Gfiles April'15

Page 1

MP’S NEW MINING POLICY: SAND MAFIAS TO WREAK HAVOC p32 MG DEVASAHAYAM: HONEST CIVIL SERVANTS UNDER FIRE p28

April 5, 2015 ` VOL. 9, ISSUE 1

FIRST STIRRINGS SURRINDER LAL L KAPUR K PUR KA

38

gfilesindia.com gf g fil ile essiin nd diia a...co com co

BIG BOSS

Secretary, MoEFCC | Ashok Lavasa

ISSN 0976-2906

R IP AH S UL RO S L HA p4 E M RM 6 O DE A L

Environment will not wait for us

From the Editor

T

vol. 9, ISSUE 1 | APRIL 2015 Anil Tyagi | editor TR Ramachandran | executive editor Niranjan Desai | roving editor GS Sood | consulting business editor Rakesh Bhardwaj | editorial consultant Naresh Minocha | contributing editor Narendra Kaushik | associate editor Harishchandra Bhat | associate editor (bengaluru) Venugopalan | bureau chief (bengaluru) Kanika Srivastava | sub-editor & coordinator Mayank Awasthi | reporter Pawan Kumar | production coordinator Sumer Singh | assistant manager, logistics Nipun Jain | finance Gautam Das | legal consultant Bushchat Publishing | edit & design Madan Lal | Webmaster Abhisshek Tyagi | Director advertising & marketing RAKESH ARORA— +919810648809 e-mail: adv@gfilesindia.com mumbai: 48/C-1, Areshwar, Mhada, S.V.P. Nagar, Andheri(W), Mumbai 400 053 bengaluru: 2210, 10b main road, 3 block, jayanagar, bengaluru 560 011 CONTACT — +91 9845730298 e-mail: venu@gfilesindia.in $1,/ 7<$*, 35,17(5 38%/,6+(5 QG IORRU GGD VLWH QHZ UDMLQGHU QDJDU QHZ GHOKL ă 7(/ )$; +All information in gfiles is obtained from sources that the management considers reliable, and is disseminated to readers without any responsibility on our part. Any opinions or views on any contemporary or past topics, issues or developments expressed by third parties, whether in abstract or in interviews, are not necessarily shared by us. Copyright exclusively with Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction of any material of this magazine in whole, or in part(s), in any manner, without prior permission, is totally prohibited. The publisher accepts no responsibility for any material lost or damaged in transit. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with any advertisement without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. Published and printed by Anil Tyagi on behalf of Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd at Kala Jyothi Process Pvt Ltd. E-125, Site-B, Surajpur Ind. Area, Gautam Budh Nagar, Greater Noida-201306 U.P. (INDIA). All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts in New Delhi only

HE arrival of 2015 observed a new churning on the political horizon of India. Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP outfit captured the throne of Delhi with a thumping majority of 67 out of 70 MLAs. But the subsequent squabble between Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Prof. Anand Kumar is a sordid saga within a party which professed to bring in swaraj in Delhi and India. This has sparked a debate whether political parties run or dominated by individuals are becoming intolerant of sane voices; whether it is Mayawati, Jayalalithaa, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Prakash Singh Badal, or even the Congress or BJP—all are under the sway of intolerance. This is the beginning of a dangerous trend. The speaking up of sane voices in a democratic set-up is akin to oxygen for the body. In 2013, when AAP was constituted, it promised to eradicate corruption and institute a new political system of governance where the common man could contribute in government. People felt relieved; finally a party had surfaced which encouraged open debate. But the way the AAP leadership is quarrelling with Kejriwal being unable to contain them, the party is heading towards a crash. Whether Yadav and his associates have raised pertinent questions about the accounts and internal democracy within AAP is debatable but the common man’s faith in Kejriwal’s leadership has been shattered. When the Congress launched the freedom movement in the 1930s, the party had stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Patel, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Rajendra Prasad, and Jawaharlal Nehru. They were members of the intelligentsia, who had studied abroad and returned to wrest swaraj from the British. They had powerful personalities; differences of opinion did prevail but fundamentally they worked towards the goal of independence. Who are the close political associates of Kejriwal? None, except Manish Sisodia, who is his close friend but is Kejriwal’s yesman. Kejriwal has, in fact, fought with every known face that has worked with him in the past three years. Have the people of Delhi committed a mistake by choosing Kejriwal without analysing his track record? When the people elected Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, they observed a track record (which may be debated) of the past 15 years. But, in Kejriwal’s case, the people of Delhi leapt to support him, without even checking the antecedents of the team. If Kejriwal is proud that his party’s absolute mandate is because the people trusted him on his policies, he is mistaken. The mandate was the result of a tacit understanding by all political parties to defeat the BJP by all means and Kejriwal was the best available political alternative. If he believes that he can manage the governance of Delhi with only Sisodia’s help, he is wrong. Out of 67 MLAs, 55 have reportedly been adjusted politically in the government by allotting them the post of political secretary and other advisory assignments for availing of the facilities due to a minister. Kejriwal is attempting to pacify his MLAs while promising swaraj to Delhi. If one interacts with AAP MLAs or ministers, it is shocking to see that, except for being loyal to Kejriwal, they have little idea of governance. Running both a party and government is a herculean task. No single man can run the show without taking along his political colleagues and the party. Intolerance of political opponents is an easy way out; the difficult task is to work along with them. Kejriwal has to understand that he is not an individual now but a symbol of the aspirations of the people who are clamouring for change. He has to build AAP as a more vibrant, democratic and tolerant party of committed, intelligent personalities who can walk with him to ameliorate the condition of society and provide an alternative in a milieu comprising the BJP, Congress and other political outfits. ANIL TYAGI

Download the gfiles app

www.indianbuzz.com

editor@gfilesindia.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

3

CONTENTS

LETTERS editor@gfilesindia.com

6 Bric-a-Brac

new cm for gujarat, where is kanishka singh, air india goes wi-fi for modi, khattar saves pennies

entirely changed. The feedback will provide the foundation for initiating a transformation. Srikant via email

10 Governance

colonial mindset dominates environment legislation and regulation

Voter analysis

14 Big Boss

environment secretary ashok lavasa feels the biggest challenge for the MoEFCC is enforcement

24 Governance

shopping online? think again 28 dk ravi case: more than meets the eye

32 Exposé

sand mafia set to rule in madhya pradesh

38 First Stirrings

catching up with surrinder lal kapur

40 Silly Point tv tantrums

42 Book Extract

indira gandhi: the comeback

46 My Corner

an officer and a gentleman

48 Stock Doctor mixed signals

50 Perspective laws of nature

57 By the Way

search for new cvc and ndmc chairman, dalits in delhi government, khattar’s marathon meeting

Uncovering a scam It is a very bold cover story by gfiles (March 2015) covering all the layers of the PEB scam thoroughly. It is true that every time the opposition party targets the ruling party with one or the other charge. But this time, all the proof and evidence is there for all to see; this has only confirmed the suspicion. The Special Investigation Team is probing the scam in Madhya Pradesh, but the concern is how much time or how many years will it take to come to a decision. What if it takes five years, and till that time the honourable, and suspected, CM will remain in power and continue to enjoy the CMship? Meghraj via mail

