Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter AAM AADMI PARTY MISSES SOUTH INDIA! KEJRIVAL’S NEW PARTY IS NORTH INDIAN CENTRIST.

By Firoz.T.Totanawala 

 The Bangalore Metro Reporter

AAM AADMI PARTY MISSES SOUTH INDIA! KEJRIVAL’S NEW PARTY IS NORTH INDIAN CENTRIST.

Arvind Kejrival has formally launched his political party and named it as Aam Admi Party. From the name of the Party to the members of the national Council, it is full of North Indian names. In a way Kejriwal has completely ignored the South India in his political pursuit.

 
Kejriwal who was in the forefront of Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption Movement, had always nursed political ambition. He had successfully converted India Against Corruption as India Against Congress and he led the campaign against Congress in Hissar Loksabha by-elections, when the IAC was catching momentum. He even made Anna Hazare to declare that he will campaign against Congress in the next general election.

 
After Anna Hazare’s movement lost it steam and there were differences of opinions among themselves about the political fight, Kejriwal had announced the launch of a national political party on Gandhi Jayanthi. Now, Kejriwal has officially launched his political Party with himself as the national convener. It is another matter that Anna Hazare has reconstituted his core team of IAC dropping Kejriwal. After Kejriwal had officially announced the formation of AAP, Anna Hazare who had earlier distanced himself from his political activities, changed and said that he will campaign for AAP candidates!

 
Arguably, Kejriwal’s AAP has become a north Indian centrist party limited to the Hindi heartland. The name Aam Admi does not sound anything in South Indian States. Foe a villager in Karnataka - AP - Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Puducherry the name Aam Admi has no meaning. Even though they know the regional parties, they also know well about the national parties like Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Parties etc. But, Aam Admi sounds Greek to them.

 
It is another matter that people have heard about the word ‘aam admi’, the election slogan of the Congress in 2004 and 2009. The Congress used the slogan “Congress ka haath, aam admi ke Saath” (Congress hand is with the people.) Even here, the Congress did not use the hindi slogan in the South and used its local translated version.

 
And Kejriwal has taken the ‘aam admi’ word from the Congress and named his party. Apart from the North Indian centrist Party, the national Council also does not figure people or even self proclaimed leaders from South India. At the most one can detect a couple of names of South Indian accent. To be precise Kejriwal has acted as if South India does not exist. One would have expected at least one name each from the Southern states.

 
It is natural as Kejriwal or for that matter Anna Hazare’s IAC too had completely ignored Southern States. Their centre of agitation was limited to Mumbai and Delhi. Moreover, they have concentrated their ‘struggle against corruption’ against only Congress and that too in urban metro cities. They never talked about rotten corruption in states ruled by the non-congress parties. For example, they never talked about corruption in Karnataka which was at peak making the state occupy the No.1 position in the country. When Anna Hazare visited Bengaluru during the height of their IAC movement, B.S.Yeddyurappa, the then Chief Minister was accused of many serious corruption related scams. In fact, the then Lokayukta Santosh Hegde was one of the prominent members of Anna’s core committee and he had finalised the Report on illegal mining in the state and named Yedurappa as a beneficiary of heavy payment from the illegal mining lobby. But Anna Hazare, or Kejriwal for that matter, never uttered a word against corruption by the state BJP government led by Yedurappa! Similarly, Anna had praised Gujarath CM Narendra Modi who had not appointed Lokayukta in Gujarat for the last nine years! And Anna was fighting for establishment of Lokpal at the centre!

 
In a way, the IAC targeted selected leaders for exposure. Most of the front line and self proclaimed leaders in IAC have their own NGOs receiving foreign funds, including that of Kejriwal.

