Corruption Watch

Shaurya · (This post was last modified: 01-04-2006, 07:32 PM by Shaurya.)

jyothibasu,

The Indian capital markets give a higher P/E to Infosys than to Wipro, which has a higher revenue base and overall has performed marginally better than Infosys over the years. Ever figure why?

01-04-2006, 09:14 PM

QUOTEDo you think the just now only Murthy became aware of the corruption and bribery in India? 
Every kid in India or Bangalore for that matter is aware of corruption and bribery in India. But you won't see media covering what an average Joe says.
Just as an FYI, since Krishna govt went out, things have been going downhill in Bangalore and Murthy isn't the only one speaking out. Here's Vijay Mallya and Azim Premji.. You'll probabily find more if you search.

01-06-2006, 02:14 AM

Fernandes urges Prez to order CBI probe in IGNCA 'corruption'
QUOTEThe NDA convener also pointed out that "there are credible reports that Ms Vatsayayan has favoured her family members with crores of rupees through publications and projects."

To drive his point home, Mr Fernandes has also cited the CAG reports on the IGNCA (during Kapila Vatsayayan's earlier tenure) which pointed to ``high-level fund irregularities and foreign exchange violations.''

Terming the la'affaire IGNCA "as a long saga of corruption, irregularities and nepotism," the NDA leader said "the art and culture is far away from the agenda of the INGCA under the stewardship of Ms Vatsayayan and Sonia Gandhi.''

The letter to the President pointed out that "there is a perpetual attempt to convert this public trust into a private institution to get hold of 25 acres of prime land in Delhi worth Rs 5,000 crore, with another 10 acres of plot in Bangalore." The JD (U) leader also alleged that "the idea is to simply grab the public property."

01-23-2006, 10:02 AM

Former Congress CM and MP Ajit Jogi in troubled waters in cash-for-MLA scam
QUOTEFormer Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress MP Ajit Jogi may have troubled times ahead as the voice spectography test in the cash-for-MLAs scam has come out positive, following which, the draft chargesheet against him has been sent for legal clearance.

The Centre for Forensic and Scientific Laboratory, which examined the taped telephone conversation between Jogi and BJP MLA Virendra Pandey for ensuring defection of newly elected BJP MLAs after Congress was routed in 2003 assembly polls, matched the voices and found them to be genuine, CBI sources said

02-06-2006, 09:49 PM

Here comes Congress appointee
QUOTEEC Navin Chawla caught in donations row
Monday, 06 February , 2006, 18:58

New Delhi: Election Commissioner Navin Chawla was on Monday caught in a controversy over an allegation that private trusts run by his family had received donations from Congress MPs.

The Opposition parties have demanded his removal as Election Commissioner.

The controversy broke out by a private news channel claimed that the trusts were run by Chawla, who was appointed an Election Commissioner in May 2005.

Chawla's wife Rupika had received large funds to the tune of Rs 85 lakhs from Congress MPs.

Rubbishing the charge, Chawla said, "no money, whatsoever, not even from MPLAD or even from any private person has been taken ever since I was appointed EC. Previous to that I could not dream that I was going to be appointed EC and I was preparing a life of retirement".

Rejecting opposition contention that his impartiality was in question, Chawla said "there is absolutely no conflict in the decision I have taken as EC and will take as EC".

Main opposition BJP expressed serious concern over the "deep degree of proximity" of Chawla to Congress and said his continuance in office raised serious apprehensions about the impartiality of the Commission.

BJP and its NDA ally JD(U) sought his removal saying it was immaterial whether money was given before he became EC or after.

However defending Chawla, Ambika Soni, one of the MPs who had given the money, and Congress asserted that MPs gave money from their MPLAD fund in their personal capacity for social causes and there was nothing wrong in it. The party had nothing to do with it.
sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14135458

02-07-2006, 08:55 PM

i nominate our entire brigade of MP's and MLA"s in this thread.

add to that some of the top beaurocrats and buninessmen.

and then chhota-mota chors, tax evaders and all muslims.

so thats about 30% of india.