Back to roots It is a good recommendation by the Prime Minister that secretaries should visit their first posting place (gfiles, March 2014). And more than 75 secretaries have already visited and submitted their feedback about the changes and requirements of the place. It is true that on your first posting, you are young, enthusiastic and must have observed the place closely from the ground level. And now after gaining so much of experience and being at the secretary level, the perspective is

4

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

This is in response to the editorial (gfiles, March 2015). There are three types of voters—positive, negative and neutral. Modi, being an astute politician, knows very well how to “utilise”, and not “exploit” these voters. His political moves are generally well calculated except in the case of the Delhi elections where his aides failed to gauge the public sentiment. Today, you get chholle bhature and chaat paapri stalls on Vijay Chowk right outside Rashtrapati Bhawan. Voters would go there, pay and eat and not complain that these are unauthorised stalls. But if the government fails to check prices, provide cheap electricity and water, ensure school/college admissions and reduce corruption in police stations, the voter will complain. Most likely, that party is not going to win. JP Singh via blog Dear Editor, I agree with your comments about the confusing signals going to voters, but politically savvy Modi would have this basic understanding, and might have done this for support in the Rajya Sabha for important Bills. Further, the truth about Kejriwal-type leaders is coming out in the public and it would be really difficult for them to replace Modi and his legacy. Rahul Trivedi via blog

Age of tolerance The article by MK Kaw is very educative (‘Mother Teresa and all that’, gfiles, March 2015). I have yet to come across an article which convincingly tells us about how Hinduism avoided violence, and absorbed the good points in various cultures. Ramamohan Rao via blog

www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

5

Bric-a-brac young & old

New CM for Gujarat? anandi ben’s failing health causes concern

W

HO will be the next chief minister of Gujarat? Don’t be surprised at this question. No doubt, Anandi Ben Patel enjoys a majority and is ruling as a chief minister of the state. She does not have any threat from opponents as long as Narendra Modi remains at the helm of affairs in India. Then why will she be replaced? Sometimes in politics, one can control circumstances but health issues are unmanageable. Sources in

Ahmedabad disclose that Patel has not been keeping well. She is fighting an undisclosed serious disease. The top BJP leadership is aware about the health problems of the chief minister and is in the process of relieving her. Under the circumstances, the most prominent name emerging for the coveted post is that of Saurav Patel. He is at present the Minister for Finance, Energy and Petrochemicals, Mines, Minerals, Cottage Industries, Salt Industries, Printing and Stationery, Planning, Tourism and Civil Aviation, among other portfolios. Some of these are very important departments in the state. Saurav, interestingly, is related m to the most powerful business house, Reliance Industrie He is married to the first cousin of Mukesh Industries. A and Anil Ambani and is the son-in-law of Ramn Ramnikbhai Ambani, elder brother of the late D Dhirubhai Ambani. With the ongoing co corporate war in Gujarat, it remains to be seen if Saurav will be the next chief minister or somebody else will be chosen.

g

Case of a missing aide kanishka singh pays a heavy price

W

HERE is Kanishka Singh now? Kanishka was the most trusted aide of Rahul Gandhi, the heir apparent parent of Sonia Gandhi. He is a bright young man who studied tudied at St Stephen’s College and did his MBA from Wharton. Hiss father, SK Singh, was a reputed foreign secretary of India. With humble beginnings during the Sheila Dikshit election campaign,, he finally joined Rahul’s inner coterie. Kanishka was administrating Rahul’s political activities in his heydays. Most Congress leaders were aware of him and knew his importance but he maintained a low profile. Sources have disclosed that he is out of the close circle e of Rahul. How did that happen? It is learnt that when he was all-powerful, he reportedly started asking India’s ia’s top industrialists to be in touch with him directly. Within the Congress party, finances are looked after by a very powerful group p and it doesn’t like outsiders to interfere. It is not tolerated by Sonia S i att any cost. She doesn’t want to break the existing system of fund collection and storage of resources. However, even if annoyed by loyalists, the Congress party does not throw them out instantly.

6

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

Loyalists are transferred and accommodated. Kanishka is thus technically transferred from Rahul and is now Priyanka Gandhi’s assistant.

g

www.gfilesindia.com

INSIDE EYE

ILLUSTRATIONS: ARUNA

Better-connected AI wi-fi for modi’s plane

A

S far as VIP travel is concerned, India has a long way to go. There is no dedicated aircraft for the Prime Minister of India. Whenever or wherever he has to travel, an aircraft is spared from the Air India fleet. Thought economical, it has some constraints. The seating arrangement is redesigned every ry time as per the needs of the passengers whenever the PM M decides to travel. The aircraft does not have world-class rld-class communication apparatus. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very fond of electronic gadgets. He spends quite some time keeping ing track of the party’s activities by using them. Whenever he is in office ce or at home, he never feels any difficulty in connecting and operating ng the gadgets. Recently, on one of his international trips, he discovered d that he could not operate and communicate during the flight. One of hiss co-travellers pointed out that most modern aircraft today have wi-fi facilities. lities. He enquired about it and that was enough of an indication to o the Air India officials. Sources say it took some time but now w any Air India aircraft ferrying the PM or VIPs has the most modern wi-fi system installed.

g

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

7

Bric-a-brac young & old

Economical Khattar train travel for this CM

H

ARYANA’S Chief Minister, ister, Manohar Lal Khattar, is a man of simple living and high thinking. So what if he wears varied aried spanking Modi-style jackets all the time. His predecessor, Bhupinder der Singh Hooda, was just the reverse. se. Hooda used to travel by Mercedes des cars and the like, accompanied by about 100 security personnel, nel, wherever he went. The tiny state had to bear the expenses of a high-flying ying chief minister. Now, Khattar and hiss team have adopted economical al measures and feel the messagee ef should flow from the chief minister’s office itself. It was proposed that the Haryana a government buy an aircraft to

decrease travel time for the chief minister. The government already has a Kingair 10-seater aircraft. Khattar chose to reject the proposal and told the officials that he would prefer to travel between Delhi and Chandigarh by train and within the state by the official car. In case of urgent work, the aircraft will be used. The officials and the suppliers of the aircraft company are disappointed but the state is relieved that finally Haryana has a chief minister who not only preaches austerity but implements it in letter and spirit.

g

Land, ahoy!

W

HY is the Congress leadership and all other so-called socialist leaders determined to oppose the land Bill? Could it be because the biggest land bank is with the Congress and the socialist leaders, accumulated in the past 15 years? So, save our land, not the farmers, is the motto...

8

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

9

GOVERNANCE

environment mg devasahayam

Where is it heading?

