Is PM actually committed or merely re-assuring?

When he spoke of ‘India first’ as his government’s religion and the Indian Constitution as its only religious book, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was moving beyond platitudes on religious freedom, and correctly re-emphasising the constitutional guarantees of India as a secular, democratic republic. Within the space of ten days, Modi went from offering mere reassurances to religious minorities to actually committing his government to the constitutionally conferred rights of all citizens to freely practice a religion of their choice.
In a welcome contrast to the typical stance of Hindutva groups, he upheld the Constitution as the expression of the ethos the country had followed for thousands of years, and chided those making irresponsible statements in the name of religion.
If his speech at an event organised by a Christian group was meant as an assurance to religious minorities, this response in Parliament, in which he insisted that the country could only be run in accordance with the Constitution, seemed directed against Hindutva hardliners who were making the functioning of his government difficult.
Clearly, Modi was seen trying to distance his government from the vituperative hate-mongering of the Hindutva groups, including the RSS. Evidently disconcerted by the criticism of his failure to rein in the extremist elements within the broader Hindutva fold, Modi seemed to be hoping he would be judged on the basis of his own words and deeds, and not of those claiming to be the ideological affiliates of the BJP.
True, the statements of RSS leaders and Hindutva extremists are amplified many times over during the periods the BJP is in power. But if Modi does not want to be answerable for the behaviour of the Hindutva fringe, many of whom are also middle-rung leaders of his own party, he should not then hesitate to reprimand them more often and more openly for their provocative speeches.
Within days of Modi’s speech in Parliament, Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Hansraj Ahir on Mar 2 said the BJP was committed to building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. “The BJP government has not gone back on the Ram temple issue ... Though it is not in our manifesto, it is a matter of honour and dignity,” Ahir said at an event. “Sadhus and mahants are doing their work in this regard. It is decided that whenever it happens, it will be a temple that will be built in Ayodhya and not a ‘masjid’ [mosque],” he told journalists in Ballia in U.P.
BJP member of Parliament Sadhvi Prachi has kicked up another controversy by calling for a boycott of films starring Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan and asking members of right wing Hindu organisationss to tear posters of their films and make a bonfire of them.
Sadhvi also alleged that Christian proselytism was the motive behind Nobel Laureate Mother Teresa’s missionary work in this country. She made the call for the boycott of the Khans while suggesting that their films were spreading a culture of violence and advising youngsters not to idolise them.
The controversial statement came despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to all religious groups to act with restraint and mutual respect and his assertion that his government would not allow any religious group from the majority or minority community to incite hatred against others, covertly or overtly.
Speaking at a programme of Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Dehradun on Mar 1, Sadhvi said once she had been to a programme in Meerut where she asked a young boy what he wanted to become in life. “He said he wanted to become like Hritik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan. When I asked why, his mother told me because they were good at doing stunts,” she said. Suggesting that the Khans and their films are spreading a culture of violence, she asked the younger generation not to get fascinated by them. But why she spared Hritik Roshan is anybody’s guess!
Calling for a boycott of the Khan triumvirate’s films by right wing Hindu outfits, she said, “I, for one, would ask the Bajrangis to tear the movie posters of Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan and burn them.“ Sadhvi Prachi had earlier said that Hindu women should have four children as Muslims were “trapping our daughters through love jihad.“
Sadhvi Prachi also attacked Mother Teresa during her fiery speech. “Mother Teresa indulged in conversion by luring people over to Christianity under the pretext of service,“ she said.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had also made similar remarks while alleging that Christianity was the main objective behind Mother Teresa’s service to the poor.
Now if Modi fails to openly reprimand these people, the government would be seen as cynically exploiting the work of the fringe for the political ends of the ruling party whenever possible, and tactically retreating where the fringe’s politics become inconvenient. The views of the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad would continue to make headlines as long as the ruling party leaders and functionaries treat these organisations as part of their extended family.
 What is troubling about the public agenda of the Hindutva groups is the impression that the implied aggression against non-Hindus has the tacit sanction of the ruling party. Modi will have to not only continuously speak up categorically against religious extremists of the saffron hue too but also take sincere and serious action against them, if the Hindutva fringe is not to cast a long shadow on his government and undermine its credibility. r (08-03-15)

Shoolagiri to become Singur of Tamil Nadu?

Now the biggest challenge before the Narendra Modi regime at the Centre is the most controversial Land Acquisition Bill. The BJP government issued an ordinance for amending the Act passed by the previous UPA government.
DMK President Kalaignar has said that he only felt that the BJP regime was unnecessarily inviting a trouble for a price. As it had strength in the Lok Sabha it had tabled the bill but in the Rajya Sabha it would have to allow debate when it tabled there. Narendra Modi has rejected the demand of the opposition parties for amendments in the bill. The Act was adopted during the UPA rule in 2013, in which it was stipulated that the consent of 80 percent of the affected farmers should be obtained while acquiring lands and it should be noted whether it was agricultural land. But in the present ordinance the stipulation that agricultural lands should not be acquired has been removed for five segments. This decision would confirm that the BJP government was working against the farmers’ community and in support of big business and MNCs. The stipulation of returning the unused land if the project for which it was acquired back to the owner farmers is also removed in the ordinance. “I am of the view that Prime Minister’s insistence not to withdraw is not a correct decision. The Centre should realize that it has to face dangerous consequences if it failed to protect the basic rights of farmers over their lands”, Kalaignar has said.
But the bill also dismantled safeguards that are central to the land acquisition law, undermining the rights of communities to participation and consultation. The land acquisition law, which came into force in January 2014, stated that the consent of 70 per cent of families is mandatory where land is sought to be acquired for public-private partnership projects, and 80 per cent for private projects. The executive ordinance removed these requirements for a range of projects, including those relating to defence and national security, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure. The ordinance also exempted these projects from having to go through a social impact assessment – a study by independent experts to map a project’s impact on people’s lands and livelihoods, and its economic, social and cultural consequences, in consultation with affected communities.
While all the opposition parties in the country including all allies of the BJP have opposed the Land acquisition bill, the ADMK and its supremo Jayalalitha was maintaining conspicuous silence underling the fact that they intended to use this draconian anti-farmer anti-people legislation for their own ends in the State.
Now it is feared whether this controversial ordinance will first get executed in Tamil Nadu. The then Chief Minister Jayalalitha on May 12,, 2012 announced the setting up of three industrial manufacturing zones with ‘high class infrastructural facilities and a competitive environment to bring about an industrial renaissance in the State’. The three zones would come up over 7,500 acres of land and a Special Purpose Vehicle would be formed to set up of these zones. Jayalalitha said the zones will come up in the first phase at Ottapidaram in Tuticorin District (1,500 acre), Katrambakkam in Vellore District (2,000 acres) and Hosur in Krishnagiri district (4,000 acres). She said SIPCOT has been taking steps to acquire 20,000 acres of land for large industries which come forward to invest in Tamil Nadu.
There cannot be any dispute over the idea for setting up industrial estates for industrial development in backward areas. But the decision of the ADMK regime to acquire fertile agricultural lands for the purpose has run into controversy. The government has announced that a manufacturing zone over 2,300 acre area would be established near Shoolagiri in Hosur Taluk, Krishnagiri district. A G.O was issued for this on November 21, 2012. The work of identifying lands have been assigned to the Revenue department which in the first stage identified 834 acre land in 6 panchayats of Koneripalli, Attakuricki, Kanalatti, Marudhandipalli, Chettipalli and Tboripalli in Shoolagiri union, notified the details of the lands to be acquired and issued notices for acquiring the lands to farmers on January 21.
An exclusive office with a Tahsildar has been set up in Shoolagiri and the work of issuing notices to farmers has been intensified. The affected farmers have already met the District Collector and presented their petition against the move. But the district administration washed of its hands telling the farmers to tell their views during the meeting to elicit views of the public as the government was determined to go ahead.
With the farmers left in quandary, many associations of famers and political parties had taken up their cause.
All these fertile lands situated in this area adjacent to National Highway No 7 are receiving irrigation of Thenpennai river from the Kelavarapalli dam. In the wells in this area water is available from 5 feet. As it is red soil land with favourable climate paddy, coconut, plantain, vegetables etc., were cultivated and farmers were getting good harvest of crops. The famers cultivate vegetables including tomato, paddy, ragi, ginger, gabbage, beans, carrot, beetroot, coriander, mint, peas and nukkol. Tons of vegetables from here are sent to not only all over Tamil Nadu but also to Karnataka and Andhra. By acquiring such fertile cultivable lands from poor and downtrodden farmers their means of livelihood will be destroyed. Only because of this, the move is resisted by the local people.
It was not as if the State government had no other alternative areas to acquire lands for industrial purposes. There are two SIPCOT industrial estates in Hosur taluk, in which now 236 industrial units had been closed as the ADMK government failed to ensure continuous supply of power. Already there were over one thousand acre land acquired for SIPCOT 1 and 2. Government poromboke land of over 1,000 acres existed between Pancheswaram and Maththagiri villages in Hosur taluk. As it was adjacent to national highways it will be beneficial for industries and agricultural lands will be protected if those lands were acquired. But the government is said to be firm in acquiring these lands.
The State government has entered into a car manufacturing MNC which has planned to set up shop here with the production capacity of 1000 cars per month. The MNC has stipulated conditions such as easy road links to other states, favourable climatic condition, availability of water and transport and electricity infrastructure. It is said the government is determined to acquire these lands of over 2,000 acres to help that MNC.
The situation is similar to the episode of the previous Left Front government in West Bengal acquiring 900 acre land in Singur for Tata Nano car manufacturing unit. The fierce struggle of farmers against acquiring of these fertile lands, supported by the opposition party Trinamool Congress for over two years ended not only in the Tata group giving up the project but also in the overthrow of over 30 years of rule of the Left Front in that State.
Similarly the ADMK government is bent upon acquiring agricultural lands at cheap prices for handing over to a Multi-National car manufacturing company. As the land acquisition laws of the Centre is also favourable for the move the grievance of local people over losing their lands is growing day by day. Already the State had witnessed the agitations of delta farmers against the move of GAIL. Moreover local farmers and people of about 80 villages of Perunthurai and Karumandipalayam townships in Erode district are protesting against setting up of Coke factory over 70 acres in SIPCOT complex as they apprehend that the factory would take away water of 30 lakh litres daily from new Tirupur combined drinking water scheme, which will affect other small industries and people of villages. All political parties, trade associations, and public welfare organisations organised a bandh in Sennimalai and Perunthurai.
Will Shoolagiri become the Singur of Tamil Nadu? While the national and State media played the main role in bringing down the Left Front government in West Bengal by super-enthusiastically covering the agitation in Singur, it is shameful and unfortunate that they have turned a Nelson’s eye to the struggle of farmers and local people of Shoolagiri and Perunthurai against the forcible land acquisition by the ADMK regime! (08-03-15)