02-17-2006, 12:57 AM

QUOTEChawla diverted sale money to evade tax 
Pioneer News Service / New Delhi
Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's attempt to wriggle out of charges of political partisanship by claiming that the trusts run by him and his wife had also received money from BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley's wife seems to have landed him in more trouble.

He and his wife now face charges of tax evasion by the two trusts besides allegations of receiving large sums from MPLAD funds of the Congress MPs, which, according to the Opposition, is proof of his blatant political partisanship.

A news report published in the Hindu on Thursday had claimed that the Lepra India Trust run by Mr Chawla's wife Rupika Chawla had received donations of Rs 13,000 and Rs 28,000 in 2002 from the BJP leader's wife Sangeeta and another relative.

But in an immediate rejoinder, Mr Jaitley said these cheques were not given to Mrs Chawla as donations for her trust but as payments for the furniture his wife and sister had brought from her Defence Colony outlet.

Mr Jaitley said showing these payments for goods sold as "donations" by the trust, instead of income from business, amounted to tax evasion. The BJP leader now plans to write to the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes to demand an investigation into the matter.

Mr Jaitley said Mrs Chawla was dealing in art objects and furniture and she had requested his wife to visit her furniture shop in Defence Colony, where some good pieces of furniture from Pondicherry were kept for sale.

"My wife and sister visited the shop, bought some furniture and made out two cheques for the amounts of furniture bought in the name of an entity named by Mrs Chawla," he said.

He referred to The Hindu report which said that in her letter dated June 19, 2002 to the Join Secretary in the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Mrs Chawla had shown these payments as "donations" and sought 100-per cent tax exemption under Section 35 of the Income Tax Act.

"Two significant facts clearly emerge from this. The first is that the Lepra Trust was running a business while posing as a charitable welfare organisation in violation of the law. And, secondly, it was evading tax by showing income from business as donation," Mr Jaitley asserted.

The BJP leader said he would press for a CBDT probe into the matter and demand that the working of the trusts run by Mr Chawla and his wife as well as its tax liability should be investigated thoroughly.

He accused Mr Chawla and his wife of making inaccurate statements to diver attention from the charges that their trusts received large sums from Congress MPs only due to the family's proximity with top Congress leaders.

Mr Jaitley pointed out that Mr Chawla had earlier claimed that the Lepra Trust had refused a donation of Rs 5 lakh from the then Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma because Mr Verma was not the area MP.

"But the fact is that the Lepra Trust was located in the Outer Delhi Lok Sabha constituency that Mr Verma represented and there is no record of the offer having being made or denied in the records of the municipal corporation."

He made it clear that the BJP was not going to let Mr Chawla off the hook. Despite his attempts to distort facts to deny his proximity with the Congress party and its top leaders.

"We will press for Mr Chawla's removal more forcefully and the party MPs would soon sumbit a petition in this regard to the Chief Election Commissioner and the President. And we will now also demand a closer scrutiny into the working of the trusts run by Mr Chawla and his wife and whether they were concealing income from the business run by them," he said.

05-04-2006, 09:39 PM

CBI raids six residential premises of ChautalaQUOTECBI on Thursday conducted raids at 24 places across six states and union territories against former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala for allegedly amassing property worth over Rs 1400 crore
Only 1400 crore, he is really poor. Where he is hiding rest of loot?

QUOTEThe list of properties allegedly belonging to Chautala or his family members include three plots in Gurgaon Phase V worth Rs 150 crore, a hotel and a restaurant in upmarket Karol Bagh worth Rs 150 crore, a shopping mall in Karol Bagh worth Rs 180 crore, a plot on Ring Road worth Rs 120 crore and a plot again in Karol Bagh worth Rs 55 crore, the CBI's FIR alleged. It lists the value of all the properties at Rs 1467 crore.

During the searches, the CBI also recovered arms licences for 17 weapons from a farm house in Mehrauli and the agency would verify them before registering yet another case under arms act against Chautala, the sources said.