ARUNA

With development the buzzword, environmental concerns are increasingly being given a short shrift. A recent government committee report also fails to address the problems besetting environmental governance

W

AY back in 1894, a report by the State Fish and Game Commissioner of North Dakota cautioned that short-term thinking on environment and narrow monetary motivations might lead to the destruction of the ‘last tree’ and the ‘last fish’. This formed the basis for the famous prophecy: “When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realise that one cannot eat money.” In the present context, we can add two more, ‘the last forest and the last beach sands’. This

10

gfiles inside the government

vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

prophecy should be the philosophy of environmental governance in a country with a mere 2.3 per cent of the earth’s surface and 18 per cent of the world’s population. But, sadly, this is not so. Environmental governance is the means by which society determines and acts on goals and priorities related to the management of natural resources. This includes the laws and rules, both formal and informal, that govern human behaviour in decision making processes as well as the decisions themselves. This concept

came on the world agenda with the first UN Conference on the Human Environments (UNCHE, later called Earth Summit), held in Stockholm in 1972. It laid down 26 principles and called upon governments and peoples to exert common efforts for the preservation and improvement of the human environment for the “benefit of all the peoples and for their posterity”. India’s formal ‘environmental governance’ commenced with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s abrupt directive in 1981, prohibiting all construction activities within 500 metres of the coastal high-tide line. This was to satisfy UNCHE’s Principle 7, dealing with prevention of pollution of the seas that endangers human health and causes harm to living resources and marine life. Around 30 per cent of India’s population, including in two metros—Mumbai and Chennai—and numerous smaller cities and towns reside near the sea and pursue their livelihoods. There was no study or scientific analysis of these regions to understand the life and livelihood needs of people and regulate economic and construction activities accordingly. Just a blanket ban with no questions asked. This was hailed as ‘characteristic of Indira Gandhi’s foresight and vision’! But even after three decades, Coastal

www.gfilesindia.com

Regulation Zones (CRZ), based on High-Tide Line, have not been properly demarcated! Environmental legislation and management in India have been in bits and pieces, commencing with the colonial-period Indian Forest Act, 1927, when environment was totally identified with forests. This mindset continues and dominates India’s environmental hierarchy. Subsequent laws include the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. The ‘comprehensive’ Environment Protection Act (EPA) came in 1986, in response to the outcry following the horrendous Bhopal gas tragedy. This law was enacted under Article 253 of the Constitution and, as the Preamble says, with the purpose of implementing the decision of UNCHE relating to the “protection and improvement of the human environment�. Having been enacted under pressure and duress, the cornerstone of India’s environmental governance is itself rocked on the wrong foundation. Sincerity for safeguarding environmental sustainability was suspect from the beginning and a bare reading of EPA would reveal that it is more of a coercive legislation, opening the gates for corruption and harassment, rather than a facilitating one. There was hardly any commitment to environmental governance at any level of government. For the administrators, it was academic and for the political executive, environmental laws and rules were tools for making money and not sustaining ecology. Soon came the liberalisation-privatisation-globalisation (LPG) era that heralded ‘development’ at any

www.indianbuzz.com

cost. FDI and GDP growth became the focus and environmental concerns became villains. The clichĂŠ ‘development vs environment’ was coined and while pin-striped carpetbaggers, representing the former, were government’s guests of honour, pyjama-clad ‘jholawalas’, who advocated the latter, became enemies of the State! It took a full 20 years after EPA to formulate the National Environmental Policy (NEP-2006), which came in the midst of the LPG era. NEP provided for conservation of critical environment resources, interand intra-generational equity, integration of environmental concerns in

Environmental legislation and management in India have been in bits and pieces, commencing with the colonial-period Indian Forest Act, 1927, when environment was totally identified with forests. This mindset continues and dominates India’s environmental hierarchy economic and social developments, efficiency in environmental resources use, environmental governance and enhancement of resources for environmental conservation. The policy recognises environmental protection as an integral part of the development process, requiring a precautionary approach through economic efficiency on the basis of the concept of polluter pays, equity, legal liability and integration of environmental consideration in sectoral policy. Most of these only exist in paper. Though the EPA provides for stringent penalties for violating

environmental norms and a spate of UXOHV UHJXODWLRQV DQG QRWLÂżFDWLRQV have been issued laying down norms, these have been observed more in breach than in compliance—because most of these ‘regulations’ leave huge holes to be exploited by the corrupt and the unscrupulous.

T

HERE are glaring examples. Under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) rules, all projects and activities are broadly grouped into two categories—A and B—based on the potential impacts on human health, and on natural and man-made resources. Category A includes industry, mining and big infrastructure projects which require prior environmental clearance from the Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Townships/area development projects covering an area above 50 hectares are clubbed under B1 and could be cleared by respective state/ Union Territory Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities, based on the recommendations of the statelevel Expert Appraisal Committees. Public hearing is not warranted. Sensing the danger posed by urban explosion, the MoEFCC’s 2005 draft QRWLÂżFDWLRQ KDG LQFOXGHG D FODXVH IRU projects covering areas above 100 hectares to be treated as Category A projects, requiring Terms of Reference (ToR)-based EIA and clearance at the central government level. But, due to the real estate lobby’s pressure, this has not been implemented. Taking advantage of this gaping loophole, the Andhra Pradesh government is ‘building’ a massive Singapore-type city on about 13,000 hectares of Ă€RRG SURQH ULYHUIURQW PXOWL FURS land in Guntur district without even doing a Rapid EIA! In the rest of

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

11

GOVERNANCE

environment mg devasahayam

India, ‘urbanisation’ has become a rogue business, ransacking the countryside, erasing water bodies and destroying anything that is green! Similar is the ravaging of beachsands and dunes, taking advantage of lax CRZ rules and ‘environmental clearances’ given by the MoEFCC. The beach mining loot in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu has assumed gargantuan proportions and is HPHUJLQJ DV D PDVVLYH ÂżQDQFLDO economic and environmental scam with far-reaching consequences for national security! The institutional mechanism— Central and State Pollution Control Board, Coastal Zone Management Authority, EAC and Biodiversity Authority—created under EPC have not done much to safeguard India’s environment. Some of them are corrupt to the core and would gladly go by the false and fabricated reports and EIAs furnished by project proponents instead of investigating and ascertaining the truth before granting approvals. National Green Tribunals were established to deliver ‘environmental justice’. Being packed with retired judges, these tribunals are nothing more than extended civil courts with all the suffocating processes, procedures and delays. Selection of these judges being sinecure-based, there is commitment neither to environment nor justice. While so, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally linked ‘development’ with ‘governance’, the MoEF moved fast and setup a High Level Committee (HLC) to suggest a development-oriented environmental governance. ToR of this Committee were: (i) To assess the status of implementation of each of the environment-related acts vis-Ă -vis

12

gfiles inside the government

vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

the objectives; (ii) to examine and take into account various court orders and judicial pronouncements relating to these Acts; LLL WR UHFRPPHQG VSHFLÂżF DPHQGments needed in each of these Acts so as to bring them in line with current requirements to meet objectives; and (iv) to draft proposed amendments in each of the aforesaid Acts to give effect to the proposed recommendations.

