ministers / Leaders

• Ashok Chavan, Congress

• Vilasrao Deshmukh, Congress

• Sushil Kumar Shinde, Congress

• ,

• Babasaheb Kupekar, Congress FormerSpeaker of Legislature

BUREAUCRATS

• Jairaj Phatak- Ex MunicipalCommissioner

• Ramanand Tiwari,- State InformationCommissioner

• Pradeep Vyas, Collector Mumbai

• Indris Kundan, Collector Mumbai,

• DK Sankaran, Ex-Chief Sect.MaharashtraCS Sangitrao- Collector

• SC Deshmukh, Collector-Pune

• Arun Pawar, Ex- Income Tax Comm.Make me CM Maam. I am not involved in t his “Adarsh Scam”,

33

• es mu , ecre ary r anDevelopment

s so a sca s.



34



The following concessions were given in lieu:

to Residential Zone. A road of width 60 meters reduced to 19 meters.

FSI of the adjoining Bus Depot given to the Adarsh Society.

15 % of the area allowed to used for commercial purpose rather thanresidential.

The income ceiling of Rs 12,500 per month waived off for army personneland politicians

Construction started without obtaining environmental clearance.

Occupation Certificate awarded even before the building was fully ready.

Adarsh Society’s Murky details

Incomplete and fictitious details of members is held with the deputyregistrar’s office. Information sought on flat allottees was being deliberatelydenied or inordinately delayed with malafied intent.

Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society Ltd has acquired the plot of land.

The society has stated it has negotiated with local military authorities whoexpressed their willingness to allow the society to go ahead with the projectif a certain amount of accommodation is also provided for army welfare.

The total plot area where Adarsh Housing Society has been constructed is40,000 square metre. The building has 104 flats of two sizes, 600 squareee an , sq .

The capital value of each 600 sq ft apartment is estimated at around Rs 2.4crore, while the capital value of 1,000 sq ft flat is Rs 4 crore.

There are nine promoters of the society led by Congress leader

Kanhaiyalal Gidwani. The real tra ed of Adarsh Scam

The real tragedy in the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai is n thatland earmarked for a six-storey building of apartments for disabledveterans, war widows and heroes of Kargil was used, in contravention ofzoning laws and environmental regulations, for a 31-storey luxury high-rise,out of whose 103 apartments, only three went to families connected to theKar il conflict and the remainder went to two retired arm chiefs a formernaval chief, four other army officers who went on to become generals,

relatives of ministers and top netas and babus.

35



The real tragedy is that it involves top officers of the defence establishmentw o go emse ves a s a o e n a u ng ma e on an purpor e y

sanctioned in the name of Kargil widows and heroes. The real tragedy is that the 31-storeyed building could provide a potential

threat a vantage point over the navy’s air station, INS Shikra, just a kilometreaway aerially.

The real tragedy is that the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, after firstbrazening it out about his ‘distant relatives’ — his mother in law, amongothers — and then offering to return the flats and resign.

The real tragedy is that the Congress did not know who to replace him withsince almost all other big names in contention in Maharashtra Congress are

equally tainted. The real tra ed is that the silence of the Prime Minister and the Con ress

President is deafeningly loud and that their fabled ‘voice of conscience’ issilent and that they are hiding behind the shield of ‘due process’ in sackingthe incumbent CM of Maharashtra, whose involvement in other biggerscams has since come to light.

The real tragedy is that after so many days, of scandalous after scandalousdetails hittin the headlines nobod believes that the uilt would ever bebrought to book or be meted out any justice — or even that there could be

an independent enquiry to bring out the truth. Which police officer indeed would lodge an FIR against the CM of

Maharashtra? Or powerful ministers and well-connected babus andofficers?

, ,no effective systemic response available. Though CBI is said to beinvestigating the case, nobody quite knows what it is investigating andnobody frankly has any expectations from its “investigations”.

The Adarsh Case

In the Adarsh case land was under uninterrupted and continuous possessionof the Army for over 40 years.

The said plot was a garden known as ‘Khukri Eco Park’ with 135 grown uptrees and was under the management of local military authorities.

The GOC M& G Area Maj. Gen. B A Cariappa inaugurated the said park on27th October, 1996 on the Infantry Day.

Services and the same was adjacent and contiguous to other Army units

located in the Zone VI.

36



The said Eco Park continued to remain under control and management ofArmy till 2004 where army personnel were detailed round the clock regularlyfor guarding it like any other army establishment.

The land was abandoned by the Army to be allotted to Adarsh Co-operativeHousing Society by a conspiracy hatched by senior serving officers,bureaucrats, politicians and officers of Defence Estate.

The conspiracy was hatched in the year 2000 when Maj. Gen. A. R. Kumarwas the General Officer Commanding MG & G Area and Brig T. K. Kaul was

. . .in November 2002.

Since the year 2000, each of the Generals Officer Commanding,Maharashtra & Gujarat Area, Maj. Gen. A. R. Kumar, Maj. Gen. V. S. Yadav,Maj. Gen. T. K. Kaul, Maj. Gen. Tejinder Singh, Maj. Gen. R. K. Hooda, havebecome members of Adarsh Society for allotment of flat to them or their

-Commanding, Maharashtra & Gujarat Area .

In return these General Officers remained silent on the conspiracy hatchedeven at the risk of the security hazard posed by construction of 30 storeybuilding overlooking the sensitive defence area. Not only did they remain silenton this issue but provided immunity and protection to the Society in continuingtheir mani ulation.

Security concernsThe 30 storeyed building constructed completely dominates the entire Army &Navy area and sensitive installations like Tata Institute of FundamentalResearch. The building causes a security concerns of great magnitude in thelonger run.

37



Army-Politician nexus

Not only has the Adarsh scam hasexposed Army-Politician nexus, ithas led to reveal crisis ofconscience in the rulingdispensation.

appropriated the flats from Adarshsociety twisting and turning all therules, it has nakedly grabbedthese flats from the widows andfamily members of Kargil martyrs.

widows and family members ofKargil martyrs has been lootedfrom them by the ministers andhigh ranking army personnelsthemselves and shamelessly held

.

The point to be noted is that 4former Chief Ministers ofMaharashtra – Narayan Rane,Vilasrao Deshmukh, SushilkumarShinde and Ashok Chavan are

.

• In UPA regime, there has been a continuous decline of values in politicswhich is getting reflected in other sectors also.

• Today it has taken army also in its grip.

• If such is the situation the fate of India as a nation stands sealed.• It exposes the vulnerability of our armed forces.

• It is like medieval times when fort's gatemen were used to be bribed toopen the gates making way for enemy's army. Similar things can happennow.