No cash or jewelry or FDs or fixed deposit.

05-28-2006, 01:27 AM

QUOTEBlacklisted organizations get government funds 
CAPART doles out funds to 248 blacklisted organisations 
Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi
In what appears to be a sort of scam, the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) recently released around Rs 5 crore to 248 blacklisted voluntary organisations across the country. 

Over Rs 22 lakh has been recovered from the blacklisted organisations. These organisations allegedly managed to get funds by resorting to forged documents.

An autonomous body under Union Rural Development Ministry, CAPART is involved in catalysing and co-ordinating the emerging partnership between voluntary organisations and the Centre for sustainable development of rural areas. Ministry officials do not rule out the involvement of CAPART officials in the release of funds to the blacklisted organisations.

Deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Chandra Mani Tripathi recently raised the matter in Lok Sabha and sought action to recover the funds. "First information reports against the erring organisations and their functionaries have been lodged with the concerned local police stations through the regional offices of CAPART for recovery of misappropriated funds," Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said.

The blacklisted voluntary organisations having received funds are from Andhra Pradesh (25), Assam (1), Bihar (60), Delhi (10), Haryana (15), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jharkhand (2), Karnataka (15), Kerala (3), Madhya Pradesh (9), Maharashtra (5), Manipur (9), Mizoram (3), Nagaland (6), Orissa (5), Rajasthan (18), Tamil Nadu (3), Uttar Pradesh (47), Uttranchal (1), and West Bengal (9).

Major defaulters from Andhra Pradesh are Ambedkar Yuvajana Sangham (Rs 3.07 lakh), Downtrodden Development Society (Rs 5.84 lakh), Health and Welfare Service Centre (Rs 3.45 lakh), Shri Lakshmi Harijan Mahila Mandali (Rs 4.68 lakh), and Velankhani Social and Educational Society (Rs 3.03 lakh), from Bihar Akhil Bharatiya Samajik Arthik Evam Shaikshik Vikas Sansthan (Rs 4.21 lakh), All India Society for Research in Rural Area (Rs 3.35 lakh), Bhumika Vaishali (Rs 8.54 lakh), and Bihar Samajik Vikas Samiti (Rs 6.51 lakh).

There are three blacklisted voluntary organisations from Kerala who got over Rs 7 lakh as grants from CAPART and efforts are on to recover the released funds from them. These are Bapuji Sevak Samaj (Rs 5.55 lakh) in Idduki, P Kunjam Pillai Memorial Mahila Samajam (Rs 65000) in Kollam, and Thrikkadavoor Fish Cultivating Society (Rs 1.20 lakh) in Quillon.

In Madhya Pradesh, nine blacklisted organisations managed to get over Rs 20 lakh as grants out of which over Rs 2 lakh has been recovered. The major recipients of grants among them are Banvasi Adivasi Utthan Seva Samiti (Rs 1.25 lakh) in Reeva, Lok Kalyan Samiti (Rs 2.80 lakh) in Gwalior, Resource Development Institute (Rs 1.54 lakh) in Bhopal, Satpuda Integrated Rural Development Institution (Rs 8.42 lakh) in Bhopal, and Self Employed Women Association (Rs 3.59 lakh) in Bhopal.

06-15-2006, 09:01 PM

Zarqawi was a registered Lucknow residentQUOTEUttar Pradesh Chief Secretary N C Bajpai ordered an inquiry into how the al-Qaeda Iraq unit chief was reportedly issued a domicile certificate by the Lucknow district administration.

He took serious note of reports that the terrorist was registered in the name of "Ama Zarqawi" and made eligible for unemployment doles.
 <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' />

07-05-2006, 11:15 PM

Lalu Prasad paid over Rs 10 lakh Ashoka Hotel for his daughter's wedding - in CASH

QUOTEIt's worth mentioning that none of the two receipts have the PAN number written on them. Thatâs when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made it compulsory that PAN numbers be specified for payments made over Rs 50,000. The RBI has specifically done this to check black money.