S

INCE the future environmental regime is likely to be based on this report, it bears some scrutiny. To begin with, the committee was on a tight leash with just two months to submit the report, later extended by another month. The HLC buckled and went about its business in an abrupt and opaque manner, adopting a sham of a public/expert consultation process. This does not augur well for environmental sustainability. Though the Preamble makes WKH ULJKW SRQWLÂżFDWLRQV DQG FRQWDLQV quotes from the Upanishads on nature and conservation, the report exposes a mix-up between sustainable management of natural resources

On the approval process, the committee has shown duplicity. On the one hand, it doubts the integrity of the consultants who prepare the EIAs/reports for the project proponents‌on the other, it suggests adoption of the concept of uberrima fides, putting absolute faith in EIAs prepared by these very consultants

and the speed of the environmental approval process. The committee fails to properly define a forest. However, its recommendation to encourage nonforest, non-government landholders to engage in forestation on land owned by them by not treating them as ‘forest’ under the present definition of the Act is commendable. This could facilitate tree plantation on large tracts of land which is otherwise left fallow. But HLC’s move for faster and higher rates of diversion of forest land, including the country’s dense forests, is out of sync with the need for greening a fast browning India. This could only help whales like Vedanta to ‘develop’ 20 per cent of India’s prime forests into mining pay-dirt within months! Wildlife fares no better and the HLC report is sketchy, piecemeal and replete with factual inaccuracies. There is hardly any mention of impact of destructive projects on forests, communities and wildlife. The HLC’s ‘development agenda’ is revealed in its recommendation on the new institutional framework and approval process. National and State Environment Management Authority (NEMA/SEMA) are suggested as professional ‘pivotal authorities’ to pro-

www.gfilesindia.com

cess/clear/monitor Category A and B projects, respectively. This is a good initiative. But what is bad is that the HLC wants these authorities to function like robots and prescribe siteVSHFLÂżF 7R5 IRU (,$ LQ GD\V IDLOing which the proponent will use the generic model ToR. This will be sweet music to most project proponents who freely fudge and fabricate EIA without fear of any challenge. NEMA gets just two months to recommend approval or rejection. “Engines of the nation’s growthâ€?—linear projects, projects of strategic importance and power/mining projects—are put on a separate, faster track. They can denude any forest, guzzle any quantity of water and poison any river or coast. On the approval process, the committee has shown duplicity. On the one hand, it doubts the integrity of the consultants who prepare the EIAs/ reports for the project proponents and admit that they make “little effort to assess damage to environment; there is no prescription for environmental reconstruction and there is no costing imposed for environmental degradation and subsequent reconstruction programmesâ€?! On the other, it suggests adoption of the concept of uberrima fides, putting absolute faith

www.indianbuzz.com

in EIAs prepared by these very consultants and submitted by the project proponents on the basis of a declaration that “the facts stated are true and that no information that would be relevant to the clearance has been concealed or suppressed�. The suggestion of the HLC to counter manufactured/manipulated data/ EIA is amateurish: “If at any time after the application is received—even after the project takes off—it is discovered that the proponent had, in fact, concealed some vital information, or had given wrong information, or that the certificates issued by the experts suffer from similar defects, severe consequences will follow under the new law; and they include heavy fine, penalties, including imprisonment, and revocation of the clearance, and in serious cases, arrest of the polluter�. This is ‘latching the stable after the horse has bolted’ and can lead to irrevocable destruction of natural resources without any remedial possibility. What is the point in arrests, fines, etc, after that? In any case, who is to ‘discover’ the concealment and how long will it take? The snail-pace bureaucratic and judicial process will see to it that these fraudsters go scotfree, ‘laughing all the way to the bank.’ This is a self-conflicting recommendation, obviously made under duress!

T

HE committee concedes that a staggering 99.1 per cent of projects applied for get approval, most of them based on wrong or altered data provided by the project proponents. Yet it wants NEMA/ SEMA to adopt the concept of ‘utmost good faith’ in these ‘investors’ for fasttracking of major projects. The combined impact of ‘institutional hustling’ and uberrima fides can severely dent the integrity of environmental governance and the approval process,

throwing India’s natural resources at the mercy of buccaneers who propose massive industrial/infrastructure projects with ‘wrong or altered data’. Another fast-track recommendation is “Mandatory provision of voluntary disclosure�, a web-based, technologically assisted platform for monitoring that requires minimal need for site visits. This is a mechanical process bereft of any human participation. There is no accountability for failing to address impact on either ecology or people. The only place where the committee mentions accountability is for the speed of clearance, failing which the chairperson of NEMA/SEMA would be held accountable. Populations affected by climate change and destruction of environment are not properly addressed by the committee. The tech-savvy HLC, while recommending several institutional, procedural and monitoring measures to fast-track ‘development’, has shown aversion to ‘environmental democracy’, which is most critical for conservation of natural resources and sustainability of environment. The committee does not seem to want people’s voices in the environmental decision-making process and recommends dilution of public consultations in most projects. This is unfortunate. Enacting an omnibus law for environmental governance in the 21st century, incorporating the committee’s tailor-made recommendations, could compromise democracy, public health and safety, forests, trees, rivers, ocean, wildlife, fish, wetland and coastline. This would amount to “short-term thinking on environment and narrow monetary motivations� of the 19th century. In the event, future generations should be prepared to eat money and digest it too! g The writer is a former Army and IAS officer. Email: deva1940@gmail.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

13

BIG BOSS

ashok lavasa secretary, moefcc

‘Environment is not only about project clearances’ Ashok Lavasa, a 1980-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, is an MPhil in defence studies, also holds an MBA and is currently Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. He has immense administrative experience in the Ministries of Civil Aviation, Power, Home Affairs, and the Department of Economic Affairs in the central government and in Haryana where he began as SDO, Mahendragarh, and has served as Principal Secretary, Department of Power, and Chairman, Haryana Power Generation Corporation. He is an ace photographer and uses his photographs for New Year greeting cards and calendars. He swims, plays tennis and cricket and is an ardent trekker. He has trekked to almost every nook and corner of the Himalaya. A fan of yesteryear singer KL Saigal, he is innovative and, apart from administration, has worked in areas that require a great degree of research and analysis of experience as well as collation of evidence. Lavasa has also authored An Uncivil Servant, published by Rupa. He spoke to gfiles Editor Anil Tyagi on issues of environment, forests and climate change in India.