CB CID probe, attempt to cover up the truth

A day after the sacking of Agriculture Minister Agri’ S S Krishnamoorthy from the Cabinet, the investigation into the suicide of an Agricultural department engineer was transferred to the crime branch of the State police. The criminal investigation department has taken over the probe with immediate effect, sources said.
The order for the CB-CID inquiry came at a time when some opposition parties were planning to file a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a CBI inquiry into the death of executive engineer S Muthukumarasamy who jumped in front of a train in Tirunelveli on Feburary 20, unable to bear pressure from the Minister’s office over appointment of seven drivers. He was asked to facilitate bribes or face action. The CB-CID probe is unlikely to bring out the truth as the CID is seen to be under the control of the ADMK regime.
DMK President Kalaignar alleged that the State government has removed the Minister from the cabinet since it realized the implications of what would happen otherwise. “The action of government itself shows that who is behind the suicide of the government engineer”, he said.
“The transfer of the case is eyewash. It’s an attempt to avoid a CBI inquiry, “ PMK founder Ramadoss said. He demanded Krishnamoorthy’s arrest. Both PMK and CPM have also demanded the registration of a case against Krishnamoorthy followed by legal action.
“Though the government’s decision to sack him from the cabinet is an important development, it is not enough,“ said Ramadoss. He said, “A case should be filed against Krishnamoorthy for instigating the suicide of an honest official. The action against him should be a lesson for other corrupt ministers”, he added.
CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan said CBI inquiry is better than CB-CID since the case relates to a ruling party leader. “The government has acted only after public pressure mounted. This case should be handled seriously since it is only a tip of an ice berg. Corruption is deep rooted in all departments. The charges of corruption are there not only for postings, also for transfer and promotions,“ Ramakrishnan added.
CPI also demanded a CBI investigation. “The case is enveloped in a fog of mystery. Though the government has taken a few steps in the right direction, it should hand over the case to CBI for a proper investigation and winning people’s confidence,“ CPI state secretary R Mutharasan said.
DMK functionaries point to the murder case of former Minister KN Nehru’s brother Ramajayam. “The murder case was transferred to CBCID in June 2012. But there is no progress so far in the investigations. In a few other political cases also, no headway has been made”, a former DMK Minister said.
Muthukumarasamy’s colleagues said he was an honest officer and had refused to appoint drivers recommended by the Minister’s aides. Instead, he reportedly appointed seven drivers on the basis of seniority in the list with the employment exchange. Muthukumarasamy had also refused to act on the instructions of the Minister’s aides when they wanted to collect `bribes’ from the recruited drivers.
Sources in the police probe team said the engineer had made several visits to the Minister’s office a few days before his suicide. They said call records of Muthukumarasamy showed that the personal secretaries of Krishnamoorthy had made several calls to him before his death.
This was not the first time for senior government officers committing suicide unable to withstand pressure of ruling party people for corruption.  ‘The Hindu’ Tamil daily on 20.10.2013 published a report in which it was stated that “There was a bargain with the management of a private school functioning at a place owned by the TNHB for selling the land to them. The bargain talks were held by an officer of the Erode branch of the TNHB and a relative of the managing director of the TNHB with the school administrator. The video of the bargain talks were made available to the daily in which TNEB Assistant Executive Engineers said, “Already you have paid a commission of Rs. four lakhs. As there is change in sq. ft. rate we can arrive at a compromise. But you have to meet the board chairman or Minister and talk to them and one will look after the other. If the rate is fixed at Rs. 3,000 per sq. ft. you will get Rs. Seven crore. You don’t have to run the school and the place can be sold for Rs. Ten crore”.
The very next day of the publication of this report in the daily, the officer Palanisamy hung himself in the Records Room of the office and died. The matter was closed then stating that the police enquiry would reveal whether it was suicide or murder.
TNHB LPF secretary Poochi Murugan has filed a petition about this in Madras High Court which is still pending. That case is also getting delayed due to some unknown reason. Now after the suicide of an official in Tirunelveli, will the ADMK regime conduct a proper enquiry into the Erode incident also and reveal the truth?    (15-03-15)

Million dollar question!

How Jayalalitha’s counsel in the appeal in the Karnataka High Court against the verdict of the special court convicting and sentencing her for four year imprisonment, knew in advance as to when Bhavani Singh would complete his submissions, is a million dollar question, according to a report in ‘The Times of India’ on Mar 9. So also it is a mystery that the cases of Jayalalitha and co., were prolonged at times and expedited at times.
The cases against Jayalalitha and her accomplices were either prolonged by them for years together or at times expedited. The secret behind such moves reminded us the lines of the song in the film ‘Parasakthi’, “Mça¡ T¤jhodhY« jh©lt¡nfhnd, fhR fhça¤Âš f©italh jh©lt¡nfhnd” (Even while acting in plays, have an eye on actions of making money).
The Income Tax Returns case against Jayalalitha and Sasikala was prolonged for about 18 years and when it was about to come to a close, Jayalalitha side filed a new petition stating that they had moved the department for compounding of the case and it was pending before the department. The counsel for IT department did not object and the magistrate posted the case to July 24. Kalaignar had then asked had this decision was taken by them 18 years back, the case need not have gone up to the Supreme Court and the golden time and energy of the courts and people connected with the proceedings could have been avoided. But there no response from any side and somehow the case came to an end.
Similarly, the charge in London Hotel case against TTV Dinakaran Jayalalitha and Sasikala along with the disproportionate assets case was dropped as the main case would get delayed.
But, eighteen years after seven cases for FERA violations and other economic offences were registered against Jayalalitha’s friend Sasikala and her family members, the accused have now sought to be discharged from the case without facing a full-fledged trial.
The discharge petitions, which were filed and argued, last week, are being heard by Economic Offences court-I judge R Dakshinamurthy, who is scheduled to retire in the next few weeks. Among the accused are Sasikala and her nephews TTV Dinakaran, a former ADMK MP, and Bhaskaran. “The discharge petitions were filed after the parties unsuccessfully knocked at High Court and Supreme Court doors in the past, and they come at a time when the stage is set for examining the accused under Section 313 of CrPC and framing of charges.
The judge has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to commence arguments in the cases on March 10. Prosecution arguments, though, are unlikely to commence any time soon in these cases as the lawyers may have been unprepared for the speed with which the discharge petitions are progressing and would require time to put together details of the 18-year-old cases.
The cases relate to defunct firms Super Duper TV and Dipper Investments and their alleged hawala transactions for hiring transponders and purchase of television equipment from many foreign entities. While Sasikala is accused on four counts of violations of FERA and COFEPOSA, Dinakaran is facing two cases, and Bhaskaran three cases, all under FERA and COFEPOSA.
It is a different matter that ED’s adjudication proceedings found Dinakaran guilty of FERA violations and directed him to pay Rs 31 crore as fine. On appeal, the amount was reduced to about Rs 28 crore. He then moved the Madras High Court, which said that unless he deposited at least 50% of the adjudicated amount in court, his petition would not even be admitted. Though he did not make the deposit, nothing happened to him, as successive benches are fighting shy of hearing the sensitive case.
Under these circumstances, at quite an unexpected juncture of the proceedings, the accused have preferred the discharge channel to trial/acquittal route. All the prosecution witnesses have completed their depositions, and they have been cross-examined, too, by defence side. However, the defence side has not yet produced witnesses nor has the questioning of the accused taken place.
Senior advocate B Kumar was the counsel who argued on behalf of all the accused in all seven cases before the economic offences court-I on March 2, and for about 15 minutes on March 3. Coincidentally, the discharge arguments happened in Chennai on days when special judge of Karnataka high court hearing the appeals by Jayalalitha and her three associates gave a four-day break to prosecutor G Bhavani Singh to prepare his arguments.
At the end of this report, ‘The Times of India’ added, “Having realized the cost and effect of delaying wealth and income tax cases no end, accused in these seven cases must have decided to expedite hearing,” said a senior advocate. “But it is surprising that senior Supreme Court lawyer Nageshwara Rao, who represented Jayalalitha in Karnataka High Court, was ready and present before the special judge in Karnataka High Court when prosecutor Bhavani Singh wound up his arguments. How Jayalalitha’s counsel knew in advance as to when Bhavani Singh would complete his submissions, is a million dollar question,” he said. (15-03-15)

Leadership connivance in corruption of regime!