Now, the question that arises is why and how did Lalu Prasad make a payment of Rs 10 lakh in cash without giving his PAN number.

But, this can best be answered by Lalu himself or perhaps the Ashoka Hotel management.

<img src='http://www.ibnlive.com/pix/sitepix/06_2006/lalu_bill360.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

08-05-2006, 12:54 AM

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/...00607050311.htm

Another book brings House down
QUOTEPioneer News Service | New Delhi

After Jaswant Singh's A call to Honour, yet another book surfaced on
Wednesday, triggering instant chaos in the Rajya Sabha over noisy
demands for Finance Minister P Chidambaram to resign.

The book Vedanta's Billions authored by one R Poddar claims that
Chidambaram had served as a director of a company Vedanta Resources,
owned by industrialist Anil Agarwal and drawn huge perks.

The author has also claimed there was a 1,000 per cent rise in the
share of Agarwal's Sterlite company during 2003 when Chidambaram was
on the board of Vedanta Resources.

While the Congress was on the offensive on Tuesday in cornering
Jaswant Singh, on Wednesday they found the tables turned on them.

Waving copies of the book in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour, members
of the Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party and ADMK demanded
Chidambaram's resignation for his connection with Anil Agarwal's
company, which, according to the book, raised allegations of
corruption, politically motivated business practices and violation of
Indian forest and environment laws.

Deputy chairman K Rehman Khan, however, refused permission to raise
the issue and said the members had sent the notice to the chairman and
it had to be sent to the concerned Minister.

Dissatisfied by the Chair's response, SP, TDP and ADMK members rushed
to the well of the House and raised slogans. When they did not relent
despite repeated pleas by the Chair to return to their seats, Khan
adjourned proceedings till 2.00 pm at 12.15 pm. When the House
reassembled, SP leader Amar Singh demanded a CBI probe to clear the
air on the issue.

He also said when Chidambaram was finance minister in the United Front
Government he was blamed for "fair growth in Fairgrowth Company." That
time too he was asked to resign by the parliamentarians, the SP leader
said.

Citing a precedent during Jawaharlal Nehru's regime, Singh said then
Finance Minister Krishnamachari was removed from the ministry on the
same type of charges.

The book said Chidambaram was a director in Agarwal's company 'Vedanta
Resources' in 2003 at a salary of US $70,000 and other perks before
assuming the responsibility as the Finance Minister of the country.The book also said Anil Aggarwal' family has 88 per cent shares in
Sterlite company.

http://tinyurl.com/mx4pq

08-18-2006, 11:58 PM

QUOTECorruption and profiteering 
Pioneer.com
KPS Gill
There was a time when profit was a dirty word in India. That was wrong. Enterprise is driven by profit, and vast areas of national activity and development are inherently a function of enterprise. The Brahminical orientation, which looked with contempt on all businesses, commercial activity and productive labour - a perspective that was almost completely internalised by the Indian bureaucracy and political leadership under the 'socialist' regimes of the past - did incalculable harm to India, slowing down its growth and condemning millions to poverty and underdevelopment for more than four and a half decades.

Since then, however, we have veered to the opposite extreme, and profit has come to justify everything, including outright fraud, corruption and criminality. Just as we practiced an utterly false socialism, we have now committed ourselves to a substantially false capitalism and liberalism. The most significant beneficiaries of the new 'licentious raj', as in the old 'licence raj', are political and bureaucratic middle men, commission agents and money changers who manipulate the system to skim the cream off the top of every deal, building personal fortunes of thousands of crores in tenures that last no more than a few years.

That is the reason why Parliament has been reduced to a forum for debates on one scandal after another, with little time left over for discussion of policy, and why political parties are utterly devoid of any credible design for India's future beyond platitudes about globalisation, rapid growth and India's presumed future as a great power.

Commission agents and money changers have penetrated every aspect of the nation's functioning, including, crucially, national security. Purchases of equipment for the defence, paramilitary and police forces are now in the domain of these money changers, whose utterly unscrupulous pursuit of profit endangers not only the lives of India's fighting men, but the security and integrity of the nation itself. As has repeatedly been the case through history, India is plundered through these opportunistic instrumentalities, whose avarice and abuse expose the nation to grave risk.