14

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

There is a debate going on that ernment is giving short this government shrift to o environmental concerns while sanctioning diff ferent projects that had been blocked by the UPA regime. It seems you are determined to welcome e everybody, keeping environmental mental issues aside... There are various norms prescribed under the Environment n Act, the Indian Forest Protection Act and the he Forest Conservation Act. e, the industries and projects Therefore, being set up are required to take certain mitigation gation measures to ensure that they comply with all the regulations for environment protection. So, there is a regime under which they come and seek approvals of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for forest clearance, wildlife clearance, coastal zone regulation clearance and environment clearance. Unfortunately, for the past several years, this side of the functioning of the Ministry has been given undue exposure. The MoEFCC is also doing a lot of work in other fields of environment, for example, biodiversity, climate change, the tiger conservation project, the elephant conservation scheme and many schemes being implemented for the protection of

www.gfilesindia.com

biodiversity and the fauna and flora of the country and carrying out many research and development activities, environment education and awareness-building programmes. So, to my mind, those constitute an integral part of the functioning of the MoEFCC. But, as I said, in the last few years the functioning of the ministry regarding sanctioning of projects has received a lot of attention. According to my understanding, this has happened because of the time taken by the ministry in the past to approve these projects, or to decline. What we have been attempting to do is that without diluting any regulations, or without compromising with any

www.indianbuzz.com

legal requirement, we make the procedure transparent so that it reduces discussion and minimises the scope of arbitrary decisionmaking. Our effort is to make the procedures a little simpler and straightforward, so that there is not a very complicated mechanism by which people have to fulfil their requirements. The idea is that, through these transparent procedures, we create a predictable environment so that a person knows if he takes all the steps, he can hope to get a clearance, or he is told very clearly that this is the case in which you will not get any clearance. It is said that we are the most polluted country in the world.

Don’t you think we are lagging much behind, as far as environment is concerned, in the world? Well, I don’t know what is the yardstick by which one reaches the conclusion that India is the most polluted country in the world. I have certainly not come across any global index where India can be categorised as the most polluted. Having said that, nobody can undermine the importance of giving due attention to all measures required to protect the environment. For example, India is a land of rich biodiversity; a land in which the forest cover at present is only 23-24 per cent, which includes the tree cover outside forest areas. We

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

15

BIG BOSS

ashok lavasa secretary, moefcc

want to increase it to 33 per cent as far as the National Forest Policy is concerned. So this will require a major effort to bring more and more areas under afforestation programmes. But it seems we are going on an acquisition spree—acquiring forest land for industrialisation and for big cities? You are talking about utilisation of forest land for non-forest purposes. See, if coal deposits and various other minerals of the country are found in areas which are also a forest, then, as a nation, a decision has to be taken whether we can live without utilising those minerals, or can we, through a rational process and a process of scientific mining, minimise the damage to the forest and exploit those minerals for the economic well-being of the country. It is for this reason that the scheme of compensatory afforestation was started. Under this scheme, if you are diverting, let’s say, 100 hectares of forest land for non-forest purposes, you have to do plantation in an equivalent area of land. But this is not being done! The MoEFCC in 2005 stated that land acquisition of 100 hectares or more needed permission. But that is being stopped and under pressure of builder lobby, it is not being implemented! No, it is. I am talking about this policy wherein if anybody wants to divert forest land for non-forest purpose, then he cannot get a forest clearance unless he purchases an equivalent amount of non-forest land and transfers that land to the forest department for growing green cover. That is one part. The second part is that he also has to deposit the cost of carrying out the compensatory afforestation. So, the money required to plant trees on that land and to maintain that land till the trees grow, has to be deposited by

16

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

the project proponent. In addition, there is a concept of net present value (NPV) of the forest cover, which is lost because the belief is that when you remove a forest, you also remove biodiversity from that area which is very difficult to compensate. It is because of this that the concept of NPV was introduced. There is a formula by which the NPV lost is calculated and the project proponent is expected to deposit that NPV also in the kitty. Just to give you an idea, so far about `38,000 crore has been deposited under this compensatory afforestation scheme. This amount is lying in a deposit and the scheme is currently being operated under the supervision

In the last few years the functioning of the ministry regarding sanctioning of projects has received a lot of attention. According to my understanding, this has happened because of the time which has been taken by the ministry in the past to approve or reject these projects of the Supreme Court. It is the effort of the government to obtain the necessary permission of the Supreme Court so that 90 per cent of the amount is transferred to the states to undertake compensatory afforestation. This, according to us, will go a long way in increasing the green cover in the states. Let us talk about urbanisation. Nearly 27 per cent Indians live in urban areas and we have 3,245 towns and cities. But only 21 towns have sewerage and

other amenities. We are today focusing on the development of big cities, acquiring land and giving permissions, rather than improving the municipal conditions of the existing towns. Why this contradiction? The ways in which urbanisation takes place and drivers of urban growth operate are multifarious. Why is it that people come towards big cities? Why is infrastructure developed in these big cities? There are various factors which are being taken into account. I think the challenge of urbanisation is whether we can provide adequate infrastructure, clean water, clean air, electricity and basic amenities required for decent living. Also, I think, in times to come, a big challenge will be to ensure energy-efficient growth. Can we do that? Because, if you go by some reports on the future urban growth of India, about 70 per cent of the buildings in towns are yet to be constructed. So, if we are looking at such major construction in urban areas, then we have to make sure that these buildings are constructed

www.gfilesindia.com

in an energy-efficient way—they use energy to optimum capacity, use materials which are environmentfriendly, comply with the energyefficiency building code and energy conservation building code. But why the focus on new towns and new cities, as the existing cities are deprived of these energy-efficient facilities? Why are we not able to provide these facilities to these cities? Let’s take the example of providing water supply to urban areas. How to do that is under the concerned state. Thus, the MoEFCC is propagating and requesting the state governments and their ministries of urban development to promote dual piping system in urban areas. We should focus a lot on recycling water. We have already asked the industries to move towards zeroliquid discharge. It means that those industries discharging their effluents in public sewers should actually recycle the water and use it for their industrial use; what cannot be used can be shared with other industries; and what cannot be shared with other industries

www.indianbuzz.com

can be used for greening their internal premises. So, if you move towards the zero liquid discharge, then you are conserving a lot of freshwater in urban areas and, at the same time, reducing the pollution load on your public sewer system. We know that many sewer systems in the cities are contributing to pollution in the rivers. So, if you reduce and check the pollution load being transferred to the public system, it will help in reducing environmental degradation in a big way. What is your focus regarding urbanisation? Urbanisation basically is in the domain of the Ministry of Urban Development and the state governments. As far as the MoEFCC is concerned, we are focusing on recycling of water, solid waste management, biomedical waste management rules, e-waste management rules and hazardous waste management rules. We feel that if our cities have to be smart and environment-friendly, then it is very important for us to tackle the waste management part. It is with this view that all the rules related to

waste management—hazardous waste management, e-waste management, plastic waste management, biomedical waste management, solid-waste management—have been amended. We are now in the process of putting all the proposed amendments in the public domain for wider consultation, after which we will bring about rules to ensure the responsibility of the municipal authorities. These will also involve those people who are producing this waste. Air and water pollution are two major issues in India today. But on these issues, the policies are contradictory. Basically, the government is not consistent in its approach to address these important issues. What are your views on this? As far as air pollution is concerned, I agree that the quality of air in various cities in our country has deteriorated. There are two MoEFCC initiatives that I would like to talk about. One, sometime back a comprehensive environment pollution index was created for identifying the areas where the cumulative load of pollution— whether in air, water or any other area—is such that further development in these areas might worsen the situation. In 43 regions in the country, the ministry declared that the comprehensive environment pollution index has crossed the tolerance level. Therefore, no further environment clearance will be provided there till mitigation measures are taken, the situation is reviewed and it falls below the tolerance level. With regards to air pollution, there are three to four things. I will not agree with the proposition that because automobiles lead to pollution, we should stop manufacturing automobiles. But there is certainly a case for us to move to Bharat IV, Bharat V, that is Euro IV, Euro V