• Unless determined steps are taken to arrest the rising tide of corruption,the safety and security of the nation will remain under threat.

•

38

.



39



40



41



Over 40 Crore Janata Below Poverty LineRs.58,000 Crore worth Foodgrains rot / wasted

every year due to lack of proper management.

Supreme Court orders Govt. to distr ibute thisFREE to the poor.

Govt . says – “NOT POSSIBLE” !!!

42



,

issue of distributing food grains amongst the hungry-rather thanlet them rot.

But the insensitive UPA Govt. does not agree.

Supreme Court directs the Govt. to distribute rotting food grains

Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister disagree.

Say it is not possible.

PM asks Supreme Court not to interfere in ‘policy making’..???

43



When the Supreme Court pointed out that the best way to use the

how the question of policy comes in. It is impossible to

understand the language of our leaders.

It is a matter of Life and Death.

There can be no higher or nobler humanitarian ideal than this. AtalBihari Vajpayee always mentioned the word ‘Humane touch’ inpolicy making.

He sought to relieve the misery of his fellowmen, and also desiredto so identify himself with them and become a part of them so asto undergo their suffering and, thereby, share their miserable

predicament.

' ,third-largest economy, a low 65 out of the 84 countries in the Index

India boasts of being the world's fourth-largest economy based onPurchasing Power Parity (PPP). Yet, foodgrains enough to feed a100 million rot each year.

Tamil poet, said: “ Thani oru manithanukkunavilayenil jagathinai

Azhithiduvom”. It translates as: “If you deny food to even oneman, we will destroy the entire universe.”

44



45



IN LOKSABHA THAT WASTAGE OF AGRICULTURAL FOOD ITEMS ISESTIMATED TO BE RS. 58,000 CRORE ANNUALLY.

The answer was given in reply to a question asked in Loksabha onwastage of Agricultural food Items.It added that this was occurring at various stages of handling after

- ,cold chain facilities, transportation, proper storage facilities etc.

Extract of National Human Rights Commission’s Observation / Order on

Dr. Kirit Somaiya’s Petition on storage of Food Grains(Case No.939/7/0/2010 dt. 6/12/2010)

1. The problem of Storage of covered storage exist.

2. Cover & Plinth (CAP): As of 1/7/2010, stock of wheat stored in CAP was 168.04 lac tonnes.

3. It is clear from the stands taken by the govt. of India & the FCIs that there is a shortage of covered storage for food grains.

.commission parts with this case with the hope that the Govt. of India shall be spurred into action to address this perennial problem.

The case is closed.

46



The government has admitted to the empowered group of ministers (EGoM)on food and prices that 61,000 tonnes of foodgrain had rotted in its granariesas it was kept with poor protection for too long.

e o ea e y nance m n s er rana u er ee was ascer a n ngthe status of overflowing stocks in Food Corporation of India godowns.

FCI godowns in Haryana and Punjab were unable to protect or sell the 15.5million tonnes of wheat lying in the open under tarpaulins.

MISMANAGEMENT OF FOOD GRAIN STORAGE & DISTRIBUTION

,goes hungry

100 lac tons of food grain rot due to inadequate storage in the country

Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee admitted huge quantity of food

grains got rotten due to lack of protection, . . ,

crores rotted due to lack of proper management

India emerged leading exporter of food grains to poor African nationsthrough cartels

Group of Ministers, Congress Govt. in April 2010 rejected the suggestion forrelease of 50 lac tons to poorest districts

Govt of India says Rs 58,000 crores food grains got rotten-wasted..

Lacs of tonnes food grain get rotten (sad jata hai) every year in govt.godowns

47



48



Poor people dying with hunger/ bhookh

do not have any ration cards

Thousands of Farmers are committing suicide every year

Congress Raj Farmers getting the least Common Man paying the most &Poor struggling for Food

Scam of Rotten Food Grain

23 railway wagons with wheat bags took 440 days from Punjab to BokaroDist. 57 tons got rotten. Railway & FCI stated to have disposed of the sameas waste

Over 4 lac wheat bags stored in godowns in Sirsa Dist. of Haryana damaged

due to rain 10,000 tons wheat stored in the open in Kurukshetra got rotten due to rains.

Tons of wheat damaged due to rain water in Karnal of

Fungus-infected dal being distributed along with rice and wheat through PDS

Over thousands of quintals of rice rotting in FCI godown in Gondia Dist. ofMaharashtra.

49



Rotting foodgrains: House panel pulls up FCI

A House panel pulled up the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and theGovernment for letting a large quantity of foodgrains lying in open and letting

them rot, especially “in a country where incidents of hunger and malnutritionare still reported.”

In a report on food subsidy and its utilisation, tabled by the Chairman of theStanding Committee on food, consumer affairs and public distribution, MrVilas Muttemwar, in Parliament, the Committee criticised the “lackadaisicalmanner of handling this issue by Government/FCI.”

Storage, transit losses

Estimating the storage losses of foodgrains at Rs 228.39 crore and transit

losses another Rs 182.46 crore in 2009-10, the Committee said that due topoor maintenance of godowns, a large quantity of valuable foodgrain is lost

'every year. e omm ee no accep s a a p ys caverification of the depots with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes in a year anddepots with less than 10,000 tonnes capacity once in two years could not beconducted due to the shortage of manpower.

It said such physical verification is “very essential which should beconducted frequently so that any damage to foodgrains from insects, rats,moisture could be detected timely.”

50



Wastage of foodgrain a ‘crime’, says SC

The Supreme Court has criticized the govt. and said that wastage of even a

single foodgrain in a poverty-ridden country is a “crime”. “In a country where people are starving, wastage of a single grain is a crime.

It has come out in official record that food stock is lying wasted,” a Bench ofJustices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma observed on how food stockis lying “rotten” at government godowns without reaching the “poor andneedy”.

A SC -appointed committee, set up to do a reality check on the PublicDistribution System (PDS) mechanism, had described it as “inefficient andcorrupt”, plagued by black marketing and unofficially run by a “vicious cartel

of bureaucrats, fair price shop owners and middlemen”.

report to the apex court said the Rs 28,000-crore subsidy annually spent bythe government was pocketed by vested interests and suggested drasticaction to stem the rot.

51



Rotten Foodgrains lying in the open at aHaryana Warehouse

52



Sirsa (Haryana): Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) hasreceived the highest bid of 62 paise a kg for the rotten wheat lying in thestate government's warehouse at Bani village near here.

There were nearly 200,000 bags of wheat which got submerged in floodwater in July this year.

er e qua y eva ua on o e a ec e w ea , as oun a over95,000 bags could not be even used for cattle or poultry feed. For thiscategory, HSWC has received the bid of 62 paise per kg.