Even the cover story of latest issue of a Tamil bi-weekly is captioned as “b#.rh£il 2: Ju¤j¥g£l nfhéš jdghš” (‘Jayalalitha whip 2: Exit of Temple Dhanapal). No need to read the full article as it would state that corruption charges were leveled against the sacked Commissioner of the HR&CE department P. Dhanapal which has led Jayalalitha to direct the ADMK government to sack him.
The ADMK government on March 8 appointed M Veera Shanmugha Moni IAS as the Commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Board in place of P Dhanapal, Chief Secretary K Gnanadesikan announced. Moni had been posted as secretary of the Labour and Employment department.
Dhanapal, who had been working as a Deputy Commissioner of the board, was out of the way appointed Commissioner soon after the ADMK government assumed charge in 2011, despite being the fact that he was not an IAS official. Normally, only IAS officials are appointed as commissioner of the board. Though he retired in 2013, the government extended his services for three years from May 31, 2013. A case was filed in the Madras High Court against the extension of his services. However, the court ruled in his favour, and he continued in the post. His sudden removal has raised eyebrows among officials. Why did Jayalalitha first appoint him as the Commissioner out of the way? Why did she also give extension even after his retirement? Was it all without any reciprocal obligation?
As commissioner of the HR&CE, Dhanapal had been super-enthusiastically functioning virtually as a ruling party functionary by ‘fulfilling’ the wishes of Jayalalitha. After her arrest and disqualification, an oral order was said to have been issued to the executive officers of all temples in the State to get in touch with the local ADMK functionaries and arrange for the first ‘ artha jama’ pooja to the deity in the name of Jayalalitha on all days on their behalf. Now on the occasion of her 67th birth day, the Forest department took up the task of planting 67 lakh tree saplings out of which 6,700 ‘vilva tree (Aeges Marmelos) saplings’ (on religious consideration) were planned to be planted in Saivaite temples. The department made huge arrangements for Ministers and officials planting the saplings in temples and all temples in the State have been taken over by ADMK functionaries for conducting homums, Yagas, and poojas with the portraits of Jayalalitha over shadowing the statues of deities, even the tallest Anjaneyar statue in Nanganallur in Chennai.
Now, it has come to light that this Dhanapal is said to have grabbed properties of Tiruvanmiyur Maruntheeswarar temple worth Rs.100 crore, committed irregularities in Annadhanam schemes, took bribes for temple appointments, committed irregularities in temple land hiring etc., He was also charged of conducting kumbabishekam (renovation) of 1,000 temples every year without completing works under Agama rules. It is also said that he threatened the trustee of a private temple in Thyagaraya Nagar, Chennai, reported to be very close to Jayalalitha, to part with temple properties to the government or pay him half of the amount of worth of the properties.
After his removal, it is reported that many lower ranking officials are coming out with allegations against him. He appointed his choicest persons as EO in temples with more than Rs.10 lakh income, through which fraud to the tune of about Rs.1000 crore were committed in various ways like rent, land rent and sales. Particularly, 140 acres of land of Tiruchendur Murugan temple, temple lands of 5 acres in Madurai and 10 acres in Kovilpatti were sold for very low prices in which several crore rupees is said to have changed hands. 10 acre land that was donated to Palani Murugan temple was grabbed. Permission was granted to a VIP to irregularly mine minerals in the lands of a temple in Tirunelveli district. Similarly jewels worth several crore rupees in Tiruvarur and Madurai temples were melted and sold, it is reported.
It is also said that all these money earned in such irregular ways were used for buying lands and buildings in benami names. Particularly, the official is said to have amassed  ground land in Poonamalli, 4.5 acre land in East Coast Road, four marriage halls in Tiruvannamalai and Coimbatore, a bungalow in Besant Nagar etc. and if a proper enquiry was conducted by the government further details will come out, the officials said.
He is also said to have whimsically placed under suspension seven joint commissioners, two assistant commissioners and two deputy commissioners, 25 executive officers, all of them sending representations to the “people’s CM” Jayalalitha.
Could all these irregularities and frauds be committed by an official unduly favoured by Jayalalitha by out-of-the way posting and extension after retirement without her knowledge and ‘connivance’? If not she must ask the government to order an enquiry into all the charges leveled against him and recover the money due to temples. Until then doubts will be cast on her!
Now, Agriculture Minister Agri’ S S Krishnamoorthy was dropped from the Cabinet, following pressure from the people in connection with the suicide of an Agricultural department engineer in Tirunelveli unable to bear pressure from the Minister’s office over appointment of seven drivers on temporary basis at a consolidated monthly pay of Rs.9,000. He was asked to facilitate bribes or face action.
Krishnamurthy was made Food Minister when Jayalalitha assumed office on May 16, 2011.  Later in July 2011, his portfolio was changed as Commercial Taxes and Registration.  On July 19, 2012, Krishnamurthy was made School Education Minister.  Later, on January 26, 2012, he was dropped from the Council of Ministers.  After a gap of one and half year, Krishnamurthy was made as Agriculture Minister on May 19, 2014. Now, political morality required Jayalalitha to come out with reasons for his re-induction into the Cabinet after he was sacked earlier following complaints.
Earlier, Jayalalitha on September 5 last year dropped Madhavaram V. Moorthy as Milk and Dairy Development Minister and re-inducted B.V.Ramanaa. Ramanaa, Tiruvallur MLA, had been a Minister since the ADMK returned to power in 2011 and held the portfolio of Handlooms and Textiles, Environment and Forests, and later on Revenue. Jayalalitha dropped him from the Cabinet on May 19, 2014. With the exit for Moorthy and the re-entry for Ramanaa, the Cabinet was reshuffled for over 15 times during Jayalalitha’s current term as Chief Minister.
The irregularities in Aavin operations led to the exit of Moorthy. They pointed out that only a few days ago, three senior Aavin officials were placed under suspension on the charge of adulteration. Jayalalitha had also removed a contractor-couple Vaidayanathan and his wife from the party after their Aavin links were traced. The trial in the case is going on.
‘The Economic Times’ daily published a detailed report on the Rs. One lakh crore mineral sand scandal in southern district mainly by VV Minerals owned by Vaikuntarajan, close to Jayalalitha and a major partner in Jaya TV. DMK Treasurer Thalapathi M.K.Stalin is openly challenging the regime of the scam offering to face prosecution. A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court. But there was no response from the regime of Jayalalitha, ostensibly because of their connivance in the scam.
In July 2012, four young district collectors dared to defy pressure from ADMK politicians in recruiting staff for Anganwadis and nutritious-meal centres where 61 lakh children are fed for free every day. The fearless four were reported to have chosen to follow in the footsteps of M. Balaji, the Virduhunagar district collector who was the first to ring in a transparent appointment system despite strings pulled by ADMK Ministers and MLAs keen to push their nominees.
Balaji’s punishment transfer has not deterred the four. “There were pressures, both political and from some of our own higher officers, but we did not yield,” said one of the collectors.
There was no co-ordinated move among them, the collector said, only the “burning desire that the right people get the jobs since they would be feeding thousands of children”.
The four are Anshul Mishra of Madurai, Ashish Kumar of Tuticorin, Anu George of Ariyalur and Darez Ahamed of Perambalur. Their action has stung the ruling party politicians, who are said to have taken bribes of Rs 1-3 lakhs for this menial jobs.
Balaji came up with a centralised, eligibility-based system for processing job applications in June, spurning pressure and phone calls from local ADMK bigwigs. To block backdoor entries after the selection process ended, he had appointment letters delivered to candidates within a week of their interviews.
Bristling after being thwarted, the ADMK functionaries, including a few Ministers, are reported to have got Balaji shunted out of the district on July 2, 2012 and placed him on compulsory wait without any posting. The bigwigs, who had hoped Balaji’s transfer would make others fall in line, got a second jolt when the four district collectors similarly rolled out a transparent selection process, weeding out ineligible and influential candidates.
Anshul Mishra issued a statement saying job aspirants could complain to him directly if anyone demanded money in exchange for the posts. When a widow told him she had paid a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh, he promised her a job on condition that she retrieved the money.“Many were misled into believing that they could sell the provisions of the noon-meal centre in black and recover their bribe money, which is just another way of perpetrating a corrupt system,” Mishra said. Anu George asked Tahsildars and BDOs to hand-deliver appointment letters to ensure the right candidates received them. Darez Ahamed sent officials to check out the social status of candidates and weeded out well-off ones living in big houses but claiming to live in huts.
But other than these four districts, in other districts the ruling party functionaries and Ministers made huge collections in these postings. The government filled up vacancies for 4,373 noon-meal centre organisers, 5,717 cooks and 6,703 assistant cooks. Among these posts, 25 per cent are reserved for widows and the destitute and 25 per cent for internal promotion. Three per cent is reserved for differently abled persons. The only qualification is a pass in class X for organisers, Class VIII for cooks and Class V for assistants. But they have to reside within a 3 km radius of their place of work.
The organisers get a salary of Rs 2,500-5,000, cooks Rs.1,300-3,000 and assistant cooks Rs. 950-Rs.2,000. They also get dearness allowance, house rent allowance, city compensatory allowance and medical allowance along with 3 per cent annual increment. They are paid lumpsum retirement benefits.
‘The Times of India’ on March 10 carried a report on the first page under the caption “In TN, money decides recruitment, posting, promotion and transfer” which stated:
“Rumblings against corruption in the State administration are getting louder after former Agriculture Minister Agri SS Krishnamurthy’s unceremonious exit from the cabinet over the suicide of an Agriculture department executive engineer S Muthukumarasamy in Tirunelveli last month. Krishnamurthy’s office had allegedly harassed the official to manipulate the selection process for recruitment of drivers in the department. Not able to bear the ordeal, the official jumped before a running train.
Every department has shocking tales to narrate about corruption. A powerful VIP convened regional meetings of aided college principals and secretaries about two years ago to raise money from appointments of assistant professors. One of the college secretaries, who attended one such meeting at Tirunelveli circuit house, said, “The VIP’s PA had summoned both principals and secretaries. The meeting started in the night and the VIP called us one by one into his room and said unless we paid money to him, appointments of new assistant professors would not be approved. He demanded Rs 5 lakh per post from minority institutions and Rs 7 lakh per post from non-minority institutions. If we could not collect money from the candidates, he said he himself would identify suitable candidates”. Since then, most college managements have been collecting extra money, over and above Rs 5-10 lakh they collect from candidates, for appointing assistant professors.
In the police department, deputy superintendents of police and inspectors pay money to middlemen to secure transfers to preferred locations. “While DSPs pay Rs.4-10 lakh depending on the district and city, inspectors pay Rs 2-3 lakh for transfers,” said an official. “A relative of a senior official in Chennai is a prominent collection agent. Anybody who gives money to that agent gets the posting of his choice,” the official said.
Corruption has pervaded all levels of the State administration that people now take it for granted, said MG Devasahayam, a retired bureaucrat. “It has destroyed the basic fabric of the administration, because people get into a position by bribing and also stay there by bribing. There is money in appointments, postings, transfers and stopping transfers. Only the level varies depending on the capacity of politicians to demand and officials to pay. When an official pays money to get a post, his or her effort is focused only on collecting several times more of that from the public,” said Devasahayam.
Everyone seems to be benefitting from corruption in Tamil Nadu, said a retired Director General of Police. “Since those sitting at the top take money, people below also have a field day,” he said”.
But, an unassailable proof for the connection and connivance of the high command of the ruling party in all cases of corruption and irregularities of the ADMK regime came in the action taken by Jayalalitha against a party functionary for over 25 years who exposed the loot of money in the sale of sand to the extent of Rs. 1,440 crore that should have accrued to the coffers of the government.
A day after truck owners declared a strike alleging irregularities in pricing of river sand, the President of the truckers’ federation, who is also an ADMK panchayat chief, has been expelled from the primary membership of the party, seemingly for taking on the sand mafia.
ADMK chief Jayalalitha exhorted party cadre not to have any association with Sella Rasamani, 52, president of Oruvanthur panchayat in Namakkal who was spearheading the truckers’ strike as president of Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners Federation (TNSLOF). In a statement on March 9, Jayalalitha said Rasamani went against party ‘principles’ and brought disrepute to the organisation. (Corruption seems to be principle of her outfit)
Soon after his expulsion, Rasamani chaired an urgent general body meeting of TNSLOF in Namakkal and decided to intensify the strike. The truck owners have backed him and announced a protest in Erode against the irregularities in sand pricing. Rasamani said he would not be cowed down by the expulsion and would expose the irregularities of the sand mafia.
“I cannot digest irregularities even if they happen in ADMK rule. I will expose the irregularities in sand trade,“ he told reporters adding that he would move the High Court. He claimed he attempted to raise the issues with Jayalalitha, but was denied access to her.
There was another report in the ToI on March 11 stating, “Powerful contractors have cornered all the sand quarries along the Cauvery river, leading to a several-fold hike in the price of sand.
While the government has fixed the price of two units (200 cubic feet) of sand at Rs.800, the contractors sell the sand at Rs.4,000, and in turn, it is sold in the market at Rs 10,000 to Rs.15,000.This has led to a hike in construction costs and housing prices and people are bearing the brunt. Sources say the entire quarrying sector in the state is controlled by three contractors with the backing of powerful politicians.
The nexus between sand mafia, bureaucrats and ruling party politicians has resulted in not just the plunder of river beds, but also losses to the exchequer. If the estimates of the truckers are anything to go by, the government suffers a loss of Rs.1,440 crore every year from mining in Trichy , Karur and Namakkal districts. Truckers are not allowed to purchase sand directly from PWD-owned mines. They have to buy sand at exorbitant rates from the stockyards set up by these mining and loading contractors.
The number of loads mined and sold is also not properly accounted for. “Every day, more than 10,000 trucks transport sand from the quarries in Trichy region. But only 2,000 trucks are properly accounted for,’’ says Sella Rasamani, president of Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners’ Federation, who called for a strike by truckers two days ago to expose the sand mafia. While a load of sand is two units, mining contractors force truckers to load up to four units.
“Two units of sand cost Rs.800 plus Rs.200 loading charges. But contractors charge up to Rs 4,500. We are unable to purchase sand directly from quarries as the contractors, backed by ruling party functionaries, rule the roost,’’ he alleged.
The middlemen who obtain licence for setting up stockyards near riverbeds transport sand from the quarrying point to stockyards. Outside trucks are not allowed to take sand from quarries. “The middlemen pay demand drafts of government fixed price to the public works department (PWD). They collect from us a DD for the government-fixed rate and take the balance as cash,’’ said V Selvaraj, a truck owner.
Tamil Nadu government has demarcated four divisions --Chennai, Pollachi (Coimbatore), Madurai and Trichy --for sand quarrying from rivers. Of them, Trichy is considered the biggest source and it covers a total of nine districts along the Cauvery belt.
“The miners have gone on a rampage. In-stream mining has lowered the river bed which may lead to river bank erosion,“ said R Dhanalakshmi, an environmentalist from Tamil Nadu Environmental Council.
That this ruling party functionary Sella Rasamani was not rewarded by Jayalalitha for exposing the scandal which cost the government treasury, but was punished by expulsion from her party clearly showed and proved the connection and connivance at top level in all the corrupt deeds of the ADMK regime! (15-03-15)