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

17

BIG BOSS

ashok lavasa secretary, moefcc

and eventually to Euro VI. The order of the National Green Tribunal is about restricting the use of vehicles that are 15 years and older in Delhi. It is not as if Delhi is the only city in the world where such restrictions are imposed. There are many other countries and cities where similar restrictions have been imposed. But, having said that, I come back to the point that the solution eventually lies with the automobile and the petroleum sectors. It is for the petroleum sector to manufacture fuel which is relatively environment-friendly. The automobile sector should do the reengineering required to make engines which use this fuel and contribute less to the pollution load. This is something which is done by the Indian car manufacturers for cars they export. So, it is not something which is not do-able. It will require some investment and effort. While we maintain our growth in automobiles and urbanisation— which, according to the forces of economics, is an imperative for growth—it is possible for us to contain the damage. If you advance the compliance year for Euro VI, the automobile sector should also keep pace with that. The MoEFCC has recommended that the timetable should be advanced. The second thing, particularly about Delhi, is the traffic which comes to Delhi but it is not meant for Delhi. A lot of movement of traffic from north to south and vice-versa takes place via Delhi. We recently had a meeting with the state governments and the concerned authorities and impressed upon them the need to expedite the construction of the western peripheral expressway—from Kundli to Manesar to Palwal—and the eastern peripheral expressway— which completes the other parts from

18

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

Palwal through Uttar Pradesh. The work on this expressway of 270 km is also being monitored by the Supreme Court. Once this expressway is complete, many vehicles will not come and contribute to the pollution of Delhi. But, in Delhi there is one more thing about which the state government of Delhi has to do something. In Delhi, we find, there is a lot of organic waste which is being burnt. This issue is also connected to other states... in Punjab, Haryana and western UP, people burn their agricultural residue... That is another issue, the agriculture residue, the stubble which is burnt. What I was talking about was the burning of leaves in Delhi. The city needs a scientific and wellmanaged disposal system for leaves. Unfortunately, leaves are being treated as waste; they are not waste, actually these leaves produce manure. There has to be a localised system by

which these leaves are gathered and put in compost pits in various localities wherever open areas are available. This is something which the local administration has to focus on. Apart from this, in many parts of Delhi, even today people are burning wood or organic matter for cooking purposes. This also contributes to pollution. Measures on this are to be taken by the Delhi government. Stubble burning in the adjoining areas of Delhi, which you are talking about, also contributes to the pollution. But it is a problem across the country, in Madhya Pradesh, in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and so on... The MoEFCC has been issuing various advisories on this to the state governments. Recently, on January 8 and 9, we conducted a workshop in Chandigarh for north Indian states because the problem is perhaps a little more pronounced in North

www.gfilesindia.com

India. We requested the chief minister of Punjab to come and address the seminar and we were happy that he announced various measures to stop stubble burning. Some of these measures are scientific—how to collect the stubble from the fields and, once it is collected, how to convert this stubble to another form of energy which can be used. Some incentives were also announced. For example, he announced that a district, where in the next season no stubble is burnt, will be given a development grant of `1 crore under the discretionary power of the chief minister. Similarly, he announced developmental grants to panchayats. Wherever states have taken effective stern measures, there has been a positive impact. For example in Haryana, for a couple of years the agricultural department and the district administration strictly enforced that there will be no stubble burning. Those years the level of pollution went down substantially. We have taken another step on stubble burning. We have requested ISRO to give us satellite maps of incidence of burning. We are providing these maps to the states as evidence and telling them this is the extent of the problem taking place in your state and we expect you to take measures in this regard. We have called an All India Conference of Environment and Forest Ministers on April 6 and 7, and this is one of the important issues we will be discussing. Degradation of land is yet another issue. Of the 266 mha with the potential for production, 85 mha suffer from varying degrees of soil degradation. So, one concern is how to include more land for cultivation and the other is how to save land from degradation like in the coastal areas, the

www.indianbuzz.com

riverbeds and the canal beds. In Madhya Pradesh, for example, the rivers are changing course. As a result, entire villages are being affected. So, what is the strategy for this? Let me come to rivers first. We have, in the ministry, been keeping this problem in view. Of course, rivers do keep changing their course. From ancient times, you have the concept of Burdi and Barmadi in revenue terminology, this concept of land being lost under water and land recovered from water when the water recedes. This is a well-known phenomenon but we are concerned about two things. One is the unscientific way in which sand

About `38,000 crore has been deposited under the compensatory afforestation scheme. This amount is lying in a deposit and the scheme is currently being operated under the supervision of the Supreme Court mining is being done on riverbeds and, two, the way in which the floodplains of the river are regulated. So, what we have done in the ministry in the last few months, we have drafted a River Zone Regulation and we will be soon be putting it in the public domain for wider consultation. All enforcement will, of course, have to be done by state governments. You talked about making degraded land fit for agriculture and revitalising it through afforestation. That is strictly not in the domain of MoEFCC but, yes, using degraded land for afforestation purposes is certainly in the domain of the ministry. We have

a provision that some degraded land can be given to project proponents for doing compensatory afforestation. So, wherever there are big GOI projects, we have made a provision that they can take up degraded forest land for afforestation. We are also working on a policy where we will like to involve the private sector in undertaking afforestation in degraded land. ... this land will be given free... That’s right, the ownership is not transferred. The land can be given for afforestation and management purposes for a limited period of time till the trees are matured and they can be harvested but we are also bringing about a policy which will encourage people to grow trees on private land and harvest that produce. In fact, we had a presentation on the draft approach by which we can a) create a mechanism in the country where people are encouraged to undertake afforestation on their own land and get the benefit of the timber they produce and b) creating a market mechanism in which you promote the concept of pre-credit from the bank or any investor for afforestation purposes. So just to give you an example, suppose I undertake afforestation in 10 hectares of land and you are setting up an industry somewhere which involves diversion of forest land and therefore you are required to do compensatory afforestation. So you want to buy five hectares of forested land, you can buy it from me. What it will do is, it will create an economic opportunity for entrepreneurs to grow trees and realise the economic or market value of those trees from people who want to buy them. Who are more polluting in the world? Rich or poor? (Laughs) I think when Mrs Indira Gandhi was addressing the Stockholm Convention, she had

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

19

BIG BOSS

ashok lavasa secretary, moefcc

said that poverty is the biggest polluter. To expect poor people to have concern for environment is expecting too much. But, equally, it is a fact that the principle which we have to promote and enforce is that the polluter has to pay. So, you cannot transfer the burden of environment protection from the rich to the poor. Those people who are exploiting the elements of nature by use of technology have to compensate and they have to take all the required mitigation measures. At the same time, you have to improve the living conditions of the poor so that they are not compelled to disregard nature. I think it’s a very fine balancing act which is required to be done. Even in international fora, India has been saying that you should distinguish between livelihood emissions and lifestyle consumption. Globally, our pollution levels are below China’s and much below the US. The latter is preaching all the time that developing countries are the biggest polluters in the world. Isn’t there an inconsistency in this, especially given the fact their population is only 30 crore and we are 120 crore? There is a reason why there is a debate on climate change and the responsibilities of various countries in checking emissions. India has been consistently taking the position that while it is a common responsibility of all the countries to bring down CO2 emissions, there is also the concept of differentiated responsibility. So we have been saying, you have to work on the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. As you rightly said, countries like India are developing and have such a huge population and are facing a huge deficit on development indicators, water supply, education, healthcare, connectivity, electricity, these are all parameters of