"We had done our evaluation in August and found that over 95,000 bags

were of dumping category that means there was a quality degradation ofaround 90 per cent. We have got the highest bid of around 62 paise perkilogram for this rotten wheat," M.L. Verma, district manager of HSWC, toldIANS Monday.

"During the July floods, wheat bags remained submerged in water for 20 to25 days and now it is of no use for anyone. But we cannot dump it and it ismandatory to follow a prescribed procedure therefore we had invited thebids," a HSWC official told IANS, requesting not to be named.

"HSWC has to accept this bid as there is no other option available. Further

delay means more deterioration of the grains. The bidder would extractaround five to 10 per cent poultry feed, out these grains, and rest would beused as manure," he pointed out.

53



In the response of Dr.Kirit Somaiya’s RTI query, it wasinformed by QC Lab of FCI that of t he tot al samp lesanalyzed, 30%of Rice samples, 60% of Wheat samples &100%of Paddy were found b elow Govt. acceptable nor ms.

54



55



A Cup of ‘Cut t ing’ Tea costs Rs. 5/ - .

Coffee costs Rs. 8/ - .

Vadapav- common man’s burger costs Rs. 7/ - .

Samosas costs Rs. 8/ - per piece.

-. . .

Onions are costing Rs. 44/ - per Kg.

Oof f yeh Mahangai ....o f f yeh Mahangai ....

56



The prices of items of daily use like pulses, vegetables, sugar, cookinggas, kerosene, petrol, diesel, electricity, water, and each and every item

have increased manifold severely eroding the household budget andcausing unmitigated burden on common people.

UPA’s assurances and its rank apathy:

It may be recalled that during the Lok Sabha elections-2009, the electionmanifesto and cam ai n remise of Con ress-UPA was the romise that“the prices of essential commodities shall be brought down in next 100 days”.

It is dismaying to note that the handling of the economy by UPAGovernment has been totally reckless. The Government does not appearto be in control. There is no vision and thinking to control spiraling pricesof commodities of dail use b common eo le. It seems that the countrand the people have been left at the mercy of hoarders, speculationtraders and the market forces. The Government seems to be afflictedwith stupor while the common people are craving for some relief from thisunchecked spiral of prices.

57



Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Sin h was forced to take co nizance of thehardships of common people due to inflation and price rise in his PressConference on 24th May, 2010 on completion of one year of UPA-IIGovernment. He admitted that –

“Price rise is one of the major issues remained unresolved”. “Prices continueto be a matter of deep concern. The Government attaches highest priority tocontainin inflation so that there is no distress to the common man.” “Wewill continue to monitor the situation very carefully and take whatever

corrective steps are necessary to rein in inflation.”

The Report Card of the UPA-II released by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Dr.Manmohan Singh on 1st June, 2010 categorically states –

“Prices have gone up. Food inflation is a major concern. The UPA-”.

Hon Rashtrapati also in her Address to the Joint Session of Parliament inFebruary, 2010, given voice to the concerns of common people and themiddle classes and advised the Government to effectively intervene throughpolicy interventions and other measures to check the rise in prices ofcommodities of daily use.

tt ng ere t urts e ost:

It seems the motto of UPA has become “Garibi Badao”. Ever since the UPAgovernment has come to power, the number of people living below thepoverty line has increased phenomenally. There is a phenomenal rise inpoverty during the tenure of UPA-I & UPA-II. Number of poor has gone upduring Congress Regime. According to the Planning Commission’s –

at ona amp e urvey – e ow overty ne popu at on n rura n awas 28.3% in 2005.

58



people in the country. It is a matter of concern that the Government doesn'teven know the exact number of poor people in the country. According tothe Planning Commission, there are 28%. According to N.C. SaxenaCommittee of the Rural Development Ministry, 50% people of the countryare below the poverty line on the basis of calorie intake. According to ArjunSen Gu ta Committee constituted for unor anized sector, 77% eo le ofthe country make their sustenance on Rs. 20 daily. According theTendulkar Committee report 37.2% people live below poverty line. ThePlanning Commission has put the BPL population as 31 crore in its 2005report. The Tendulkar committee put this figure 42 crore in December,

2009. The daily income of such people is lesser than Rs. 20. The anti-people policies of the Congress Party and the UPA Government areresponsible for this mess. The uncontrolled price rise has snatched thefood away from the mouths of the children of these families.

Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Affairsstated that such a loss is due to lack of management. While Lacs oftonnes of food grains rot every year in government godowns, poor peopleare dying of hunger and malnutrition. Saxena Committee of GOI statedthat 51% of BPL people do not have any ration cards. In Congress-UPA

regime, farmers are getting the least though the common man is payingthe most and the common people, the poor and the downtrodden arestruggling for food

Commodities Dec. 2008 Dec. 2010

Onion 20 44

Potato 10 17

Lasoon 100 210

Vanaspati 70 90

Tur Dal 80 95

Mug Dal 75 100

Tea Powder 220 310

59

Diesel Per Ltr 37.89 42.07

PetrolPer Ltr 50.21 57.37



60



,

grains have gone up rapidly. BJP finds it baffling and the nation is unable tounderstand the reason for not releasing the available buffer stock into themarket or distributing it through the public distribution system in spite ofbuffer stocks to ease the pressure on prices? This epitomizes the sheerscale of negligence and gross mismanagement of food economy by the UPAGovernment. On the one hand it continues to shed tears for u liftin andwelfare of common people, at the same time, it cruelly connives withprofiteers to create an artificial scarcity of commodities to push the prices up.

Hike in prices of petroleum products:

BJP feels that the wrong economic policies of the UPA Government aremaking the life of common man difficult. In last one year, Congress. ,

CNG, etc. and these have been raised by the Government by 33-46%.

PRICES OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS

Products Price in April,2009 (in Rs)

Price in July,2010 (in Rs.)

% increase inlast one year

Petrol 44.55 60.55 38Diesel 34.45 41.98 20

Kerosene 9.05 12.27 33CNG 21.70 31.47 46

Cooking Gas(LPG)

312.05 348.45 11

Note: Petroleum products price differs from State to State due to SST/VAT.

61



It is the Congress which had given a commitment to ensure stability ofpetroleum prices. Sudden sharp increase of 11 to 46% in the prices ofpetroleum products, which has direct impact on the day-to-day life ofcommon man, as pus e t e n at on pr ce r se urt er. t s an -t oug t

move and it appears that the consequence of such steep hike in petroleumprices had not been assessed while announcing the hike. This has furthermade the efforts to curb prices difficult and such type of indirect taxes affectthe common man directly.