 
After the IAC movement weakened, Kejriwal out of political ambitions announced the formation of a new political party. People were not amused. To provide proper build up to the official launch of the party, Kejriwal started exposing selected targets. As he had become a darling of a section of the media, he grabbed the limelight when he exposed Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra for having made hundreds of crores in a matter of three years by abusing his relation with Sonia Gandhi. The scam died a natural death with Kejriwal not willing to file cases. But the exposure provided him with larger than life image in the media. His second target was Salman Khurshid, the law minister whom he accused for misappropriation of about 80 lakhs grants meant for Welfare of handicapped people through his family Trust. This too provided heavy media Coverage. Later he exposed BJP President Nitin Gadkari’s ‘Purti’ scam and damaged his image. A couple of days later he took on the Reliance Company scams, exposing how the company had made hundreds of crores through their political bribery.

 
In fact, Kejriwal’s exposures were nothing but hit and run cases. Except Gadkari who is facing threat to his position, nothing has come out of the other scams exposed by him. After managing huge media image, he chose to formally launch his aam admi party and seems to have limited his knowledge of the country to the North India. He has completely left out South India from the purview of the AAP.

 
This was not unexpected. Kejriwal or even the IAC had not touched the unimaginable corruption related scandals in Southern states and also non-Congress states. Interestingly a leader of IAC in Bengaluru who contested the council elections from the Graduates Constituency from Bengaluru had put up a very good fight and gathered substantial votes. By any stretch of imagination, this is a credible performance by an individual who simply did not spend on the elections. Now even this gentleman has been ignored by Kejriwal.

 
Kejriwal perhaps is under the impression that he can launch a political party aimed at fighting the corruption and run it without money. It is to be recalled that Anna Hazare’s IAC was funded by many corporate bodies. There was no way for the IAC to spend lakhs and lakhs on holding agitations, publicity etc. Kejriwal also needs hundreds of crores to prepare the party for the elections. Curiously he is confident that AAP will win more than 350 seats in the elections and form the next government at the centre.

 
By naming the party as Aam Adami Party, he has showed the lack of understanding of the country. By packing the party with people from Hindi heartland, he has proved that he has no understanding of the geographic, linguistic and plurality of the country. And he wants the people to elect at least 350 AAP candidates in the next parliament elections to make him the Prime Minister so that he can eradicate corruption. That is all!

Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter ARTICLE 371 FOR HK REGION? BJP’S PLAYS DOUBLE STANDARDS!

By Firoz.T.Totanawala 

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

ARTICLE 371 FOR HK REGION? 

BJP’S PLAYS DOUBLE STANDARDS! 

The BJP has played havoc over the Hyderabad-Karnataka (HK) issue vis-a-vis Section 371. After a long struggle, the Central Government had tabled the Bill to amend Article 371 to accord special status to the Hyderabad-Karnataka (HK) area which would promote the all round development of the area, otherwise famous as the most backward area. As is natural, the Bill went to the Sub Committee headed by BJP’s leader Venkaiah Naidu. The other day the committee tabled its report asking the government to rethink on the issue after consulting and incorporating the state government’s (that is BJP government’s) opinion! 

The report is nothing but negation of the Bill. The central government has introduced the Bill after long discussions-deliberations with all political parties and leaders. More than anything, the people of HK area have welcomed the move even though it fell short of their demands. As this is a constitutional amendment bill, it was referred to the Subject committee of the Parliament comprising of representatives of various political parties headed by a member of the opposition. Presently the committee is headed by Venkaiah Naidu, a former BJP President and a Rajya Sabha member from the state. 

It was expected that the Sub Committee would clear the Bill which would proceed to be passed by the parliament in the ongoing winter session. People in the state were confident of the Bill particularly so when the Chairman of the committee is the two time Rajya Sabha member from the state. Once the Bill becomes law, the people of the HK area would have got preferential treatment in infrastructure projects, education, employment etc. because they will be provided with the protection by the constitution. 

But, people were shocked and disappointed when they learnt that the parliamentary Sub Committee shot down the provisions of the Bill on the simple excuse that the state government opinion has not been obtained before the Bill was tabled in the Loksabha! Venkaiah Naidu, the Chairman has let down the state which gave him the political power. 

Apparently, the central government had consulted all the interested parties including the state’s BJP government before tabling the Bill in the Loksabha. In fact when the Cabinet Committee cleared the Bill and the same was tabled in the Loksabha, it was celebrated all over the HK area. 