It is, however, not sufficient to rail against corruption. If the malaise is to be addressed, the degree to which it has become integrally linked, indeed, completely enmeshed, with the acquisition and retention of power within the Indian system must be understood fully. That is why, despite the fitful and half-hearted action that is sometimes taken against the occasional high-profile offender who is unfortunate or foolish enough to get caught, a culture of impunity generally prevails.

Political parties are quick to 'forgive' and rehabilitate those who are known to control the purse-strings of large and ill-gotten fortunes, and little stigma attaches to the subjects of scandal once the media spotlight has shifted. In any event, with little to choose between various political formations in the country on this count, corruption has tended to become electorally irrelevant. And within a democratic system, if an issue cannot lead to the loss of power, it will generally tend not to be addressed.

While a great deal of noise is, no doubt, still made on a regular basis on the issue of corruption both in Parliament and in the general political discourse, there is a relatively cosy arrangement between all parties that political posturing will not ordinarily be carried beyond a point where real harm could be done to the leaderships that fuel or tolerate such corruption.

If corruption was a moral issue alone, its consequences would not be so grave; but it undermines the very foundations of the tasks of nation building. This is even more the case within the context of the fragile and highly competitive economies of the globalised world order, where corruption allows profits to flow towards relatively inefficient modes of production and operation, protecting weak systems and undermining long-term capacities for survival and growth.

Corruption also combines with short-term profiteering to divert investment flows away from the development of necessary institutional strengths, and into an economy of increasing dependency that militates directly against the long-term prospects of the system. And if we go beyond mere economics to comprehend the socio-political complex that is generated by corruption, we find the privileging of those who can pay, and an imposition of multiple costs and greater deprivation on the poor, who cannot.

This filters down the chain of administration to the lowest levels, victimising the powerless and, in the process, delegitimising the state, undermining administrative institutions and lawful governance, and fuelling a limitless hatred against the agencies of government and against those who have secured a measure of prosperity in the country. This, precisely, is what feeds the multiple insurgencies across the country, further undermining the capacities of the state to deliver the minimal security and services that a population has reason to expect from its elected administration.

It is relevant, within this context, to underline the fact that these many insurgencies do not, on this argument, represent any measure of hope or relief to the people. Indeed, these movements of political violence have been uniformly transformed into organised operations of widespread extortion that not only directly impose unaffordable costs on the poor in both cash and kind, but intentionally obstruct development in wide areas in order to augment and exploit the resentment and anger of the people against the state's failures to meet their expectations. The 'revolutionary' parties in India are part of this organised thuggery, and the Naxalites are little more than a bunch of extortionists running a setup that is even more inefficient than the Indian bureaucracy - which is saying a lot.

All our institutions, today, have turned into oligopolistic cabals, run by the same mindset. This culture cannot leave the corporate ethos unaffected, and our industries, our newspapers and media houses, our centres of production, are equally tainted by a collapse of norms and scruples. Large sections of the police, customs, direct and indirect tax, and enforcement agencies of the state have become mirror images of criminal enterprises. And ruling all this is the political class which has no historical memory, no vision of the future, and no shame. Unless we shed this mentality and get rid of the enveloping culture of extortion and loot, we cannot take the task of nation building forward.

08-20-2006, 11:38 AM

QUOTEOfficer exposes mining corruption, Coal Minister Soren wants him outChief Vigilance Officerâs report on theft and one firmâs monopoly in Coal Indiaâs most productive mine goes to Supreme Court panel; Court throws out âfraudulentâ PIL against rival firm
KORBA, NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19:Exactly a month ago, Union Coal Minister Shibu Soren sent out a very unusual letter to his Secretary. In a one-para note he signed on an unmarked sheet of paper, he wrote he is ânot happyâ with Coal Indiaâs Chief Vigilance Officer and there is an âimperative needâ to remove him.