Commodity Exchanges – Dens of Speculation:

Along with wrong economic policies, taxing common man directly throughindirect taxes, speculation and manipulation in essential commodities atCommodity Exchange has played a major role in food inflation.

There are around 22 to 23 Commodity Exchanges in India. Of these,

National Commodity & Derivative Exchange (NCDEX) and Multi CommodityExchange (MCX) are the major Exchanges.

Essential, i.e. Agricultural Commodities are mainly traded at CommodityExchange (NCDEX). In 2009, out of Rs.10.84,224 crores turnover atNCDEX, delivery was 0.33%, i.e. Rs.3,591 crores. Artificial turnover pushesup the prices of food grains/items.

Total Turnover Speculation Actual Delivery

Government of India is asking State Governments to take necessary steps

Amount

Rs. Crores

% Amount

Rs. Crores

% Amount

Rs. Crores

%

10,88,224 100 10,84,633 99.67 3,591 0.33

under the Essential Commodities Act to curb price rise. In contradiction, it isencouraging speculative, manipulative tendencies by pushing/allowingfuture/forwarding trading in essential commodities at the CommodityExchanges. The above figures clearly state that 99.67% transactions in

agriculture/essential commodities are speculative. It pushes the pricesupwards. Essential commodities have been shifted to future trading since2004 (later half).

Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the unmitigated sufferings andhardships of the common people, the farmers, the middle classes and theworkers and the utter neglect, insensitivity and indifference shown by theCongress Party and the UPA government by turning a blind eye and a deafear towards the voices of the people, the BJP has been spearheading the

62

agitation against rising prices to draw the attention of the Government to thisissue and to urge it to shed its attitude of inaction and drift and take firmsteps to mitigate the situation.



Month Actual Delivery Speculation Total

Turnover

Rs. In croresAmount

Rs. In

% Amount

Rs. In crores

%

crores

January 634 1.35 46161 98.64 46795

February 147 0.35 41593 99.64 41740

March 128 0.31 40931 99.68 41059

April 115 0.17 65007 99.70 65202

May 125 0.27 50907 99.75 51032

June 108 0.16 45882 99.76 45990

July 72 0.23 73010 99.90 73082

August 99 0.10 93113 99.89 93212

September 217 0.36 59211 99.63 59428

October 165 0.21 76110 99.78 76275

November 175 0.16 105697 99.83 105872

December 258 0.24 103897 99.75 104155

TOTAL 2243 0.28 801519 99.71 803842



MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTIONLOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO70

RISE IN PRICES OF ESSENTIAL COMMODITIESANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND MINISTER OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD

(a) to (f): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (F) OF LOKSABHA STARRED

QUESTION NO.70 FOR 24-11-2009 REGARDING RISE IN PRICES OF ESSENTIALCOMMODITIES.

(a) & (b) Government is aware of increasing trend in prices of essential commoditiesand has taken series of steps to check the increase in prices by taking effectivemeasures such as augmenting domestic supplies of rice, wheat, pulses and edible oilsthrough imports at zero/reduced rates of duty and ban on exports. All these measureshave had a moderating influence on the rise in prices of essential commodities.

Over the year, rise in price of pulses, sugar, are witnessed mainly due to inadequate

supplies in relation to demand. Vegetable prices tend to fluctuate depending on theavailability and seasonal factors.

(c) and (d) The Government has taken a number of steps to control the price rise andto soften the impact of price rise on consumers. Government measures are given in

.1. Fiscal Measures(i) Reduced import duties to zero - for sugar, rice, wheat, pulses, edible oils (crude)and maize(ii) Allowed import of raw sugar at zero duty under O.G.L upto 1.8.2009 by sugar mills(notified on 17.4.2009)(iii) Allowed, import, of white/refined sugar by STC/MMTC/PEC and NAFED up to 1

. . . . .2. Administrative Measures(iv) Banned export of non-basmati rice, edible oils and pulses (except kabuli chana).(v) Effected no changes in Tariff Rate Values of edible oils;(vi) Imposed stock limit orders in the case of paddy, rice, pulses, sugar, edible oils andedible oilseeds upto 31.9.20ID;(vii) Using Minimum Export Price (MEP) to regulate exports of onion

64

v a tonnes o tonnes o r ce s est mate or re ease un er sc eme



65



The scam took place when mi llions went hungry.Congress talks about the Aam Aadm iongress talks about the Aam Aadm i ,

then exploits him.

66



Background of the Scam

as year, on u y , ar amen erup e n a urore over e reve a on a

despite a strict ban on exports, tonnes of 25 per cent broken, non-Basmatirice were sold to African nations by UPA-I.

Then newly appointed Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma, had promisedto inquire into the scam. “This matter is being looked into. Inquiries will beheld; responsibility will be fixed and remedial action shall be taken,” Sharmahad stated in response to a calling attention motion in the Lok Sabha.

A Sham Inquiry

The inquiry was conducted by P.K. Chaudhary, a 1977-batch IAS officer ofwho joined the commerce ministry as an additional secretary on May 27,2008, and served a year under then minister Kamal Nath.

n au ary e e onerous as o nqu r ng n o e ac s o comm ss onand omission of various participants in the elaborate scam, including theUnion minister Kamalnath himself.

The inquiry’s terms of reference were not made public, but what is known isthat Chaudhary never got access to any of the principal characters who hadalready moved out of the ministry of commerce and industry.

Kamal Nath had moved away to the Union ministry of surface transport, the

then commerce secretary G.K. Pillai had moved as the Union homesecretary and the man directly in charge of the division dealing with theexports, R. Gopalan, was now the secretary (financial services) in the Unionministry of finance.

companies, led by Amira Foods (I) Pvt Ltd, by “black-listing” them.

But the fact is that while the scam can easily attract the provisions of thePrevention of Corruption Act, the case has already been dilutedconsiderably.

Ample time has been given to the private players to wipe out evidence andbank accounts, while a more neutral investigation agency like the CentralVigilance Commission (CVC) or the CBI has never been involved in theinquiry.

Stumped Out …

A May 2009 noting in the files of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade“ , ,

commerce and industry) needs to decide as to which country is to be

allocated to which PSU (public sector undertaking) for export”

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68



available

From RTI inquiries and Commerce ministry file notings its very clear thatKamal Nath personally took the decisions on which PSU would handle acountry’s allotted share of rice: see file noting on previous page_ “...beforenotification is issued Commerce and Industry Minister (Kamal Nath) needs to

”.

Clearly, Kamal Nath knew about the involvement of private companies andalso took the decisions on allocation of the exports. There are also lettersfrom various African countries such as Sierra Leone which have beenaddressed to Kamal Nath, stating that the rice exports be directed throughprivate companies such as Amira Foods (I) Ltd.