Arguably, the state government too had agreed to the Bill and the CM even had gone to Delhi for this purpose. The state should have no objections for providing special status under Art-371 to the HK area. Even in the past, the successive CMs have taken all party delegation to Delhi to press for the same. There may be some differences over the exact amendment - is it under Art-371(a), or like Vidharba model or Telangana model etc. And finally the central government zeroed on separate Art-371(j) to deal with the demands of the HK area issue. 

Arguably, the rejection is necessitated more for political reasons. Normally the Chairman will have the final word in the report. So, why did Venkaiah Naidu shot down the Bill on some flimsy or to that matter, non existing excuse? It is here lays the crux. Everybody knows that the four central ministers S.M.Krishna, Veerappa Moily, Muniyappa and Mallikarjuna Kharge had lobbied hard for Art-371 to the HK. Kharge was on the forefront and when the central government cleared the Bill for tabling the same in the parliament, it was hailed as a gift from the Congress. The Congress was sure to cash it on in the state elections and definitely they deserved the credit. 

But BJP was very much concerned about the Congress taking credit. Moreover, the BJP had all along been not in favour of giving Art-371 to HK area. Everybody knows that during the NDA regime, the then Deputy PM and Home Minister L.K.Advani had categorically rejected the demand for Art-371 to the HK. In fact, L.K.Advani, in a letter to the then Chief Minister S.M.Krishna had ruled out the possibility of according special status to HK area. So, the BJP’s role in the episode is suspect from the beginning. 

As the elections to the state assembly is round the corner and if the UPA government get the bill passed in the ongoing winter session of the parliament, one can be sure of the Congress getting a groundswell of support in the elections. The BJP, on the other hand is desperately trying to keep its house in order what with the former CM B.S.Yeddyurappa divorcing the BJP and prospect of toppling the present government. As things stand today, the BJP wants to deny the Congress of any advantage from the HK area getting special status under Art-371. Venkaiah Naidu, the MP from the state was romped in to do the damage control. Naidu who is the Chairman of the parliamentary committee on Home Affairs has done the hatchet’s man job by rejecting the Bill tabled in the parliament. This eventually makes the Bill acceptance, a remote possibility. 

Naidu, had to invent any excuse for this betrayal. He says that the state government was not consulted before tabling the Bill in the Loksabha. The hard fact is that both Houses of the state Legislature had passed a unanimous resolution asking the central government to accord special status to HK area. In fact, the Bill contains the resolution of the Houses in the preamble! Besides, the state government had out of blue, demanded special status on par with Telangana! And Venkaiah Naidu wants this to be considered before bringing the Bill afresh. 

Interestingly, the Jagadish Shettar government which had suddenly changed its stand from a special provision to Telangana model, just a few days before the winter session of the parliament was to begin, had not consulted the opposition parties and the leaders of the HK movements. Then, why this sudden Volta facie? The answer is purely politics. 

As per the Bill, the HK are will be brought under Art-371 by inserting clause ‘J’. The 371(J) deals with special status to the area in infrastructure, education, employment etc. in addition to constitution of the Development Council. The Development Council implies statutory funding and liberal grant from the central government. As is usual, the governor has to take a final call on its activities, spending etc. And this is not acceptable to the state government which wants the governor to act as its sub ordinate. It is to be recalled that the governor is bound to act on the advice of the cabinet except in rare exceptional situations. 

Allegedly, the state government does not want Development Council because it is an autonomous body and answerable to the legislature. Instead the BJP wants only special status in respect of education employment and industries. There is no reason or logic in BJP government’s sudden change of heart. Venkaiah Naidu’s strategy in coming to the rescue of BJP has become a tragedy. The leaders of the HK agitation have strongly demanded the withdrawal of the state government’s position and let the Bill in the present form to be passed. Finally taken aback at the strong protest, Jagadish Shettar and his BJP government have changed their stand and petitioned the central government to bring the Bill in the present form itself. That is all.

Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter THE SBM STAMP PAPER SCAM- 5 THE SHOCKING WHITE COLLAR SCAM BY A BANK & REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT! THE 5th BLUNDER- FORGED CHALLANS & DD’S

By Firoz.T.Totanawala

The Bangalore Metro Reporter 

THE SBM STAMP PAPER SCAM-5 

THE SHOCKING WHITE COLLAR SCAM BY A BANK & REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT!

THE 5th BLUNDER- FORGED CHALLANS & DD’S 

 We continue our series of exposure on the State Bank of Mysore Stamp Paper scam. In our last issues, we revealed that the SBM had no written agreement with the Government to print and sell Stamp Papers of various denominations on its own. Further, while it did print it, the stamp papers of SBM had its own different designs with lapses in the security features as prescribed by the government. All this undertakings were based merely on a proposal letter. And further, SBM defaulted on its reconciliation duty as proposed by itself. It drastically failed to submit its daily scrolls to its attached sub registrar and monthly scroll to IGR & CS.

The SBM miserably failed in its reconciliation part and in such circumstances, the manipulations were bound to take place.

Normally about Rs. 100-150 crores worth of stamp papers of smaller denominations were sold in the state then. These papers were used for agreements, affidavits, indemnity bonds etc. which are non-registrable. As majority of these SBM sheets were not brought for registrations, there can be no exact account in this regard.

Arguably, the biggest and worst fraud in SBM Stamp Paper scam episode that had rocked the department is the Bank Challan fraud. This fraud is worst than Telgi scam. As an arrangement, as described in earlier issues, the then IGR had permitted the SBM to collect the stamp duty and issue a Receipt and the same receipt had to be produced to the Sub Registrar (SR) as proof for payment of stamp duty. Each of SBM branch was designated with an SR office and the SBM had to collect the stamp duty with respect to the designated SR office only. The branch had to send stamp duty collection scroll to the SR office every day. The receipts popularly known as Challans were issued by the SBM branch after collecting its commission.

This system created havoc especially in Bangalore as tempering of the challans became regular. Many of the bank’s staffs are not saints. There was the real danger of Bank clerks writing different amount in the challan and counter foil! If they write one thousand in the challan, they can write ten thousand in the counterfoil! As per their records one thousand has been remitted to the Bank. And the counter foil which shows ten thousand had to be submitted to the SR office as proof of stamp duty payment. So, as per government figures, ten thousand is added while it is only one thousand as per the Bank. As the Banks consolidate collections from all the branches and submits the total figure, there was no way one could check the documents or SR wise office collections. Had the Bank’s branches sent daily scrolls to the SR offices every day, such fraud could not have taken place, as the accounts in the SR office had to be reconciled with the scroll at the end of the day.

Not that only bank staff but also the Department’s staff could do this sort of tempering. This fraud by many officials of the department shall put Karimlala Telgi in to shame. This fraud was the direct outcome of the senseless abolition of the stamp papers and the total lack of control by the top brass of the department.

The fraud went unnoticed for years till few public complained of challan tampering by the Sub Registrar.

The modus operandi was very simple. There were three types of frauds.

First was the tempering of Bank challans. The bank challans counterfoil was tempered by altering the amount. If the amount paid to bank was 5 thousand, the same was altered to 55 thousand, 35 thousand etc. and the ‘altered’ counterfoils were taken as the proof for stamp duty payment. By this fraud, the government lost heavy amount. While the government accounts showed one figure, the Banks figure showed a differing amount.

The second type was that of using the same challan for another registration.The modus operandi was very simple. Once the challan was used for registration, it was again used for another registration some days later as to avoid detection. The challans submitted from 1st to 9th of every month for registration used to be used again for registration from 11th to 19th by prefixing numbers before the original date of challan. If it was not used by day between 11th to 19th due to holidays etc. the same receipts were used between 21st to 29th day by adding number ‘2’ before the date of challan.

The third type of fraud was simply simple. They just wrote some challan numbers and amounts and registered the document. In this type, there was no tempering, as there were no challans at all! The stamp duty amount so cheated used to be shared between the parties and the officials. Apart from these three type of fraud, there was yet another method of using the same challan without tempering to more than one registration!.