Confirming he wrote the letter, Soren, asked by The Sunday Express why he wasnât happy with the CVO, said: âI write many notes, I donât remember the exact note.â

Sorenâs memory loss is hard to understand.

When ministers are criminals.

08-21-2006, 02:12 AM

NRI, foreign chain bought hospitalsQUOTENEW DELHI: Authorities have found out that some charitable organisations, including hospitals are selling their properties for crores of rupees to international chains.

While one hospital was "bought" by a leading international hospital chain for over Rs 230 crore, another was "bought" by an NRI claiming to be the son-in-law of a former president of India for over Rs 100 crore . All transactions were allegedly made in cash.................

09-16-2006, 09:00 PM

India ranked No. 47 in corruption index QUOTESingapore: China and India must move to curb corruption or else their booming economies will likely falter, a World Bank report has said.

The giant Asian neighbours are growing at annual rates of 10 per cent and eight per cent respectively, the fastest among the world's major economies, but both score poorly on controlling corruption, according to a World Bank study on quality of governance across countries.

The report used six indicators, including the ability to control corruption, to rank quality of governance in more than 200 countries. China was placed at 31, while India ranked 47 in the list of most corrupt countries. Both countries also have a poor record of enforcing the rule of law, the report said.

"They are not in the right zone," said Daniel Kaufmann, Director of global governance at the World Bank's research arm
..........

When all leaders are corrupt, whole UPA ministry is full of criminals, rapist etc.
I think World bank is sleeping. They are asking sky.

09-18-2006, 12:50 AM

UP minister fined for travelling without ticket

- Sharat Pradhan

QUOTE
Uttar Pradesh Minorities Welfare Minister Haji Yaqoob Quraishi who shotÂ into
fame for declaring a whopping bounty ofÂ Rs 51 crores on the headÂ of the
Danish cartoonist who drew some allegedly blasphemous sketches of ProphetÂ
Mohammed, is in the news once again.

This time, he was himself at the receiving end -- caught travelling without a
ticket on the New Delhi-Lucknow Mail on Saturday. 

Quraishi was travelling with six other persons with him in the First AC cabin
of the prestigious train -- all without tickets. A total fine of RsÂ 14,056
was realised from him for all seven WT passengers.

According to a railway spokesman, "The minister boarded the train at HapurÂ
station on Friday night and forced himself into a First AC coupe; when theÂ
travelling ticket examiner asked him for the ticket, he claimed that he hadÂ one
but refused to show the same."Â

Shortly thereafter, he bolted his compartment and refused to respond toÂ
repeated requests of the TTE for the ticket.

"Eventually, when the matter was reported over the telephone to higherÂ
authorities in Lucknow, a special ticket checking squad was detailed to check
the defiant ticketless travellers," the official said. "When the ministerÂ finally
opened the compartment at Lucknow's suburban Alamnagar railway stationÂ on
Saturday morning, we discovered as many as six other ticketless passengersÂ with
him," he added.

Railway officials and eyewitnesses alleged that the minister was furious atÂ
the railway staff. "You are a man of the RSSÂ that is why you are framingÂ me;
I am a minister and therefore entitled to travel free; I will teach you aÂ
lesson of your life," he warned the checking staff.

Later when contacted, Lucknow's Additional Divisional Railway ManagerÂ
Rajendra Singh said, "Ministers are entitled to travel against High OfficialÂ
Requisition, but it has to be necessarily converted into a ticket for whichÂ
there is no exemption for anyone."

He said, "Even though the minister claimed toÂ be
carrying the HOR, he had no ticket; and in any case the six personsÂ
accompanying him had no ticket at all."

It may be recalled thatÂ after declaring the Rs 51 crore bounty on theÂ
Danish cartoonist's head, Quraishi later decided to make a compromise to saveÂ
the cartoonist his head provided the cartoonist tendered an unconditionalÂ
apology. When the apology was also not forthcoming, he decided to give it up asÂ
the issue had by then been forgotten.