20

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

development in which India is highly deficit. As a democracy, it is a responsibility of the government to fulfil the aspirations of the people. So, while we fulfil these aspirations, the economic models which are available before us today and historically are such which will lead to CO2 emissions. This is what the world has done so far but India’s case is that we don’t have to follow that path. Are you saying population density is not an issue... No, pollution is an issue but that population has also legitimate demands like if there are people in our country who require drinking water, isn’t it the responsibility of the government to provide drinking water. If there are 300 million people who don’t have access to electricity,

isn’t it the responsibility of the government to take energy to their doorsteps. So, what I am saying is and this is what China has also said in the agreement with the US that their emissions will continue till 2030; for the next 15 years, they will continue with the current path of development and in this process, their emissions will grow, but they agree they will peak in 2030. Similarly, India is a developing country and we also have a huge population to cater to. We will instal power plants, we will undertake infrastructure development, we will build roads, we will have pipelines from here to there. All this means that energy consumption will have to grow. Today, India’s average electricity consumption is less than 1,000 units per capita per year. We

www.gfilesindia.com

are below China, we are 33 per cent of the world’s average. We cannot even compare ourselves with the developed countries where energy consumption is 14,000 units per capita. But if we have to reach even the world average, we would need to increase energy consumption by three times at least. Where will this energy come from? What is the biggest resource available to the country—coal, water, a little bit of gas. Every country does its planning, depending on the resources it has. However, one cannot say we will continue to pollute and adopt the worst technologies in the world. For example, in power generation, we have moved from the earlier sub-critical to super-critical technology. Now the plants are more efficient. CO2 emissions are much lower

than in the conventional sub-critical units. Similarly, we are moving towards renewable energy. A target of 1,60,000 MW has been announced—1 lakh MW of solar and 60,000 MW of wind. This is a huge target and a very bold statement made by India; this is the level of our ambition where shifting to renewable energy is concerned. Reports suggest that coastal guidelines are not being followed and flora and fauna of coastal regions is in danger. Why is the MoEFCC not doing anything? All coastal states have coastal zonal management authorities and enforcement of regulations is done by them. As far as the regulations are concerned, these were notified last in 2011. We received feedback that many of these regulations imposed

unreasonable restrictions in these areas. The government then appointed a committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Earth Sciences, Dr Shailesh Naik. The committee has submitted its report to the ministry and has suggested rationalisation of coastal regulation zones. It has also suggested some provisions that need to be incorporated. MoEFCC is studying the report and very soon we will be taking action to amend the coastal zonal regulations.

In times to come, a big challenge will be to ensure energy-efficient growth. Can we do that? Because, if you go by some reports on the future urban growth of India, about 70 per cent of the buildings in towns are yet to be constructed Andhra Pradesh is planning to build a new capital near Guntur. Have they taken permission from the environment ministry? Under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, the building activity in urban areas and the town planning activities in urban areas has been entrusted to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). There are regulations, 8, 8A and 8B, under which these approvals are accorded. So far, no cases of violation have been reported. We are depending on the Pollution Control Boards (PCBs) of the states, which monitor these activities, and our 10 regional offices, which are charged with the responsibility of monitoring and reporting to us if there are violations.

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

21

BIG BOSS

ashok lavasa secretary, moefcc

It is said that PCBs are the most polluted institutions in India. Had they been vigilant and taken stern action in time, the scenario would have been different... (Laughs) I think it would be unfair to paint all PCBs with the same brush. I do admit that there is a lot of scope for improvement in many of these PCBs. But, having said that, about 10 or 11 PCBs now have an online system of approvals. They also have a vigilant monitoring mechanism. But they do have a constraint, they are agencies of the state government and sometimes they are persuaded to act in the overall interest of the state. But, since PCBs are statutory bodies, they have to discharge their responsibility.

We have to move towards a regulatory mechanism which is based on technology. We have to move towards a system which is based on voluntary compliance, a system in which there are third-party audit agencies The point I want to make is that we have to make our environment regulation regime technology-based and transparent, so that the element of discussion is minimised. It is only then that we will have a fair climate in which business is transacted in PCBs. At the same time, you cannot expect only the State to be conscious about environment. It is also the responsibility of the citizens, industry and infrastructure developers to comply with all the regulations of the government. Groundwater pollution is going

22

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

to be a major challenge in the coming decade. How will the government cope with this problem? There are two issues concerning groundwater, the depletion of groundwater and the quality of groundwater. As far as the contamination of groundwater is concerned, there are regulations to ensure that nobody is allowed to inject a pollutant into the earth which affects the quality of groundwater. As for the depletion in the water table, it is a reality in many parts of the country, specially where irrigation is dependent on groundwater. A classification is done for all the blocks in the country where you classify the blocks as dark or grey, depending on the quantum of water which has been drawn from these areas and where the water table has receded. When you declare a block as dark, financing of all activities which draw water from the ground is stopped. States have to put in place a mechanism by which they can prevent

people from illegally drawing water from the ground in those areas. You have spoken about raising awareness among people about environment and use of technology. This calls for reorientation of institutions that will implement and monitor this. Your views. Creating awareness and consciousness is probably one of the most important points about environment. It is because of this that the ministry has a network of institutions. We collaborate with many institutions, some of whom have been declared as centres of excellence by the ministry. Then there are network institutions which help us in doing research and development activities. There are centres of excellence which have developed educational material for us. Some centres of excellence develop curricula, spread awareness about environment protection, prepare literature on the sacred groves of India and do similar activities. We oper-

www.gfilesindia.com

ate the network of these institutions. Apart from this, the ministry itself has many institutions, like the Indian Council of Forest Research And Education which has a network of about 10-11 institutions doing research in various areas. Another issue is of reduction of genetic diversity, like in the case of the Asiatic lion. Protected areas are only isolating populations. What are your views on this? India is one of the few countries in the world which have a biodiversity act. We have constituted biodiversity authorities in all states and biodiversity management committees at the lower administrative levels. These will work like a joint forest management committee. We are hoping that these committees will be set up in most states where there are biodiversity hotspots. India has given rise to many success stories, like increase in tiger population, bringing vultures back from the verge of extinction