Free schemes mired in mysteries and scandals

The free schemes announced by the ADMK regime led by Jayalalitha are one by one are getting mired in controversies, mysteries and scandals.
The latest to join this list is the ADMK government’s much touted Free Laptop scheme for students. Soon after the scheme was launched, there was an allegation of nepotism landing the student beneficiaries in trouble.
Jayalalitha’s battery of freebie pronouncements has purposes other than mitigating the sufferings of people or meant for their welfare and progress. The modus operandi of implementing free schemes by this regime leaves much to be desired or cloaked in mystery and intrigue, unlike during the DMK rule when at every stage of implementation all the parties represented in the Assembly were associated in a transparent manner.
With the unfolding of one scheme after the other, many skeletons in the cupboard are coming into the open. The free cow, sheep/goat scheme to rural women below poverty line is reported to be benefiting only ruling party functionaries acting as middlemen and the beneficiaries get tormented with dying cattle or old cows already given birth to 10 calves, post lactation period. The scheme served only to transfer government funds to the pockets of ruling party functionaries.
As much back in January 2012, ‘The Tehelka’ magazine in a report stated: “Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s plans to usher in “another white revolution” in the State might just be the case of wrong use of terminology. The rate at which the cows distributed freely under a government scheme are dropping dead, a leather revolution instead looks imminent.
To match the free distribution of colour TV sets by former CM and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha set out to distribute free of cost, cross-bred Jersey cows to families in villages that don’t have milk co-operatives, and four goats each to seven lakh other families. The government had set aside a budget of Rs 1,157 crore to achieve this feat over a period of five years.
But probing this novel idea a little further brings out some interesting details. That the cattle will be purchased from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra is the first curious fact. States such as Andhra have been following a cattle import policy to boost their own production and Tamil Nadu is one of its suppliers.
According to the Animal Husbandry Ministry website, Tamil Nadu has the highest population of cross-bred exotic cattle, which includes Jersey cows. A Ministry official, who does not wish to be named, insists that the decision to buy cattle from outside the State was made to boost the milk production in Tamil Nadu.
To achieve this perplexing merry-go-round ride of cattle repurchase and resale, the State takes the beneficiary to Andhra Pradesh to choose the cow, spending Rs 3,000 for the transport of the person and the cow. A researcher in the field of cattle claims that cattle traders from Tamil Nadu take the cows to Andhra the day before the ‘cow-selectors’ arrive, sometimes the District Collector in tow, and sell the same back to the unsuspecting villagers. Their motive: pass off a cow that has already given birth to more than 10 calves as one in its first or second lactation cycle, as laid down in the conditions of the scheme.
As a result, till date, 11 of the 50 cows procured by a village have dropped dead. S Ramesh Kannan, a resident of Kumbaiyur village, says that they neither have the space to breed the cattle nor the money to feed them: “I have to spend almost Rs 100 a day to feed the cow. As a labourer, I earn only Rs 200 a day. Each cow was bought for Rs 30,000 and transportation cost came up to Rs 3,000. The cows we bought won’t even sell for Rs 10,000. We could have got two local cows here for the same price. They seem to have already given birth to more than 10 calves each and hardly give a litre of milk a day.”
Ministry officials claim that no complaints have been registered, despite this issue being covered in the local media.
A vet has to be paid Rs 300 per visit to a village, transport cost included, to treat a cow. It is an established fact that exotic breeds of cows, such as the Jersey, fall sick very often. They also don’t feed on natural fodder but eat into the human food supplies such as millet and corn”.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed out deficiencies, including in the procurement mechanism, in the ADMK Government’s free milch cows scheme aimed to cover 60,000 beneficiaries. The CAG report on Economic Sector presented in the Tamil Nadu Assembly for the year ended March 2013, said “lack of tranparency in selection deprived needy eligible women” of the benefits envisaged in the scheme where in some cases persons over the age of 60 or those having land/or cows were selected as beneficiary. “Deficiency in procurement mechanism resulted in procurement of poor quality cows and poor milk yield,” it said.
Incidentally, disregarding recommendations of special teams constituted to study feasibility of procuring cows from Andhra Pradesh, the department proceeded with purchase of the bovines from shandies there, which “resulted in distress purchase of poor quality/over-aged” cows to achieve annual targets. There was “hasty procurement” of the cows, such as not sticking to stipulations that they be observed for their health status and milk yield for four to five days. It was done within a day in ten village panchayats in Tuticorin, Nagapattinam and Villupuram districts, CAG pointed out.
“Scheme guidelines stipulated that lactating cows that are in their first/second lactation and not more than five years should be procured to ensure continuous production for next five lactations. In 19 out of the 45 village panchayats test checked, it was found that 329 out of 950 cows procured (35 percent) were more than five years of age,” it said.
“Poor quality cows” that did not become pregnant during artificial insemination efforts and poor milk yield were the other deficiencies pointed out by the national auditor who said these impacted the very objectives of the scheme, of improving the economic status of poor rural women and increase the state’s milk productivity.
If this was the case of free cow scheme, the free laptop scheme was mired in controversies from the very beginning. The free laptop is certain to become millstones around the necks of lakhs of students. Under the scheme, a poll promise of Jayalalitha, the government will distribute 9.12 lakh laptops to school students of Plus Two classes every year in four years. The State government’s IT arm The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) is to procure the laptops.
Leaving aside ‘less-informed’ Tamil media, the self-proclaimed enlightened English media including the 24x7 penetrative news channels, did not find anything amiss in the Free Laptop scheme, until February 6, 2012 when the US expert and Free Software Pioneer Richard Stallman on a visit to Chennai, slammed TN’s free laptop scheme. The Tamil Nadu government may be trumpeting its scheme to distribute computers free to students but it is setting a poor example for what a state should do, says American software freedom activist Richard Stallman.
 “It distributes laptops loaded with non-free software to children, teaching them to be dependent on paid products. It creates a system of digital colonisation,” Stallman, who has waged a storied battle against software giants like Bill Gates, said in an e-mail interview. He criticised the State’s ambitious free laptop scheme that hands out computers with the Windows operating system.
Even after the investigative journal Tehelka’s business daily ‘The Financial World’ exposed the evil design in the scheme as much back in October 2011, the media in Tamil Nadu did not think it proper to pursue the matter and inform the people how the scheme will cost the future of the poor students and the State’s exchequer.
 The ELCOT took out a tender for the supply of 9,12,000 laptops to be delivered that year. Over the next five years, close to 70 lakh laptops produced at a cost of over Rs 10,200 crore would be distributed. With so much at stake, the IT intelligentsia in India accused Microsoft of using a mixture of American diplomatic offensive and its ‘embrace, extend and extinguish’ strategy to make 7 million poor students of Tamil Nadu dependent on its products with their free laptops.
ELCOT’s repeated changes in the tender forced out free software and pushed in Microsoft products, a move that could ‘end up putting unproductive laptops with Windows in the hands of poor students’. This would entrap them in Microsoft’s proprietary web of licenses, renewals, updates and upgrades.
There were allegations against ELCOT that it deliberately issued a second tender favouring Microsoft by eliminating open source software from its list of specifications and removing academically useful hardware from the laptop in a bid to balance out the increased cost of using the Windows Operating system and the licensed MS Office.
ELCOT advertised the first tender for the free distribution of over 9,12,000 laptops on June 4, 2011, after Jayalalitha decided to implement another of her election promises. ELCOT was working on keeping the base price of the laptop at Rs 15,000 and, given the sheer scale of the order, the costs were expected to come down to Rs 10,000 a laptop.
In June, ELCOT took out a tender with the following specifications: A dual boot system that had free open source Linux with the proprietary Microsoft Windows starter edition with antivirus software valid for a year. In addition, the laptop also had to have 320 GB hard drive, 1.3 megapixel web camera, Wi-Fi adapter and 8X DVD writer among other things.
At a time when ELCOT was looking to reduce costs, the bundling of Microsoft Windows raised the price by Rs 5,000. Experts also pointed out that according to Microsoft’s terms of licensing with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Windows always boots first irrespective of what a user wants when they start a laptop.
Faced with a situation where it needed to cut costs and not offend one of the world’s most profitable and powerful corporations (as directed by Jayalalitha), ELCOT took out a second tender that stupefied the IT community in Tamil Nadu. In its new tender, ELCOT asked bidders to provide only Microsoft Windows and removed Linux from the list.