This despite the fact that the norms for such exports are absolutely clear thatthey could only be undertaken by one of three PSUs—STC, MMTC or PEC.

File notings available through RTIs also record a telephone call from thencommerce secretary G.K. Pillai to a joint secretary in the food ministry

stating that a notification to export rice was being pushed through. Suchnotifications could be issued onl after mandator clearance from the foodministry, but this was ignored and the notification issued.

Documents show there was very little rice for the PDS in that period. Filenotings and notes of the food ministry officials repeatedly warned there wasno rice left to export and barely enough to supply the PDS meant for belowpoverty line families.

e e ers rom s a es see ng more r ce p e up, e commerce m n s ryignored them. Instead, not only did they export a banned essential

commodity, they allowed private firms to come in and make a killing.

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History….

The government had banned export of non-basmati rice in the wake of. , ,

allowed export of limited quantity to some African and the least developedcountries.

But the predetermined terms of contracts between foreign buyers anddomestic suppliers (with small margins for the PSUs) led to hugelydisproportionate profits accruing to private parties, namely the foreign

.

The lack of due diligence on the part of officials resulted in a "denial of thelegitimate profits of the PSUs.

An enquiry was then ordered following questions on the integrity of the

process of relaxation of export ban on diplomatic grounds.

, -import on behalf of the government.

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Everything is Golmaal..

And now, admitting to irregularities in the export of non-basmati rice to someAfrican countries during UPA-I tenure, the government says it has referred

the matter to the CVC after slapping show-cause notices on officials ofPSUs, involved in the transactions.

Documents proved that PSUs were to be exporters only for record sake andoperated on a meager trading margin ranging between 1 per cent and 1.5per cent.

Though the government had authorized the release of 1.35 million tonnes,the actual quantity exported was only about 122,000 tonnes.

The commodity was exported to Comoros, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius

and Sierra Leone. Losses to Indian PSU, Profits to Pvt. Players

STC had pointed out that private playershad muscled into a deal meant to bestrictly between governments and PSUs.

MMTC suffered a major financial loss.They proposed to export the rice to the

n on o omoros or per onne

with a profit margin of $20 per tonne.Comoros turned it down stating it wastoo expensive and they couldn’t afford it.

A month later, MMTC received analready signed agreement where privateplayers were the exporters and Comoroswilling to buy the same quantity of rice at$640 a tonne!

Within a month, not only was MMTC’s

offer of $495 a tonne no longerexpensive, Comoros was, in fact, willingto pay $145 more per tonne.

MMTC, which would have earned a profitof $20 per tonne was now reduced tobeing a marginal player and would onlyget $5 per tonne.

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h l l kh f l d f hhile lakhs of people are dying of hunger,Congress Politicians siphoned of Govt.

money worth 1000 crores by making false &fraudulent subsidy bills and manipulating

the Public Distribution System

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the Public Distribut ion System



What is PDS?

Public Distribution System in short PDS means distribution of essentialcommodities to a large number of people through a network of fair price

shops (FPS) on a recurring basis. The commodities are as follows:-

◦ Wheat

◦ Rice

◦ Sugar

◦ Kerosene

PDS evolved as a major instrument of the Government’s economic policy forensuring availability of food grains to the public at affordable prices as well

as for enhancing the food security for the poor. It is an important constituent of the strategy for poverty eradication and is

intended to serve as a safety net for the poor who number more than 330million and are nutritionally at risk.

PDS with a network of about 4.99 lakh fair price shops is perhaps the largestdistribution network of its type in the world.

PDS is operated with the joint responsibility of the Central and the State. ,

storage, transportation and bulk allocation of food grains, etc.

The responsibility for distributing the same to the consumers through thenetwork of FPS rests with the State Governments. The State’sresponsibilities include allocation within the State, identification of familiesbelow poverty line, issue of ration cards, supervision and monitoring the

.

Over the years, PDS have become an important part of Government’s policyfor management of food economy in the country.

But recently it has been revealed that the PDS cases were manipulated

causing huge forgery and fraud that took place in Arunachal between 1995and 2004.

It has revealed a glaring lacunae in implementation of the public distributionsystem and rationing system in the state where the former ArunachalPradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang has been accused of helpingembezzle billions of rupees of public funds while he was in power.

His name figures along with a list of 40 accused persons, which the Special.

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PDS a lesson in corruption The public distribution system (PDS) scandal came to light way back in

October 2004 when Bamang Anthony (Tago), President of Arunachal’

the Guwahati High Court regarding certain anomalies that he had found inthe PDS in Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh and five other hill states of the North East get two typesof reimbursements from the government of India for transportation of foodgrains under the PDS.

While the first is reimbursement of Road Transport Charges (RTC) for liftingo oo gra ns rom e neares ra ea o epo s o e ase epo s,the second is called Hill Transport Subsidy (HTS) for moving the stock fromthe base depots to the approved principal distribution centers.

Interestingly, initial complaints were only regarding suspected large-scaleirregularities in the distribution of food grains in the state.

However a special audit conducted by FCI found out, an “excess payment”of Rs 193.53 crore in just one year (2003-04).

The HTS alone for three particular years in which misappropriation wassuspected was as follows: Rs 24.27 crore in 2001-02, Rs 75.03 crore in2002-03, and Rs 279.64 crore in 2003-04.

However, what is even more interesting is that while on one hand thequantity of food grains ‘supplied’ to the people of Arunachal Pradesh underPDS increased (from 54,765 MT in 2001-02 to 85,272 MT) and thereimbursement of HTS also increased, several instances also came to lightwhere the supply records were grossly fraud and fictitious.

One such instance, was the supply of salt under PDS in Damin, a revenuecircle in Kurung Kumey district. As per the 2001 census, the circle had apopulation of 2,784, and records showed that every individual consumed atleast 24 kg of iodized salt per month in 2004.

Another instance: In Koloriang circle in the same district, roughly 4,800ersons were shown as havin consumed 3 080 uintals of rice ever month

in 2004, which comes to 64 kg per person per month.

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Anomalies in the public distribution system (PDS) in Assam may turn out tobe a massive scandal involving hundreds of crores of rupees. Preliminaryreports indicate that the amount of rice involved in the scam stood anywherebetween 19 and 20 lakh tonnes.

While state chief secretary PC Sarma has already ordered a probe into the, , ,

from the Assam Government. Sources said over 700 cases had already beenregistered in different districts concerning PDS irregularities in the past oneyear while 37 persons had been arrested in this connection.