Of late, he has been spewing venom against his own Chief Minister MulayamÂ
Singh Yadav whom he has been accusing ofÂ "neglecting Muslims"

11-04-2006, 10:16 PM

QUOTEThe burden of memory 
Kanchan Gupta
Bangali koreche bhogoban re...
Banga desh-e jonmo holo
Bangali hoye thakte holo...
Petey bhishon khida tobu
Mukhey baul gaan re...
Bangali koreche bhogoban re...
These lines from a song made popular by Mohiner Ghoraguli, a Bangla band that, meteor-like, blazed for a while and then sank without a trace in the early-1980s, capture the tragedy of being born in West Bengal and the frustration of coping with denial, deprivation and destitution - of a people, of a State. The timelessness of the lyrics is particularly highlighted by the un-changing face of West Bengal where three decades of Marxist rule, premised on and perpetuated by pandering to regional aspirations, have failed to instil pride and self-confidence among Bengalis, or protect them from rapacious traders-turned-businessmen who, through craft and deceit, have slyly come to control nearly every segment of West Bengal's economy and society, and, by extension, its politics.

Instead, we have a pathetic situation where profiteers, racketeers and scamsters, all cronies of the Marxists in power - and before that whichever party, including the Congress, that came to occupy Writers' Building - and invariably immigrant 'entrepreneurs' whose forefathers operated out of the dingy, Byzantine lanes of Burrabazar in Kolkata, continue to treat the people of West Bengal as nothing more than dumb animals to be exploited to maximise profits with scant regard for business ethics and even lesser respect for human lives.

Hence, it is not really surprising that a firm called Monozyme India, owned by Govind Sarda and Ghanshyam Sarda, should have indulged in as ghastly a scam as supplying tens of thousands of faulty blood-screening kits well past their use-by-date to Health Department-run hospitals, blood banks and health centres in West Bengal. The scam, which began in early-2005, would not have come to light if two senior employees - both Bengalis - had not blown the whistle after failing to convince the firm about the sheer illegality and criminality of supplying faulty kits and thus endangering human lives.

What has emerged till now suggests no other scam compares to what is being referred to in West Bengal as "kit kelenkari". Monozyme India bagged the contract to supply kits to test blood for contamination before being used for transfusion with more than a little help from apparatchiks in Alimuddin Street in Kolkata where the CPI(M)'s sprawling and swank offices are located. Once they had secured the contract, the firm's owners, known for their proximity to Marxist movers and shakers, went about the task of getting their own men appointed to key positions in the Health Department, which is under the tutelage of Mr Surya Kanta Mishra, a hugely incompetent and shockingly callous comrade who believes modern hospitals and healthcare are capitalist concepts not meant for the poor, struggling masses of West Bengal.

Subsequently, Monozyme India supplied blood-screening kits whose use-by-dates and other technical data were diligently scratched out, obviously with the full knowledge, if not at the instruction, of the firm's owners. At least 450,000 such faulty kits are believed to have been used for screening blood for killer viruses like HIV and Hepatitis B/C. Which means, as many recipients of blood screened by these faulty kits have been exposed to infection that could lead them to premature death. Media reports say a thalassemic child has already tested positive for HIV.

Govind Sarda and Ghanshyam Sarda, now in police custody, insist that they are "honest businessmen" who merely supplied kits manufactured by a South Korean company. Their liability, therefore, is limited and they cannot be accused of any crime. We can be sure their lawyers will spin out more fantastic tales when the case moves to court, provided their Marxist protectors do not ensure the ongoing inquiry exonerates them of any wrongdoing. We can also be sure that other charlatans who profit from similar "businesses" in West Bengal and have the State's rulers and officials in their thraldom, will bring about pressure on the Government to go easy and not push the envelope too far.