What was more startling was that in 2007, under the DMK government, ELCOT had shut the doors on Microsoft by ordering the migration of all government departments, panchayats and schools to Open Source Software after being convinced about its cost benefits and massive collaborative potential. Over 30,000 government and school teachers were to be trained in Linux. ELCOT’s proposals then, massively upgraded the systems and saved the Tamil Nadu government close to Rs 400 crore every year.
Even the then special adviser to the Prime Minister, Sam Pitroda, believed that in a scheme like this there is no scope for burdening students with stifling software that would eventually become a liability for students.
When ELCOT took out a second tender on August 20, 2011, not only had ELCOT booted out open source by only allowing Microsoft Windows OS on the systems, but it also removed vital hardware to accommodate the high cost of the Windows OS . The new tender removed the webcam and Wi-Fi adapter from the system while reducing the hard disk capacity to half (160 GB as opposed to 320 GB in the June tender). So ELCOT which wanted to reduce costs by about Rs 3000 on the base price of Rs 15,000 chose to dispose of hardware, which would benefit the students instead of shaving off the costs by including free software with extra hardware. Considering the growing penetration and relevance of internet in today’s times, without the Wi-Fi adapter, how beneficial is a laptop (defined as a personal computer for mobile use) to students?
So what changed between June 4 and August 20, 2011 that led to Microsoft’s OS being bundled into the laptop even though it meant higher costs and removing hardware from the system, which was helpful to students?
Diplomatic observers then pointed out to the stopover of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Chennai on July 20-21 when she met Jayalalitha before flying out to Indonesia on a state visit. “The proximity of the Clintons and the Gates is well known to the world and needs no explanation. And the revelations of WikiLeaks only show how the US has been forcing governments across the world to buy expensive Microsoft licences,” said Peter Gabriel, an online free software activist.
 Despite a major shift to open source software in 2007 under DMK rule, the State was moving back to laptops for poor rural students preloaded with Microsoft Windows. After one year, the performance of a Windows laptop goes down drastically. Using Windows would greatly hamper the productivity of the student using it and the machine would become useless within two years. This is a step backwards for Tamil Nadu. They thought since it is the tax payer’s money, it doesn’t matter what kind of laptop is given. Would anyone have bought a laptop for their personal use without vital hardware at an enhanced cost?
After the distribution of free laptops to students started there were reports in the media that they were available for sales in bulks in the open market at cheaper prices. A report in ‘The Times of India’ on Feb 16,2013 stated: “Firms which supplied laptops to the Tamil Nadu government for free distribution among students are worried. A good number of them are available in the open market at dirt cheap prices. Upset by what they call undervaluation of their products, representatives HP, Lenovo and Acer have approached the state-run ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu), which is managing the ambitious 10,200 crore welfare scheme, to stop students from selling the laptops. The scheme, under which 68 lakh laptops are to be distributed to students in government and government-aided higher secondary schools and colleges, covered 9.12 lakh students in the first year at an expenditure of 912 crore. “We have been supplying laptops with a certain configuration, for which the price is around 18,000 per piece. But they are available in the market for around 7,000,” K Suresh, marketing manager of a computer firm, told TOI. The availability of laptops at less than 50% of their actual cost affected his company’s image and credibility. He said his company had asked ELCOT to take steps to stop the sale of the laptops in the market. Senior officials in IT and educational departments confirmed that there has been a demand from laptop suppliers to check the sale of free laptops.
Though some students might have sold the laptops how did so many found ways to grey market. Needless to say, the free laptops in bulks have found ways to the market through some other source. It is in this context that the daily ‘The Hindu’ on March 15 published the following report:
“Though over $600 million has already been spent on the free laptop programme, no government department seems to have a detailed list of the beneficiaries. Since September 2011, the State government has given out over 21 lakh laptops free of cost to students. That number is set to go up to at least 30 lakh over the next year and a half.
Despite such staggering numbers, none of the government departments involved in the scheme has a comprehensive list of all the beneficiaries, though the government’s own policy note has claimed for the past four years that “advanced software has been introduced for tracing the movement of benefits... and it integrates all facets of operation, including procurement and distribution.”
Responding to The Hindu’s Right to Information request for the name, age, institution and other details of all beneficiaries, ELCOT claimed it is only a “procurement agency.” The Special Programme Implementation Department, whose sole purpose is monitoring flagship schemes, pointed fingers at the School and College Education Departments. They, in turn, forwarded the RTIs to every district in the State. Even many of the district-level offices, which responded, had no names and merely forwarded the information request to individual institutions under their supervision. Essentially, if the RTI responses are to be believed, there is no comprehensive beneficiary list.
Without such a list to begin with, any effort to detect diversion into the grey market is questionable at best, say experts.
“Without tracking beneficiaries, it is questionable whether the government is getting the best out of this investment,” said Nat Malupillai of the e Governments Foundation. “Is there some intended outcome? Is it an increase in computer literacy? How is this going to be measured? Without capturing roll numbers and the student population along with some unique identifier, it is impossible to determine if the right people got the benefit and also how it is being used,” he said. “We should be concerned. This is a significant issue from a governance standpoint,” Malupillai said. “Ideally, a list of all those, who benefited from a supposed welfare measure, should be released and NGOs or other entities be allowed to do a random audit. Just believing that good intentions will translate to positive outcomes is wishful thinking,” he said”.
Though this report does not explicitly state that free laptops intended to be distributed to the students were diverted to some other source from where they had reached the grey market, it is an open secret that the beneficiaries in this scheme are also the ruling party functionaries in connivance with Ministers and officials!
Not to leave any doubt over this, ‘The Times of India’ on March 20 published a report under the heading “Touts eat into welfare benefits-earn cash on freebies” narrating how from green house allotments to marriage aid disbursal, bribes have to be paid by beneficiaries. The report cited many instances of payment of bribes and stated: “From allotment of green houses to payment of marriage assistance to women, the plethora of government schemes have become a hotbed of corruption involving crores paid as bribes. Funds set aside for distribution of goodies under the top five welfare schemes in TN added up to Rs 4,720 crore last year.
With the State expected to give a push to the distribution of freebies in the budget to be unveiled on March 25, it is high time that government incorporates a system to eliminate or at least minimize corruption at the doorstep of its numerous departments and offices.
“The liberalization of economy in the 90s has enabled the average Indian to make more money, which, in turn, has resulted in an increase in bribery as well as amount paid as bribe. While people who can afford pay bribe hiding behind convenient excuses, it’s is poor for whom these welfare schemes are intended who suffer.
Every government office, from the rudimentary building housing the Village Administrative Officer to the swanky district collectorate, has touts (alibis for ruling party fellows). They could be the woman selling stamp paper or the man running a photocopying out let adjacent to the government office. The applicant would invariably submit the applications through these touts or would be directed to them by the staff. “The money collected would be shared in the evening. Each office has its own system of dividing the spoils. Even if you don’t accept the money, you would be forced to receive it and offer it to other staff,’’ says a revenue officer.
TCS Karpagam, Cheranmahadevi union secretary of CPM, says corruption in government schemes is more prevalent in rural areas. “Village health nurses call the shots in disbursal of Rs 12,000 for pregnant women under the maternity assistance scheme. They are entrusted with receiving applications and entering the data of pregnant women in the beneficiary list. If they are not paid a minimum of Rs 1,000, they drop the names,’’ she said.
A senior doctor at Medavakkam in Chennai who attempted to eliminate bribery in the maternity assistance scheme, couldn’t because the nurse had political backing, he added. Activists say that bribe money ranges from Rs 500 for providing milch animals or household appliances to Rs 25,000 for important allotments. “In the case of greenhouse allotment, beneficiaries have to pay Rs 25,000,’’ said an activist.
Thus, free schemes in ADMK regime are mainly meant for the earnings of the ruling party functionaries in a quid pro quo arrangement. Now and then there are reports of Jayalalitha taking action against her party people accused of corruption. But these token actions are only pretentions to hoodwink the gullible or servile media more than the people of Tamil Nadu, who are cleverer by experience. (22-03-15)

What’s hidden agenda?