How this sort of fraud could can take place with all the government control over revenue collection at every stage, one may ask. But the hard reality is that the fraud had been committed for years.

There is Treasury- there is District Registrar, there is AIGR (Audit) DIGR (Audit) and IGR, a chain of officers who have to look after the revenue collection. Then there is audit by the dept and also by the Account General. The District Registrar holds meeting of the SRs every month where revenue collections and functioning of the SR offices are reviewed. The report had to be reconciled and the report had to be submitted to the District Registrar before the monthly meeting. The reconciled accounts had to be sent to the IGR office also. Moreover, the dept used computers and internet and as such there was no problem of any delays in getting the account updated.

But still the fraud went undetected. The entire fraud seems to have thrived on the failure of the entire system. At every stage, there was lack of control supervision and above all auditing by the department, by the Treasury and by the AG team. That is all!

Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter SHOCKING BUT TRUE! BDA SOLD LANDS AT 2.75 LAKHS PER ACRE TO NON-ELIGIBLE BODY. INTENDED TO BENEFIT ITS OWN EMPLOYEES!

By Firoz.T.Totanawala

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

SHOCKING BUT TRUE! 

BDA SOLD LANDS AT 2.75 LAKHS PER ACRE TO NON-ELIGIBLE BODY. INTENDED TO BENEFIT ITS OWN EMPLOYEES! 

 The Bangalore Development Authority has sold 33 acres of land at the rate of 2.75 lakhs per acre and that too, to an organization which is barred from taking up housing activities! Strange but true. And the beneficiaries are the employees of BDA who have been shown this extra ordinary and unimaginable favour by the BDA. While the BDA has made bulk allotment of 10 acres to a housing society at the rate of 1.27 crores per acre, it broke its own rules to allot 33 acres of land for a paltry sum of 88.31 lakhs! And what more, even gomal lands have been gifted in this shabby transactions.

Nobody grudges the BDA employees getting allotment of sites as part of a welfare measure. But here too, they have to apply for sites like any ordinary public as the BDA Act and Rules stipulate that only those who apply for the sites whenever BDA invites for the application are eligible to get allotment. There is a discretionary quota of the government for allotment of sites to distinguished people who have serve the state like eminent sports person, defense personal etc. but here too, the quota is fixed and the BDA employees cannot claim allotment under this category except in cases if they happen to be distinguished persons. But still, they were given out of turn allotment.

Few employees of BDA formed a BDA Employees Welfare Association and registered it with the registrar of societies. This is not a co-operative society, but was meant to work for the welfare of the employees in educational, sports and cultural aspects. In fact the society registered under Karnataka firms and societies act is barred specifically from taking up any activities except education, culture, religious and sports. If the by law contains any mention of financial and housing activities, the society cannot be registered at all. Section 3 of the societies act clearly stipulates the aims and objectives of the society. Moreover, any profits arising out of the activities of the association cannot be shared by the members. This is a must condition for societies registered under this act. On the face of it, the BDA employees’ welfare society cannot indulge in housing or financial activities.

But the leaders of the association turned it into a real estate agency and the BDA became the facilitator to this business. Without going into the details like eligibility or otherwise of the association, the BDA had gracefully sold a large extent of land to this association for a song, and that too for taking up estate agency! At the maximum, the association can apply for CA site and that too whenever BDA calls application for allotment of CA sites to particular purpose. More than this the association under no circumstance can take up housing activities. If they do indulge in it, then it is illegal and the society’s registration has to be cancelled by the registrar of the societies.

However, the association without conducting the activities as stipulated under the law, had petitioned the BDA to allot bulk lands so that the association can form the layout and distribute sites to its members.

One does not comprehend how the BDA entertained this petition at the first instance itself? Does not the top brass of BDA know that a welfare association cannot apply for a bulk allotment of lands to indulge in real estate business? Only housing co-operative societies registered under co-operative societies act can apply for bulk allotment of land to take up housing projects for the benefit of its members.