Soon, all could be forgotten - though not necessarily forgiven - and it will be business as usual. Yet another criminal offence, fraught with terrifying consequences, will become a footnote of West Bengal's history and that of the Bengalis' too. After all, this is not the first time that unscrupulous immigrant businessmen have wilfully cheated the people of West Bengal to mark up their profits. Bhabanicharan Banerjee in his 1823 classic, Kalikata Kamalalay, described Kolkata as a "bottomless ocean of wealth". Hordes of traders, many of them bereft of ethics and morals, migrated to Kolkata between 1890 and 1920 to plumb that bottomless ocean; the plumbing still continues unabated.

Kolkata's history tells us of the 'great ghee scandal' of 1917 by when these traders had established near monopoly over manufacture and trade in this dairy product whose purity makes it integral to Hindu rites and rituals. When 67 samples were tested, only seven proved to be pure ghee, one contained five per cent ghee and 95 per cent "unmentionable and untouchable fat", others did not have a "drop of ghee". To expiate for this crime, the Marwari Association fined each trader Rs 1,00,000 and the money was used for bringing in 3,000 Brahmins from Benares to purify those who had unwittingly consumed the adulterated ghee. Public memory being notoriously short, nobody remembers that scam today, nor can many recall the prosecution of Jain Shudh Vanaspati for what came to be known as the "beef tallow case" in more recent times. 

The burden of memory can be tiresome, and the vast majority of Bengalis, struggling to stay afloat and make ends meet in a decrepit State with a bankrupt exchequer, have resigned themselves to being exploited by traders and businessmen who control the levers of what passes for economy in West Bengal and enjoy tremendous clout with those who control the levers of politics in that benighted province of India. Supplying faulty blood-screening kits and endangering tens of thousands of human lives is bad, very bad. But for a people long used to such abuse - in the 1960s and 1970s it was adulterated baby food; in the 1980s it was mustard oil spiked with paralysis inducing additives - perhaps it makes little sense to register their protest or voice dissent. They have resigned themselves to their awful fate, and, like the lyrics of Mohiner Ghoraguli's song, believe

Bangali koreche bhogoban re...
I was a victim of adulterated mustard oil. Now I know source was WB.

11-13-2006, 05:56 PM

Bofors: Law ministry weathers the storm <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' />
[ 12 Jan, 2006 2015hrs ISTTIMES INTERNET NETWORK ]

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In government circles, the mood was watchful as the controversy was tracked. The PMO kept mum, choosing to let the law ministry weather the storm. But even as BJPâs campaign was sought to be countered by voicing the sentiment that the saffron party had to answer why it had not nabbed Quattrocchi when NDA was in power, thereâs no doubt about a certain wariness over how the issue would develop.

Additional solicitor-general B Duttaâs communication to the CPS that there was no case for keeping Quattrocchiâs London bank accounts frozen was flayed by CPM.

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/In...864,curpg-2.cms

11-16-2006, 07:24 PM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /> Kalam moots HK model to eliminate corruption
[ 16 Nov, 2006 1541hrs ISTPTI ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/In...487,curpg-2.cms
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"This gives us an idea that wherever there is independence to perform, we have performed well whereas wherever we have created a large amount of dependency through complex policies, procedures and subsidies, our performance has been stunted and transparency diminishes."

The President said there was a need to introspect on this dependency syndrome "which we have created".

"We need to remove these dependencies systematically and allow people to perform in a competitive environment in the global market. This will involve re-formulation of policies and procedures prevalent in the legislature, executive and judiciary keeping in mind the changing scenario of the world, challenges to be faced by the economic sector in the global competitive environment and meeting the aspirations of the people in providing a higher quality of life," Kalam said.

He said the investigation system had to build up its capacity in such a way that any crime committed against India or its assets by anyone from anywhere in the world could be detected.

Kalam said services like police, land administration, special services, municipal services and income tax have been found to be key problem areas.

"...personnel working in these departments must be provided with reasonable housing and transportation facilities including empowerment in their task. They should become accountable for services to be provided to citizens and also be penalised for wrong decisions," he said.

"Corruption in our country has shown remarkable resilience against our efforts to banish it. We, therefore, have to make all-round reforms in governance, industry and other services to formulate sound public policies," CBI Director Vijay Shanker said in his welcome speech.

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