The media in Tamil Nadu gloat over Jayalalitha now and then taking action against her party functionaries and ministers for their misdeeds and corruption charges. On March 20, the first page banner news in a leading English daily under the heading, “Amma cracks whip amid allegations against regime” stated, “In a bid to refurbish the party’s image ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections and send out a strong message to partymen, ADMK chief Jayalalitha has once again cracked the whip on errant leaders and functionaries. On Thursday, she expelled Sriperumbudur union chairman Kutty alias M C Venkatesan from the party following allegations that he had threatened executives of the Samsung factory in the industrial hub. Later in the evening, she expelled four more functionaries in Virudhunagar for anti-party activities. The measures came in response to a chorus of allegations by the opposition. All through the week, DMK and PMK’s senior leaders have railed against the government for “misrule” and “corruption”. Jayalalitha’s move, likened to a mini purge within the party, has shaken the rank and file. Unlike in the past, it’s not been a one-time measure. She sacked Chennai corporation councillor K Santhanam a couple of weeks ago. She also removed agriculture minister S S Krishnamurthy from the post of district secretary and subsequently dropped him from the cabinet on allegations over appointments to government posts. The crackdown is being perceived as an effort at image correction in the run-up to the assembly polls, which may be less than a year away. It also reflects realization about a sense of growing disquiet about widespread corruption in civic bodies and government departments under the present regime. Allegations of a mining scam have also weighed in on public sentiment…..”
The major problem afflicting all people from children to the aged people and all conceivable fields like agriculture, industry, services, health, education and which has not been redressed even by an iota is power shortage. There is no dearth of reports in the same media on the persisting power cut problems, not even one MW of power generated by this regime from new power projects and instead purchasing power from the private sector for exorbitant prices causing huge loss the TNEB and charges of corruption in such purchases.
There was also a report of the charge of a retired TNEB official Vairamani of irregularities to the tune of several crores in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and loss of Rs.39,663 crore in the purchase of power from private sector violating the order of TNERC. He has asked why no action was taken against K. Gnanadesikan, who as Chairman was responsible for this, and how he was promoted as Chief Secretary. He has alleged that he was kidnapped to Andhra and tortured for fighting against TNEB scandal, but the police did not take any action and hence he would launch a stir.
Had only the media, which superficially gloated over ‘Amma taking whip against inefficiency and corruption’, pondered over such reports and tried to ‘investigate’ further they would have stumbled upon some ‘hidden agenda’. Not only the official Gnanadesikan, under whose nose all these irregularities and corruption took place in the electricity board, was promoted as Chief Secretary, the Minister of the department Natham Viswanathan commands extraordinary patronage from their ‘Amma’. Not only that his department was not changed since the ADMK assumed power in May 2011 but also he was made in charge of more ‘lucrative’ departments like ‘Prohibition and Excise department’ under which he heads the ‘Tamil Nadu Marketing State Marketing Corporation, notoriously known as ‘TASMAC’.
That notwithstanding frequent allegations of corruption to the tune of Rs.40,000 crore in the purchase of power form private companies and the State’s TN Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) taking serious note of it and prohibiting purchases at higher prices, no action was even contemplated against Viswanathan, but also he commands enormous clout with the ruling part high command. Why and how?
It probably could rank as one of the biggest loots by an IAS officer, of course in cahoots with conniving politicians, as usual. But not a whiff has been smelt by the Tamil Nadu media.
Alleging that Tamil Nadu suffered losses to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore due to delayed power projects and purchase of power from private players at exorbitant rates, a PIL filed in the Madras High Court in January this year has sought a special investigation team to probe the ‘scam’. The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh, before which the PIL of C Selvaraj came up for admission, gave four weeks for the State government and its power generation and distribution utility Tangedco to submit their response.
Selvaraj charged former TNEB chairman Gnanadesikan with creating artificial power shortage by not implementing the Electricity Act 2003 in letter and spirit. Noting that the official was at the helm of TNEB affairs for 13 years since 2001, the PIL said a group of officials prevented new projects from taking off and delayed their completion to maintain artificial power shortage in TN.
After delaying projects and stalling generation in existing units, the officials went for power purchase from private sector by spending several thousand crores of rupees, said his counsel Manikandan Vathan Chettiar on Jan 7. Criminal nexus among TNEB officials, contractors and public sector undertakings such as BHEL resulted in bribes to the tune of several hundred crores changing hands, the PIL said, adding the TNEB did not invoke statutory provisions to recover ‘wheeling charges’ from contractors for missing deadlines. The officials rigged contracts for new power projects, and simultaneously delayed their completion to facilitate power purchase from private producers, Selvaraj said. “State-owned power plants at three places were shut down intermittently to create artificial power demand so as to ensure private power purchase for eternity,” the PIL said. As against the State production cost of Rs 3 per unit, the officials doled out Rs 15 per unit of power to private producers, it said. The PIL also talked about a 15-page complaint dated March 29, 2014, disclosing “embezzlement” of Rs 24,309 crore in the wind power sector alone. No action has been taken on the matter so far, it said, adding an additional expenditure of Rs 6,000 was incurred by the state as the officers first junked electricity meters worth Rs 1,500 crore and then purchased meters worth Rs 4,500 crore.
Describing it as TN’s biggest scandal so far, the PIL sought constitution of an SIT comprising eminent citizens such as former CAG Vinod Rai to probe the scam. It also wanted the court to bring the TNEB under the control of an administrator to “curtail the continuing pillage.”
Though former Chief Minister Jayalalitha announced ‘Vision 2023’ on March 23, 2012, stating that the State would get 20,000MW electricity besides another 10,000 MW from alternative fuels and 5,000 MW from solar generation, not a single megawatt has been produced till date on all the four fronts, the PIL said. Sadly though not a single MW of extra power has been added in Jayalalitha’s tenure through any projects she launched. Whatever accretion is there is from some long-delayed projects initiated by the previous DMK government. It charged the State’s current Chief Secretary K Gnanadesikan with saddling the exchequer with a humongous loss of Rs 1 lakh crore by stalling power projects and through power purchase agreements at exorbitant rates with private power producers.
Such were the appalling nature of the allegations made in the petition, the Chief Justice felt constrained to direct the Chief Secretary to file a personal affidavit on the issues raised.The first bench headed by Chief Justice S K Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh also ordered notices to the State Government and TANGEDCO on the PIL filed by a retired Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) employee, C Selvaraj, who has sought a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team of the CBI.
Looks like that Gnanadesikan was not acting all on his own. There were other facilitators, in higher places, like Sheela Balakrishnan who was instrumental in making him the Chief Secretary. She stood by him right through his inept but stinkingly corrupt tenure as the Chairman and Managing Director of TANGEDCO, and then paved the way for his elevation as Chief Secretary, it is widely known.
“One cannot fathom as to why Sheela Balakrishnan lobbied so hard for Gnanadesikan, knowing how bad the situation he was in. He delayed power projects, played politics and is now facing serious corruption allegations. He is a liability to the administration,” remarks angrily a recently retired senior IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. The ruling dispensation seems blissfully indifferent to the mounting crisis, while Sheela and her acolyte Gnanadesikan are busy making as many bucks as possible in double quick time. Even the CAG indictments have failed to make any dent in the fortunes of Gnanadesikan.
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has in its order dated 15-09-2014 in M.P.Nos. 9,10, 13,14,16,28,53,72 and 81 of 2013 and M.P.Nos.9 & 18 of 2014 rejected the plea of TANGEDCO to regularize its high cost power purchase from private power players owing to the delay in commissioning of thermal plants by the contractors.
Only one officer has had the distinction of serving in the Board of TANGEDCO for nearly 11 years since 2001 till date, during which time TANGEDCO has actually been pushed to the brink, what with an accumulated loss of over Rs 1 lakh crore during this period. Gnanadesikan became Chairman of TANGEDCO on 01.05.2001 and held on to that position till December 2014, after which he was rewarded with the Chief Secretary’s post. It is unthinkable anywhere in the world, whether in the government or in the private sector, that such gross inefficiency should be rewarded with elevation to such a key position. And the people are penalized. It may also be interesting to note that Gnanadesikan also serves as the Vigilance Commissioner, and hence no State agency can conduct an investigation into the affairs of TANGEDCO in an impartial manner.
The demand for a CBI probe gets added support by the fact that TANGEDCO has allegedly misused and misappropriated Government of India schemes and funds taken under various heads. Any misuse or misappropriation of GoI funds, CBI can step in since the Nation wants to know how a State owned utility sector namely TANGEDCO utilised funds taken under various schemes and heads from GoI. Most of these decisions were taken when Gnanadesikan was the Board Member either as its Chairman or Finance Member in the capacity of State Finance Secretary. Hence, CBI alone can be the most competent authority to investigate this. Even if one rupee of GoI fund is misused or misappropriated, CBI can step in. It is imperative that CBI investigates this to uncover misuse or misappropriation of GoI funds and the role played by Gnanadesikan.
Now the latest disclosure about the cancellation of tenders for the 1200 MW Udangudi thermal power project has brought to light that during the ADMK regime since 2011, not even one new power project was conceived, but calculated steps were taken for delaying the existing projects  as much as possible like delay in issuing tender notices, in opening the bids, in execution, deciding on the bids etc., The very fact that the no objection certificates issued by the Union Environment Ministry lapse so many times show that these delays did not happen naturally.
What is the reason for all these delays? Why Minister Viswanathan and ADMK regime refuse to order enquiry as sought by the DMK and other opposition parties? If any new power project is commissioned generating 500 MW of power, the 3000 MW power now purchased from private power generating units for Rs12 per unit will come down to 2,500 MW. If such reduction took place, the commission received for every unit of purchase will get reduced. What else could be the reason? The Tamil Nadu government purchases about 3000 MW of power from private power manufacturers every day.  The cost of a unit ranges between Rs.10.50 to Rs.12.   The grapevine has it that the Minister Natham R Viswanathan gets 20 paise per unit as commission and as the TANGEDCO Chairman Gnanadesikan gets 0.2 paise per unit for such power purchases.   On a rough calculation Gnanadesikan makes Rs.14.40 lakhs per day and Natham makes 1.44 crore a day.   Of course Jayalalitha will get a lion’s share from this.
According to the budget for 2015-16 presented by Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Mar 25, liquor sales Tasmac, a company owned by the Tamil Nadu government with exclusive privilege of conducting wholesale and retail vending of alcoholic beverages in the State, are expected to touch Rs 26,188 crore during the current financial year, and reach Rs 29,672 crore in 2015-16.
In 2005-06, the turnover of Tasmac stood just at Rs 7,335 crore. It is an open secret that the ADMK government fixes targets for sales in Tasmac.
 Anyone who passes through a TASMAC outlet can see the crowd and the thriving sales.   In the recent two months, the prices of IMFL liquor has gone up twice.  Still, there were reports that sales on last Diwali has dipped when compared to previous year.  Surprising indeed!
Barring elite shops, all the TASMAC outlets have  bars attached.    Sources say Natham Viswanathan has devised an innovative way to make a quick buck.   Instead TASMAC placing indents to the liquor manufacturers, the distilleries will send the stocks directly to the bar and receive payment.   70% of the tax revenue to be received by the government through this sales will straight go to the Minister’s pocket.   One Gopi, who is the brother-in-law of Natham Viswanathan is said to be taking care of this racket.  This is being done only in select outlets.    Sources in Secretariat say that the government’s Finance department is on and off raising alarms about the dip in sales of TASMAC, for it is the only cash cow for the State.
After the regime change in 2011, the Midas Golden’s market share rose to 16.62% from 7.2% during 2011. Midas Golden Distilleries was set up in 2002, just a year before Jayalalitha announced the takeover of private shops in the State. The company is owned by a relative of Jayalalitha’s confidante Sasikala. “Our company continues to face problems in Tamil Nadu where our market share dropped drastically because of ordering patterns followed by TASMAC,” said United Breweries chairman Vijay Mallya in 2013.
This is the only reason for Natham Viswanathan to get disturbed immediately after somebody alleged scandal in power purchase and delays in execution of power projects. Now this is the mystery behind Natham Viswanathan, who regularly contributes ‘tribute’ (f¥g«) to the high command, retaining the power portfolio undisturbed and also appointed as the Leader of the House in the Assembly and his facilitator Gnanadesikan appointed as Chief Secretary!     (29-03-15)