But instead of rejecting the application by a non eligible body, the then BDA commissioner thought it fit to accept the application. Not just that, but the BDA finally allotted 33 acres in an up market Doddakalasandra and hurriedly executed a sale deed in favour of the association in November 2006. It had also given some more lands to the association at Lingadevarapura. This is the first major illegal action.

And what was the rate of bulk allotment? Let us compare for better understanding. In 2005, the government in the wake of the Akravathi Layout scam had limited bulk allotment to 10 acres. Based on this limitation, the BDA in its meeting held on 07-11-2006 had allotted 10 acres of lands in Ramesandra village to one Kanakasari Housing Building Co-operative Society. For them, the BDA had fixed a rate of Rs. 1.27 crores per acre. After the housing society paid Rs. 12.74 crores, the BDA executed a sale deed in favour of the society. So the rate of bulk allotment was Rs. 1.27 crores per acres.

Any sane man in his senses would think that the BDA would have applied this same rate in respect to the BDA employees Association. But shockingly, the BDA simply ignored its own rates in respect of the BDA employees’ welfare association. Rather it allotted 33 acres, hold your breath for a paltry sum of 88.31 lakhs! That comes to a meager about Rs. 2.75 lakhs per acre which is less than Rs. 7/- per Square feet.

For a bonafide housing co-operative society, the BDA levied Rs. 1.27 crores per acres, while for its own employees’ association which is barred from taking up housing activities under the law, it had levied only Rs. 2.75 lakhs per acre! Allegedly, the market rate of the property runs in crores per acre!

The BDA employees are not special class citizens so much so that the BDA should go out of the way to allot 33 acres to a welfare society formed by few employees of BDA. By any stretch of imagination, there was absolutely no need for BDA to make allotment of lands to a benami association floated by few of its employees and that too at a nominal amount which was 60 times lower than BDA’s own rate of allotment! Nobody can defend this highly illegal act. This is a second illegality.

The third major illegality in this episode is in the collection of crores of rupees by this welfare association from the employees promising sites in this land. The sital deposits, installments etc. cannot be collected by a private association without the specific permission from the RBI. While the housing co-operatives are legally entitled to collect money from the members, a welfare association is not. It can raise funds through membership, donations and charity, but it cannot be a profit making body. It has no legal status to collect deposits from the members promising sites. One rough estimate puts that the association had already collected more than Rs. 8 crores from the people and a major part of it was spent on layout formation.

In case of housing co-operative, if there are misappropriations, illegal acts, misuse of power by the directors, a member can take up the complaint with the registrar of co-operative societies. There are provisions to recover the misappropriated amount from the directors through attachment of their properties, imprisonment, superseding, taking over of the management by the government etc. Bit, in case of a welfare society registered under societies act there is no such remedy. What if few employees complain to the registrar of the societies about the housing activities of the association and its collection of deposits from the employees? The registrar has to cancel the registration of the association as all the deals are in black and white. Then, what will be the fate of the deposits of the members and the non-members in the society? Even the RBI can intervene and ban collection of deposits. The law clearly states that no individuals, organization or a firm can collect any deposit without the specific permission from the RBI. The members’ deposit to the tune of several crores will be lost in case of cancellation of registration and RBI’s ban on collecting deposits by this association.

Interestingly, these lands were acquired for JP Nagar 9th stage and the lands survey Numbers 15, 16 and 17 are gomal lands except a small extent allotted to individuals. The BDA has acquired the lands in 1991 itself. As per the law, the gomal lands cannot be allotted to any body as they are community properties. Only in rare cases government can allot it to SC/ST’s. And as per the Supreme Court order, the lands once acquired cannot be denotified.

On the face of it the BDA has acquired lands for its JP Nagar 9th stage in 1991. But, the BDA had not used the land for the specific purpose and after a gap of 15 years, had suddenly denotified the lands from JP Nagar 9th stage and sold it to a set up association for a pittance. When the BDA does not utilize the lands for a scheme for it had acquired, the land goes back to its original nature and here the lands remain as gomal lands. When the gomal lands cannot be allotted / granted to anybody, then how was the same allotted to this set up association! Any Comments!!!