The scam came to light in October last year after an NGO filed a series ofRTI applications in the upper Assam districts of Golaghat, Jorhat and

,PDS in those three districts in December. This month, the chief secretaryexpanded the scope of the probe by extending it to all the 27 districts of thestate.

Interestingly, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), the NGO, which hasspearheaded this RTI movement against anomalies in the PDS, wascon erre t e an unat anmugam ntegr ty war n t e nat ona cap ta

last week. The NGO found out that in Golaghat district alone, over 10,000quintals of rice meant for distribution under PDS had not reached thebeneficiaries and instead found its way to the open market.

Reports from Nagaon district said over 13,000 tonnes of rice meant fordistribution through the PDS in the district had gone missing in the recentmonths with sources in the Bureau of Investigation into Economic Offencessuspecting that this huge quantity had found its way to the open market. Thishuge quantity of rice also includes rice meant for distribution under variousschemes including Annapurna and Antyodaya meant to benefit people livingbelow the poverty line.

It was only in February that over 400 quintals of rice released from an FCIgodown in Guwahati for distribution through PDS and other BPL schemes inBaska district in lower Assam were finally found in a private businessman’sgodown elsewhere in the city. On March 12, police seized two truckloads ofrice meant for distribution among people under Sonapur block nearGuwahati.

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Form er Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister remanded to 7 days in police custody

Gegong Apang arrested in Rs. 1,000-crore PDS scam

Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Gegong Apangwas on Tuesday arrested by sleuths of a Special Investigation Cell (SIC) probing theRs. 1000-crore scam in Public Distribution System (PDS) in Arunachal Pradesh.Mr. Apang was arrested outside the SIC office and later produced before a court of

pec a u ge a a mpur n ssam.The court remanded him to seven days in police custody.Mr. Apang has been booked under Sections 120b (criminal conspiracy), 420(cheating), 468 (forgery), 409 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC read with B-2 of thePrevention of Corruption Act. “We have documentary materials and oral evidencesgiven by co-accused of his involvement in the PDS scam of siphoning governmentmoney by making false and fraudulent subsidy bills. The scam caused about Rs.1,000 crore loss to the government of India,” SIC investigating Officer M.S. Chauhantold The Hindu.Apang denies roleWhile speaking to journalists outside the court premise, Mr. Apang, who is credited tobe second longest serving Chief Minister after former West Bengal Chief Minister

Jyoti Basu, pleaded innocence and alleged that it was “a political conspiracy totarnish” his “good image.” He denied his involvement in the scam and demanded aprobe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into it.50 named as accusedMr Chauhan said over 50 people, including Mr. Apang, have been named as accusedin charge sheets filed before the Gauhati High Court by the SIC in altogether eightcases probed by it pertaining to the scam.So far, more than 30 of the accused have been arrested while some of them availedantici ator bails.

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The SIC was constituted at the directive of the Gauhati High Court following a public

interest litigation filed in 2004 seeking a thorough probe into the PDS scam.



Officials of pr ivate f inance companieswere bribing senior off icials of public

sector banks and f inancial inst itut ions forfacilit at ing large scale corporate loans.



Housing Loan Scam: CBI Arrests Top Banking Officials

The season of scams shows no signs of tapering off. The latest one involveso c a s at ous ng nance, an o n a an severa ot er an s

taking bribes for doling out multi-crore loans to real estate companies. Assuming that creditworthy projects would have been financed anyway,

there is a strong possibility that some of the lending facilitated by bribes mayhave been risky.

A ma or cross-countr housin loan racket involvin to officials of ublic and private sector financial institutions was busted by the CBI which arrestedLIC Housing Finance CEO and seven others on charges of corruption andcriminal conspiracy.

Apart from the LIC HF CEO Ramchandra Nair, those arrested are Naresh KChopra, Secretary (Investment) LIC, R N Tayal, General Manager of Bank of, , ,

Venkoba Gujjal, Deputy GM of Punjab National Bank (Delhi).

Rajesh Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of Mumbai-based MoneyMatters Ltd and two of its employees -- Suresh Gattani and Sanjay Sharma--were also arrested.

The officials allegedly colluded with Money Matters to sanction large scalecorporate loans, overriding mandatory conditions for such approvals along

with other irregularities. They were also gathering confidential businessinformation from financial institutions.

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What is the Scam

These are the biggest and most high-profile arrests since the Unit Trust ofIndia corruption scandal a decade ago and the 1992 securities scam.

Officers of top management and middle management of various public

sector banks and financial institutions were receiving bribes from privatefinancial services company who were acting as mediators and facilitators forcorporate loans and other facilities from financial institutions.

The arrests come at a time the government is on the defensive and isaccused of condonin a culture of loot.

Biggest Corruption scam

This is the biggest corruption investigation involving officials of state-ownedbanks since the Unit Trust of India was investigated in 2001 for favoring

brokers in the Ketan Parekh scandal.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested eight finance executives,including the chief of LIC Housing Finance, accusing them of taking bribes togive big corporate loans and sending shockwaves through stock and propertymarkets at a time when the government is buffeted by a series of high-profilescandals.

Reason for the scam

’ .

There’s no doubt real estate prices have been soaring. Given the huge gap between supply and demand for middle-class housing in

the country, instead of catering to the differentiated needs of a vast segmentof the middle class, developers have been focusing at the high end of themarket, keeping prices well beyond the reach of potential clients.

In the last two years, due to the impact of recession, banks had reducedinterest rates and offered teaser loans to encourage people to buy property.But while such loans played a part in reviving the property market, thesuspicion remains that prices in many metros are being rigged up by

builders.,

purchases dwindled and builders needed cash from banks to improveliquidity.

For lenders who saw a slowdown in retail loans, giving out bulk loans tobuilders was an easier option to grow business.

This is where the bribery scandal may have played a facilitating role in

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bringing big lenders and builders together.

One hopes that most of these loans are recoverable and not siphoned off byrapacious builders. But either way the government should ensure a thoroughinvestigation and send the crooks to jail.



The ongoing investigation of LIC Housing Finance and some public sectorbanks is set to impact realty companies, which are already facing a crisis ofconfidence among institutional investors.

The development will adversely impact their ability to raise resources either. ,

stocks are finding few buyers.

On top of this, a whopping repayment of Rs 25,000-crore debt to public andprivate sector banks is staring at their faces, as per industry estimates.

Investors must be careful as most of the proposed equity issues are aimedto repay debt.

Realty stocks across the globe have been blacklisted after the financial

turmoil of 2008. In India, they have remained under pressure for the last twoyears and naturally after this scam, banks will be extra careful about lending.

Realty under pressure..

There are at least six firms that have got the market regulator’s approval tolaunch their initial public offers (IPO) to raise Rs 9,841.16 crore. Many realtyfirms such as Emaar MGF , Lodha Developers and Ambience are in queueto hit the market.