A saboteur at the helm: TN’s chosen misfortune

When children are playing, two or three of them will be diligently ‘constructing’ a tower or fort model either with sand or cards and suddenly a perverted child will land there and kick out destroying the ‘fort assiduously built by constructive minded kids. The misfortune of Tamil Nadu is that the people here had a elected such a pervert minded person to the helm of governance!
There were two most distressing reports in dailies in this week. One was about the threat looming large for the closure of Chennai port. Situated in the Coromandel Coast in South-East India, the port of Chennai has more than 100 years of tradition. Strategically located and well connected with major parts of the world, it is today the hub port on the Indian subcontinent. But the chosen saboteur has wrought havoc to this historical port.
The latest report stated, “In what could be a glimmer of hope for the stalled Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated road project, Union Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan on Mar 28 called upon the Tamil Nadu government and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to reach an “out-of-court settlement“ to resume the work.
The elevated road project, planned to provide uninterrupted connectivity between Chennai’s suburbs and the port, got embroiled in a court case after the ADMK government assumed office in May 2011. The project was stalled by the State Public Works Department -which gave consent to the project during DMK rule -citing environmental concerns.
Radhakrishnan expressed fear of closing down Chennai port if the road is not completed at the earliest. Owing to heavy traffic and narrow roads, it takes about two days for a truck to cover the 19 km distance, said port officials. “Port-Maduravoyal elevated road will lessen traffic jam in Chennai port to a great extent. I have told the officials to get the project going at any cost,“ Radhakrishnan told media persons on the sidelines of a review meeting with NHAI officials.
Due to the State’s objection, the Rs 1,815 crore project with a grant of Rs 499 crore from the Centre came to a standstill in 2012, that too after 683 piles, 56 pile caps and 15 pillars were built. Between Koyambedu and Maduravoyal alone, 617 piles and 120 pillars were built on the national highway.
After the elevated road fiasco, NHAI has been demanding that TN government sign a State Support Agreement (SSA) as a pre-requisite to start any project under PPP mode. Radhakrishnan said the Centre was willing to declare and upgrade East Coast Road, which connects Chennai and Kanyakumari, as a National Highway if the state government submitted necessary proposals. “The road has lots of tourist attractions and religious places,“ the BJP leader said. At present, only 153 km of the 738 km stretch is under NHAI. The remaining stretch is with the State Highways department”. During the meeting, contractors said there was a delay in getting permission from government for mining for NHAI projects. NHAI officials also pointed out the delay in getting government clearance for widening roads across water bodies”.
The report clearly brings out the fact that though the present ADMK regime had not taken up any infrastructure development works on its own, it had been hindering the ongoing works started during the previous DMK rule, thus reversing the wheels of progress; one of such important infrastructure project is this Port-Maduavoyal elevated express way. People who visit Chennai after a long time will be bewildered to witness unfinished huge pillars erected in the middle of the Poonamalle High Road off Koyambedu and the Cooum river on Spur Tank Road. The steel rods protruding out of the concrete pillars had started rusting during the last four years when the ADMK regime stalled the progress of the work. Had the project been allowed to be executed by now Chennai city’s landscape would have totally different look, with thousands of vehicles passing at high speed without any hindrance and traffic jams form Maduravoyal to Port, serving industries and people on the way.
Immediately after assuming office in 2011, the very first punishment she meted out to people who elected her was throwing into dust bin their precious tax money to the tune of Rs.600 crore by abandoning the New Secretariat-Assembly complex on Anna Salai. Her similar effort to abandon Asia’s biggest library in the name of Anna in Chennai constructed and established at a cost of nearly Rs.300 crore was stalled by the High Court. Similarly their attempt to give up Samacheer Kalvi scheme was thwarted by the Supreme Court. But for these vexatious litigations from court to court engaging senior lawyers of Supreme Court for the State government, several crore of public money was unnecessarily wasted to appease the ego of an individual.
But the damages to public interest did not stop there. When almost all States in India were crying for and seeking Centrally-sponsored mega infrastructure projects, people of Tamil Nadu willfully opted for a destructive regime which sought to hamper and stall huge infrastructure projects, worth several thousand crore, under implementation in and around Chennai and elsewhere in the State, the biggest of them being the 150 year old dream of Tamils, the Sethusamudram project.
One of the important Centrally-funded project remaining struck in the State due the personal acrimony of former Chief Minister Jayalalitha just because the previous DMK rule brought them by persistently pressuring the Centre, was: Rs.1,815 crore Chennai port-Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway.
The election manifesto of the DMK for the 2006 Assembly elections promised to implement Elevated Highways in areas of acute traffic congestion in Chennai city. Immediately after the DMK assumed power in 2006, Kalaignar, in a letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 5.6.2006, sought approval for elevated expressway to Chennai port. Following the efforts made by the then Union Minister T.R.Baalu and others, the Centre gave approval for the Chennai port-Maduravoyal elevated expressway and the Prime Minister laid foundation for it at a function on 8.1.2009 presided over by Kalaignar. It was announced then that this would be lengthiest elevated expressway in India.
On 22.6.2007, the State government issued approval in policy level to the NHAI for this expressway along the banks of Cooum river to pave way for unhindered transport of containers from the port. The State government also agreed to share with the Chennai Port Trust in the ratio of 50:50 the expenses incurred in the acquisition of lands and for the rehabilitation of the displaced people. The State government would incur expense of Rs.130 crore towards this.  The NHAI was also assured of full cooperation in the works of getting clearance under Pollution Control Act and relocating drinking water and sewerage pipes and lamp posts.
Now,the following report was published in ‘The Hindu’ on August 5:
The NHAI is the implementing agency for the project and the deadline for the 19-km-long stretch was September 13, 2013. “If there is no improvement in the status of the project by then, we will have no other alternative but to terminate the contract,” said an NHAI official then.
Usually, Chief Ministers, Ministers and officials of States had to go to New Delhi pleading for Central assistance and Centrally-sponsored projects for their States. In Tamil Nadu they say the States have to take ‘kavadi’ to Delhi to placate the powers-that-be to get favours for them. But  Tamil Nadu being under the regime of cantankerous Jayalalitha, the authorities in the Centre one after the other had to come down to Chennai to get clearance from the lady’s regime for the stalled projects in which funds to the tune of thousands of crore rupees are entangled. After the repeated visits by secretaries of departments of the Central government and their meetings with the secretaries of departments and the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu government proved futile, the then Prime Minister himself had to intervene and depute his Adviser and a senior official of PMO as his emissaries to talk to Jayalalitha and get approvals.
Accordingly, Prime Minister’s Adviser T.K.A. Nair and Director in the PMO, Pallavi Jain, met Chief Minister Jayalalitha at her office on November 10, 2012 and discussed infrastructure issues including the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway.
Now with the change in regime at the Centre, the BJP Minister has sounded the conch!
If this was a case of material damage inflicted upon the State due to personal acrimony of Jayalalitha, there were also cultural damages borne out of her perverted mentality. On the very day of assuming office in May 2011, she closed down the prestigious Paavanar Classiscal Tamil Research Library functioning in Fort St. George and ordered dumping of precious books and palm manuscripts somewhere in the new Secretariat complex in her anathema for classical language status for Tamil obtained by Kalaignar.  
Another report in ‘Dinamalar’ daily is the wanton ruining of prestigious Anna Centenary Memorial Library, Kotturpuram in Chennai due the personal acrimony of this cantankerous lady. Kalaignar has issued a statement on this. (See p.5)
It transpiresd that Anna Centenary Library constituted by Kalaignar was also an eyesore for Jayalalitha from the beginning since she assumed power, in her scheme of ‘undoing everything done by Kalaignar’.  Instructions were given to scrutinize all files pertaining to the library. Officials of the DVAC were also entrusted with this task. All documents exchanged among different departments right from the time the project was conceived to the point when books were procured were read with utmost care to look for lapses. Obviously they could not find anything.
Some officials also observed that while a total of five lakh books were purchased ahead of the inauguration on September 15, 2010, the process of sourcing the remaining nearly seven lakh titles slowed down significantly after the ADMK came to power. “There were administrative delays at every stage. Everybody’s hands were tied” an official had said.
The administration of the air-conditioned auditorium, famous for having hosted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and hailed by her, was quietly shifted from the Public Libraries Department to the Information Department. This shift happened around the time Clinton visited the city.  Anyone who wished to hire the swanky space must now go through the Information Department. In addition, any attempt to get feedback on the library from users seen on the premises was met with severe resistance by the staff at the library over the last few months. Some staff members told press reporters that they could not speak to anyone even at the parking lot of the library. Photographers, too, were asked not to take any visual of the facility.
All the same, readers and users of the facility loved being there. Whether it was about civil service aspirants who spend hours together at the facility daily or students and professors of engineering, medicine, other sciences and humanities who regularly visited for references to advanced books, e-journals and e-magazines, which they claim were not available in their colleges, universities and any other libraries, or children seen sitting beneath the artificial tree created at the library, legs stretched and lost in their books, and some engrossed in computers sitting relaxed on cosy furniture, the public who regularly visited to read news magazines, journals, novels, literature etc. - everyone clearly wanted it to stay.
Jayalalitha’s announcement evoked spontaneous protests from scholars, writers, educationists, students, political parties and the public. There were statements resolutions, meetings, demonstrations and proposed sustained agitations by various associations/ organizations and groups of individuals.
As Kalaignar pointed out, the move to convert Anna Centenary Library, could not be seen in isolation but as part of Jayalalitha’s attempt to destroy symbols of Tamil culture one by one –beginning with vacating Pavendar Classical Tamil Research Library overnight from the Assembly hall in Fort St. George and dumping rare books, manuscripts and ancient palm manuscripts somewhere, showing contempt for classical status for Tamil, not only because it was achieved by Kalaignar but also because of her innate antipathy for equating Tamil with Sanskrit, out of which the very name and symbol of Classical Tamil in school text books and in all government records and displays were covered up or removed, portraits of Tiruvalluvar and Tirukurals were obscured in text books and from government buildings, Tholkappiya Poonga was put on hold, the name board of Classical Tamil Poonga was covered up, withdrawal of armed guards for the magnificent Tiruvalluvar statue in Kanyakumari and abandoning Anna Centenary Library.
Collective memory is an important feature of group (race or community) identity. The collective memory or common history of a group is represented by its cultural institutions, including libraries. In history, numerous instances of genocide, or attack on groups occurred. This continues even now. These attacks often include aggression against the cultural institutions which, as evidence of a separate cultural identity, are seen to give political legitimacy to the group under attacks.
History is replete with instances of inimical attacks on libraries and other cultural identities of a group of people by alien forces from within and outside, in order to subjugate the group and establish the hegemony of their alien cultures.
Jayalalitha’s onslaught on Classical Tamil Research Library and Anna Centenary Library should be seen in this perspective. Besides her antipathy for classical language status for Tamil, and portraits and monuments of Tiruvalluvar, reversing the decision of starting Tamil New Year from the first day of Thai month and reverting back to the Hindu mythological calendar against the wishes of renowned Tamil scholars is yet another attack on the cultural identity of Tamils.
These moves of Jayalalitha as a whole constitute onslaught against Tamil language, culture and racial identity. A challenge ought to be faced and overcome united cutting across political and social divides!       (05-04-15)

Reckless complacency!