Vatika Group had planned to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore from an IPO by

selling around 20% earlier this year. It has now postponed its plan toDecember next year.

Three of the six realty firms — DB Realty, Jaypee Infratech and NiteshEstates — that had entered the market to mop up Rs 4,167 crore in thecurrent fiscal are currently trading at a discount of 26-50%.

The other three companies — Oberoi Realty , Ashoka Buildcon and PrestigeEstates that mobilised Rs 2,500 crore — are trading marginally below their

.

Banks are estimated to have outstanding loans of Rs 75,000 crore to thereal estate sector, of which Rs 25,000 crore will have to be repaid by March2011.

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The Supreme Court has criticized the Centre for appointing Telecom Secretary P.J. Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) despite the pendency of a chargesheet against him in a criminal case.

The apex court said: "How can the CVC function effectively when there is a chargesheet pending a ainst him in a criminal case? At ever sta e someone will raise objection that he is an accused in a criminal case.”

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There is a lot of controversy over the decision of the Central Govt. to appointMr. P J Thomas as the CVC.

The CVC, who has been chargesheeted in Kerala's palmolein import scamcase, was allegedly handpicked for the post by the PM and home minister P.Chidambaram on September 4, 2010, overruling objections by the Leader of

-.on the committee for selection of the CVC.

Thomas was handpicked by the government despite his alleged dubiouspast.

NGO’s Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and Common Cause aswell as former chief election commissioner (CEC) J. M. Lyngdoh hadchallenged the appointment in two separate PILs before the apex court.

The petitioners alleged that Thomas -- who had been chargesheeted inKerala's palm oil import scam case -- had been picked up by the governmentto save it from further embarrassment over the alleged multi-crore 2Gspectrum licence allotment scam and the Commonwealth Games scams.

probed by the CBI, advocate PrashantBhushan, appearing for CPIL, said there was aclear conflict of interest because as CVC hehad control over anti-corruption work beingcarried out by the CBI.

oug e governmen c a me ere was nocase against Thomas, a reply to an RTI queryhad revealed that he was an accused in thepalm oil scam.

Besides, Thomas had attempted to placecorrupt officials at crucial government positionsan s con uct as te ecom secretaryconcerning the 2G scam was questionable.In a bid to bail out the government, attorneygeneral G. E. Vahanvati said some of thestatements made in the PIL were not correct.Though he did not deny the chargesheet,

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,stating that it was a Kerala cabinet decision to

import palm oil and Thomas as secretary hadmerely implemented the decision



Rules for appointing the CVC

The Central Vigilance Commission is constituted under the Central VigilanceCommission Act, 2003

e cons u ona o y compr ses a cen ra v g ance comm ss oner an wo

vigilance commissioners. The CVC Act does not lay down specific "eligibility criteria" for the

appointment of commissioners. But since they deal with cases of corruptionin high offices of government, it is expected that the incumbent should be aperson of impeccable integrity

Any former centralgovernment bureaucrat orsomeone who has served ina central government

corporation can be appointedthe central vigilancecommissioner or vigilancecommissioner

The candidate should haveknowledge and experience inmatters relating to vigilance,policy making andadministration, including

police administration; or,expertise and experience infinance, including insuranceand banking, law, vigilanceand investigation

The commissioners areappointed by a three-membercommittee comprising thePM, home minister and

Leader of Opposition in LokSabha.

The committee usually considers a panel of names. It is expected that thethree will concur on a name.

But that is not essential, and even if the Leader of the Opposition objects, acommissioner can be appointed by majority of two – which is what hashappened in the case of Mr. Thomas.

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. ,Thomas did nothing to prevent 2G spectrum scam. The court has been

unsparing on the Centre over the 2G scam and has also questioned the PM's"inaction" over the issue,



'Integrity for CVC not mandatory‘, says Govt… ???

In a bizarre argument, the government has defended the selectionof charge-sheeted P. J. Thomas as the head of the country's topanti-corruption body before the Supreme Court by stating that

"impeccable integrity" was not an eligibility criterion for.

Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati made the statement after abench comprising Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia, Justice K. S.Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar repeatedlyquestioned the selection of Thomas for the post despite the factthat he had been charge-sheeted in a corruption case which was

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.



Congress Minister Shashi Tharoorhad to Quit

Rs. 70 crore worth ‘Sweat Equity’distributed for f ree to his now wife

and then ‘ f riend’ Sunanda Pushkar.

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KOCHI KI GOCHI

DLF IPL T20 might have made made a place for itself in the history

books. The worlds biggest cricketing carnival held this year will alwaysbe remembered as the tournament, which clean bowled a minister inIndian Government and made him jobless.

This story has all the ingredients for making of a Bollywood potboiler,beautiful and mysterious women, political drama, fight between friends,loads of money and cricket – a sport which enjoys a cult status in the Indiansub-continent.

The controversy over the franchisees of IPL Kochi Team, which had beengrabbing the national and international headlines, has taken the head of

Shashi Tharoor, with the embarrassed ruling party, Congress, finally showingthe door to the controversial minister.

Tharoor had to resign from his post of – Deputy Minister For External Affairsover the brouhaha raised over ‘sweat equity for franchisee’ scam whichinvolved him, his then friend and now wife Sunanda Pushkar.

THE KOCHI SAGA

,the consortium of businessmen which

won the Kochi franchise for the 2011edition of the Indian Premier League(IPL) cricket tournament.

Mr Shashi Tharoor, then Union Minister

in favor of Kochi in the auction.

Before becoming a Minister of state inExternal Affairs ministry and Memberof Parliament from Trivandrum, KeralaTharoor had served as the Under

Organisation. He began to patronisethe Rendezous consortium and did aherculean task to win the team intoIPL....

He boasted that he was doing it with a

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pure mo ve o e p ng e cause oKerala….



Questions arose that:

Why should a busy politician occupied with a hectic job interfere into aneconomic issue, not concerning the government?

Was he using Sunanda Pushkar ( his self professed ‘friend' ) as a proxy?

That questioned his motives - was there any financial gain behindTharoor's involvement in IPL?

He also made a phone call to Lalit Modi asking him not to reveal theownership details and gave public opinions over IPL's inner circle. Why ?

Who was Sunanda Pushkar ?

• Sunanda Pushkar , now married to Shashi Tharoor is a divorcee, who is inher 40s, runs a spa in Dubai.

• She also holds an executive's post with an infrastructure company owned bythe Emirate government.

• She has also worked with advertising firms, a travel agency in Dubai as wellas with an IT firm in Toronto.

• She belongs to Sopore in the Kashmir Valley and her father is a retired LtColonel.

• She was a close friend of Shashi Tharoor, Sunanda and was seen with him atvar ous soc a even s n e pas .

• Sunanda Pushkar was at the centre of the Kochi IPL franchise storm.



Kick back of Rs. 70 crore ?

There were allegations that Tharoor used her as a front to collect Rs 70 crores((19% of the 25% owned by Rendezous sports world in Kochi) for helping the Kochi

owners get their IPL team.

Rendezvous Sports World leads a consortium that bought the Kochi team.

The group has offered a staunch defense of its decision to give away ‘sweat equity’worth Rs 70 crores to Pushkar.

east market well and deserves to be rewarded for the expertise she offered to theconsortium.

Sunanda Pushkar later announced that she was giving back the ‘sweat equity’ shehad received from the franchisees of the Kochi Team

What is Sweat Equity?

The term `sweat equity’ refers to equity shares provided to the company’semployees on favorable terms (discounted or free), in recognition of their hardworking. Sweat equity usually takes the form of giving options to employees orusually directors to buy shares of the company, so they become part ownersand participate in the profits, apart from earning salary.

The Companies Act defines `sweat equity shares’ as equity shares issued by thecompany to employees or directors at a discount or for consideration other than

cash for providing know-how or making available rights in the nature ofintellectual property rights or value additions, by whatever name called.

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Rs. 70 crores for free..

The Issue of “Sweat Equity” soon became a hot topic for all Indians.

The reason for the rising interest in the topic was because of SunandaPushkar, a future wife of Shashi Tharoor.

Sunanda Pushkar, a sales manager working in Dubai based company wasoffered 4.5% Sweat Equity worth Rs. 70 Crores.

People asked resignation of Shashi Tharoor for being party to theen ezvous ports or onsort um.

How will any one offer Rs. 70 Crore worth shares to someone free ??

Lalit Modi questioned the shareholders behind the Kochi IPL franchise on his Twitter account after revealing ownership details.

It emerged that one of the shareholders was an associate of Shashi aroor, en m n s er n e en ra overnmen .

What followed was a public spat between Modi and Tharoor, the franchise complaining to the BCCI, and the board president, Shashank Manohar,writing a letter to Modi pulling him up for his action

Tharoor’s wicket down..

• o one wou o er suc amount o

money to other unless there is aquid pro quo.

• Even in this case, the way ofallotting the shares was illegal.

• Rendezvous S orts World mi hthave thought that, Sweat Equitymight be the easiest way to offer‘Sweets’ to Shashi Tharoor, but thesame caused a controversy, which

took his head.• ,

Pushkar offered to give away thesweat equity shares held by herto avoid embarassment. But itwas too late. Her statementconfirmed Shashi Tharoor as

uilt and he was forced to uit.

89





,after founder-chairman of one of the country’s largest informationtechnology (IT) services companies admitted to years of cheating andmanipulation of accounts and falsified profits.

The founding promoter of Satyam Computer Services Limited, Ramalinga Raju,resigned as the company’s chairman putting out a confessional statementadmittin that rou hl 1.5 billion US dollars or the e uivalent of 70 billionIndian rupees) of the firm’s past funds were "non-existent".

What shocked analysts is that the money, that is now supposed to be fictitious,had been recorded in Satyam’s balance sheets and books of account that hadbeen audited by internationally reputed auditors, PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

SEBI’s chairman C.B. Bhave described the financial wrongdoing in Satyam as" ".

The Satyam scam dominated the media and shocked the nation at large, aswhat is ironical is that the word "Satyam" means "truth".

A most alarming aspect of the episode was that Raju acknowledged that hiscompany’s financial records had been fudged and manipulated for the "lastseveral years".

"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten," wrote

the disgraced Raju in his letter.

It's going to be a long wait before Ramalinga Raju is brought to justice, Thosein the know of things reckon that it will be at least two years before theEnforcement Directorate (ED) gets all the answers that it has sought in lettersro ator sent to 60 countries.

Basically, the ED wants to know whether Raju and his aides have swindledSatyam's accounts overseas and deposited the money there. Only after thereplies are received, it can file a chargesheet in the special court set up to tryRaju related cases.

The charges against Raju continue to pile up. In his infamous "can't get off the" ,

tune of Rs 5,361 crore. The CBI in its chargesheet — it has filed three till now — raised the scam figure to Rs 7,000 crore.

But now it says Satyam was a much higher Rs 24,000 crore scandal. WhenJustice Raja Elanago wondered in open court how there was not much hueand cry when the scam was so big, the CBI counsel said the new figure had

.

This after procuring material evidence of forgeries in fixed deposits of Satyam

in New York banks.

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How they did it

Investigations are now revealing evidence of insider trading by the promoters.

The big take away from the Registrar of Companies report is that the topmanagement of Satyam - the directors and senior officials - sold shares aheadof the Big Bang revelation by Raju.

The reports say Satyam books have been overstated by Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000crore, leading to an inflated stock price that helped the top management makemoney.

Who sold what?

Raju has claimed that no one else in the company was privy to the fudging ofaccounts.

BSE figures show a number of senior people in the company, including Raju'

years.

In June 2001, Raju had nearly 23 per cent shares. By December that year, hisshare was down to 22.4 per cent.

In September 2002, it fell to 21.6 per cent which fell a year later to just over 19per cent.

In 2004, Raju's holding was 16 per cent which fell to 14 per cent in 2005, 11 per

cent in 2006. In 2007 it was in single digit. By September 2008 Raju's share was just 8.27 per cent.

BSE figure also show Vadlamani sold 92,538 shares while the then CEO RamMynampati sold 700,000 shares plus 2,50,000 ADRs.

Apart from these, other senior officials also reportedly sold large number ofshares. Sources say they include one Kiran Cavale who reportedly sold400,000 shares and 10,000 ADRs and one Rajan Nagarajan who reportedlysold 430,000 shares and 70,000 ADRs.

We are nowhere near unravelling the total magnitude of the scam. It will takemonths, the overseas dimension of the case is the problem," said annves ga or.

However, regarding operations in the country, the CBI has traced more than400 fictitious companies floated by Raju and his associates for the purpose ofdiverting the (alleged) proceeds of crime.

The CBI believes that it has nailed most of the real estate deals struck by Rajuthrough these fictitious entities. Nearly 2,000 acres of land acquired by Rajuand family with these proceeds have also been identified.

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Parliament Debate, Quest ions, Reports / Surveys…

Print & Electronic Media… CAG, CVC Reports…

RTI Queries & Responses…

Various Ministries Govt. of India

NCDEX, MCX, Planning Commission, CMIE, FMC

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