In the bloodiest incident in the history of the decades-old menace of red sanders smuggling, 20 woodcutters hailing from Tamil Nadu were killed in an alleged encounter in the Seshachalam forest at the foot of Tirumala hills on Apr 7.
The newly-formed Red-sanders Anti-Smuggling Taskforce comprising personnel drawn from the police and forest departments undertook a combing operation near Srinivasa Mangapuram, Srivarimettu and Eethagunta on the Seshachalam hill ranges on Apr 6 around dusk, when they spotted footprints in the vicinity.
Suspecting movement of woodcutters, one group of taskforce personnel moved towards Eethagunta, and the other towards Cheekateegalakona. On finding over 100 woodcutters felling trees and carrying logs, the personnel asked them to surrender. However, the woodcutters rained stones and hurled sickles at the team, injuring some of them.
“When they started attacking us, we fired random shots in self-defence,” a taskforce member said on condition of anonymity. The firing took place between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., following which Deputy Inspector-General (Taskforce) M. Kantha Rao rushed to the spot. Rao termed the encounter ‘unfortunate’.
Barring the scale, the encounter killing of 20 red sanders “smugglers” in Andhra Pradesh has not come as a surprise to those watching the illegal industry. Since 2011, such encounters and operations have killed 11 and led to the detention of more than 2,000 — all tribal woodcutters hired by mafia agents.
The timing of the operations reveals a pattern. In 2014, a multi-organisation team led by National Campaign for De-notified Tribes Human Rights (NCDNTHR) probed such killings and detentions and observed:
v If arrested, the local rich in the smuggling racket are sent to the Rajahmundry central prison, so that they could get bail easily, while the majority of the poor tribal woodcutters are booked under the charges of murder or attempted murder.
v  Fortune of rival smuggling groups depends on changing political equations, and targeted killings of tribal labourers of a rival smuggling group through the STF by the dominant group are meant to destroy the opponent’s supply base among Tamil tribals who are hired for felling and carrying red sanders.
“Most of those killed are a denotified tribe at the bottom of the social hierarchy, while the majority of those detained belong to other tribes. About 300 of them are still in jail since last April,” said Hyderabad-based M Subba Rao, NCDNTHR national convener.
In the name of cracking down on smugglers, say insiders, the politically powerful gangs of the day have taken out members, usually tribal recruits at the lowest rung, of the rival groups. Indeed, red sanders encounters do seem to have been timed with shifts in the State’s political equations since 2011. Consider these:
v  A Tamil labourer, named Varadi, was killed in an allegedly fake encounter during the tenure of Forest Minister Peddireddy Rama Chandra Reddy in 2011.
v  After the resignation of Peddireddy in November 2012, another labourer from Tamil Nadu, Murugan, was killed in December 2012.
v  Another, named Sambarian Mani, was killed in January 2014, weeks before Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned as Chief Minister.
v  Days before Chandrababu Naidu became Chief Minister, Vijaykanth, Venkatesh and Siva — all below 25, belonging to denotified tribes and neighbours in an interior village near Javadi hills of Tamil Nadu — were killed in May 2014.
v  Another five were killed in the forests of Chittoor and Kadapa districts between June 21 and August 6, 2014.
v  Subsequently about 2,000 Tamils were arrested from railway stations and bus stands — rather than crime spots — and branded smugglers and kept in various jails in Nellore, Chittoor and Kadapa districts. Two of them died.
v  Last year, the Nellore district jail had about 440 booked in the red sanders case, and of them 236 were booked on the charges of murder and the remaining for attempted murder.
“These tribal woodcutters from Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai, Salem, Dharamapuri and Villupuram districts traditionally worked in coffee estates and also in sugarcane fields before they were lured by red sander smugglers and their agents. We need independent inquiries into these killings,” said S Anna Durai, Tamil Nadu convener of NCDNTHR.
According to the 2014 report, red sanders smuggling involves four layers of operation. Tribal woodcutters and local carriers/loaders belong to the first rung. At the second stage, transporters operate in connivance with the forest and police departments. Next are the exporters who take it out of the country. At the fourth level are the managers who oversee everything from recruitment to negotiation and report to the political kingpin.
While the woodcutters rarely make more than Rs 10,000 per tree (average 200 kg), the booty fetches between Rs 40-60 lakh per tonne abroad. Last November, the State government earned Rs 1,000 crore by auctioning a huge cache of confiscated red sanders. A second auction of 3,500 tonnes will be notified soon
They say it was an encounter. But a close look suggested it was a massacre.
One of the 11 men killed at Vacchinodu Banda in Chandragiri, a kilometer from the other site in Etagunta, who lay with bullet wounds on his chest, had a new pair of sandals on his feet, their sole almost unsoiled. He wore boxer shorts.
The special task force said he was among the men cutting trees and transporting the logs when they surrounded them. They attacked the force, an officer said, forcing them to retaliate. At the shooting spot in Vacchinodu Banda, there were no red sanders trees in the vicinity. The bodies were on a clearing in a shrub jungle.
And the logs strewn around the spot near the bodies were evidently not fresh: A few of them had numbers neatly painted on them, hinting that they must be from an earlier seizure. Some of the bodies bore burn marks besides the bullet wounds. The two clearings are apart by about a 40-minute trek up a dirt track made by the Forest department to reach Kalyani dam from the main road near Tirupati. Police said the men were in two groups, bringing down red sanders. A pungent smell hung over the air in the afternoon when Andhra STF personnel started removing the bodies using hired labourers. “The bodies have been lying in the sun. That’s why the smell,“ said a police officer making an inquest. “The burn marks are actually peeled skin because of the summer heat.“
The men who fell to bullets in Etagunda wore jeans and shirts. They all appeared to be aged between 30 and 50. More than a dozen medium-sized logs were found near the bodies. STF men said they were “violent smugglers.“ The weapons they carried: Axes, knives, sickles and stones.
A dirt track through the thorny bushes that leads to the clearing in Etagunda had blood smears on stones and earth. A police officer said red sanders grew in the forest on the other side of the hills. “It takes a long trek to reach the other side. They cut the trees and bring the logs all the way,“ he said. The police filled eight bags of `evidence’ including weapons and blood clots from the soil. CPI state secretariat member P Harinath Reddy, who visited the spots, said the knives the men carried were rusted. “It’s a staged encounter. The government is targeting workers instead of going after contractors who employ them to smuggle the wood.“
The bodies, covered in mats and tied to bamboos, were carried down the hills and once they reached the road, they were piled one over another in the back of a truck and a tractor hired from Tirupati. There were no stretchers. The tractor trundled down the dirt track and moved slowly to a hospital in the town where postmortem was conducted. Police said ambulances couldn’t reach the vicinity, but reporters in cars could travel all the way up a kilometer from the spot.
A steady spurt in demand for red sanders in the global market has lured smugglers into the forest areas of Andhra Pradesh. Way back in 2002 first quality red sanders wood fetched Rs 2.5 lakh per tonne, but the same quality now fetches Rs 60 lakh per tonne. However, its value doubles in the international market, as is evident from prices in the global e-auction conducted by the Andhra government last year where it touched Rs. 1.5 crore per tonne.
“There has been a 20-fold increase in the price of red sanders logs, which is mainly exported to China for making furniture and Japan for musical instruments. A double cot made of red sanders is priced at Rs15 lakh. The trees in the forest have little protection. A small investment with a bit of risk could fetch crores of rupees -this is the attitude of the mafia, who hire Tamil labourers from hilly areas bordering AP,“ the officer said.
What’s more, in the last decade, a new use was found, which led to further increase in demand. It was believed red sanders saw dust had properties that could absorb radiation of nuclear reactors.
A senior officer from the Tamil Nadu Forest department said a uniqueness of this tree species is it allows coppicing, which is a practice of cutting trees at the base and allowing the shoots to grow from the stump. This method is a highly sustainable one, producing rapidly growing useful wood without replanting them. The red sanders growing naturally in Andhra forests develop a girth of one metre in 40 years, which is a faster growth rate than that of sandalwood trees, the officer said. In Andhra Pradesh, the government has classified red sanders into three categories: Grade A, B and C. The quality of wood in the plantations of Tamil Nadu is not even classified. So there is no demand for the wood found in the State.
When so many developments were taking place on the border areas and poor tribal people were killed in police firings, thousands of them languishing in prisons in Andhra Pradesh and reports of police tortures were coming, the lethargic ADMK regime was remaining complacent all along when it was led by Jayalalitha and now by her benami. The ADMK government should have taken serious note of the threat issued by the chief of the STF Kanta Rao telling media that the ‘heinous smugglers from the neighbouring State’- implying the innocent wood cutters- would be shot and killed and they were awaiting shooting orders from the AP government.
Even after this cold blooded massacre of workers from Tamil Nadu, the incumbent Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam has not reacted with the alacrity required in such critical hour while his Ministers are engrossed in organising yagas and homams for the acquittal of their Amma.        r (12-04-15