www.indianbuzz.com

and awareness about whale-sharks in Gujarat and Amur falcons in the North-East. We have success stories regarding many species. Where do you see India moving on environment issues in future? Increasingly we are going to be more aware about new issues of environment. This will lead to new regulations. For example, till about 20 years ago, people were not bothered about air pollution, were not conscious about ozone depletion and not conscious about CO2 emissions. In fact, even today CO2 emissions are not a parameter of pollution; it is a greenhouse gas but it is not a cause of pollution. So, we are becoming more conscious about new factors affecting the environment, human health and life. As there is more awareness, new regulations will come, calling for more enforcement. It cannot be anybody’s case that for enforcing all these regulations, you need an army of government servants. It is unviable. So, I

think, we have to move towards a regulatory mechanism which is based on technology. We have to move towards a system which is based on voluntary compliance, a system in which there are third-party audit agencies. I think compliance is a weak link so far in this environment management game. We need to strengthen the enforcement mechanism to the extent possible. People are saying that we have more immediate issues of providing food for all, housing, power, roads and education; environment issues can wait. Why can India not tell the world to wait and have patience, we will manage our environment, don’t force us. Why have we become so conscious to implement world agenda? It is not world agenda, it is your own agenda. Our priorities are to save our existing generation from the ill-effects of the environmental degradation and to ensure that future generations don’t inherit a damaged environment. Our concern is for both, our existing generation and the future generations. We are not driven so much by the world agenda. Every conscious government has to take a call that it cannot follow a path leading to harmful effects in the long run. Suppose there is a coal mine and if the government and the coal management are aware that the way in which the coal is being mined is harmful for environment and the people working there, can they take a call that let’s produce maximum amount of coal for 10 years, let people suffer, and after 10 years when the country has a lot of coal, we will address the issues of scientific mining? I don’t think it is possible for a system to make a choice where willingly it is taking the risk of damaging its environment. g Transcribed by Kanika Srivastava

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

23

GOVERNANCE

AR

UN A

e-commerce erce regulations

e-retailers flouting law While foreigners can invest in the B2B segment of the chain, they cannot enter the B2C one. Clearly, e-retailers, who have attracted FDI, cannot sell directly to the final consumers by ALI RIAZ

A

MAZON, the US online retail giant, has admitted that there are huge question marks over its Indian operations. In a recent filing with the American stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission, it said that its activities in India could flout existing or future laws, or their interpretations, by government officials. The business “could be subject to fines and other financial penalties, have licenses revoked, or be forced to shut down entirely”. Such a confession lends credence to the charges against e-retailers, present in India that they operate in the grey areas of the existing laws. The

24

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

major allegation against them is that they publicly and openly act in a manner that is against the letter and spirit of the FDI (foreign direct investment) norms. In fact, the tax authorities and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have initiated action against Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. As per law, FDI is partially allowed in e-retail. While foreigners can invest in the B2B segment of the chain, they cannot enter the B2C one. Clearly, e-retailers, who have attracted FDI, cannot sell directly to the final consumers. They can only operate in that part of the distribution chain which is akin to the wholesale part of the brickand-mortar retail. Foreign online retailers can trade in bulk orders, but

cannot sell individual products to the retail customer. Under the April 2014 guidelines, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in e-commerce, but subject to certain restrictions. The rules read: “E-commerce activities refer to the activity of buying and selling by a company through the e-commerce platform. Such companies would engage only in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce and not in retail trading, inter alia, implying that existing restrictions on FDI in domestic trading would be applicable to e-commerce as well.” However, there is no denying the fact that Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal sell to retail customers. Most of the consumers order products

www.gfilesindia.com

on the online platforms, receive them through couriers in a packed condition, and pay cash on delivery of the items. When they have complaints, or wish to return the purchased items within 30 days, they connect with the 24x7 toll-free numbers. They can also track their orders on the e-platforms. Another truth is that foreigners have invested huge amounts in e-commerce players in the country. Recently, Amazon announced it wishes to pump in $2 billion over the next few years in www.amazon.in. Last year, Flipkart received over a billion dollars from global investors. Recently, Chinese online retailer Alibaba’s attempt to snap up Snapdeal fell through. The deal to buy a small stake was estimated at $500700 million, and valued Snapdeal at $4-5 billion. How do these companies zigzag around the curbs on FDI in B2C e-commerce? What are the issues red-flagged by the Indian investigating agencies against several online retailers? Business models Globally, e-retailers follow two operational models. The first is the marketplace model, where the online platform neither stores products at its warehouses nor maintains an inventory. It merely brings the buyer and seller together, and facilitates the deal. The second is the inventory model, where the e-retailer maintains an inventory and owns warehouses. Amazon pursues both these models and even manages hybrid ones that combine both. In India, the foreign e-retailers and those who have attracted FDI insist that they follow the marketplace model. They are, therefore, in the B2B space and bring the buyers and sellers together. They claim that they

www.indianbuzz.com

manage and run websites that provide online marketplaces to aid the transactions. The sellers place the orders online, but the inventory of the products is maintained by the buyers, who advertise their items on the websites, and supply them offline. A recent PriceWaterhouseCoopersAssocham study on the evolution of e-commerce in India said, “Most e-retailers have started practicing the marketplace business model with suppliers storing on their behalf and delivering as per the requirement and thus falling under the B2B category.” This is the reason, contend the retailers, why they incur huge losses.

The operations of the e-retailers are akin to what happened in the brick-andmortar retail sector. At a time when FDI was only allowed in back-end organised retail, and not in front-end, the US-based Walmart exploited loopholes in the law Information on www.trak.in shows the extent of the huge losses of the three top e-retailers in India— Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal—in 2013-14. Flipkart earned revenues of `179 crore against a loss of `400 crore, Amazon `169 crore against `321 crore, and Snapdeal `154 crore against `265 crore. To put it in perspective, the loss-to-sales ratio for the three companies was 2.23, 1.90 and 1.72, respectively. Revenues in these cases are not the total of the prices of the products sold, but a fraction that is shared by the buyers. They also include the listing fees that buyers pay the retailers to advertise their products on the online platforms.

Loopholes galore However, Amazon publicly admits that it is more than an online platform. Its website says that it provides “certain marketing tools and logistics services to third-party sellers to enable them to sell online and deliver to customers”. The retailer believes that these activities comply with Indian laws. But, recently, it said that these business structures may “involve unique risks” and may be considered by law enforcement agencies to be skirting the laws.

T

HE logistics of e-retail comprise three critical processes—Pick, Pack and Ship. Since people order 1-2 products, millions of items need to be individually picked from the various warehouses, whether owned by the sellers or e-retailers. Each product has to be packed and the packing depends on the item ordered. Finally, it has to be shipped efficiently and quickly, since most online retailers offer delivery within 24 hours for most of the products. Logically, one can assume that if the e-retailer directly participates in any or all of the three processes, it becomes a part of the overall distribution chain. Hence, in such cases it can be construed that it operates in the B2C segment and not in the B2B one, or as a marketplace facilitator. In India, there are several ways in which this happens. The most important is in shipping, or the last-mile delivery. The final courier-based delivery is critical to woo customers. As the PwC study said, “Logistics in developing economies such as India may act as the biggest barrier to the growth of the e-commerce industry. Till date, logistics models developed in India target the metropolitan and the tier-I cities where there is a mix of affluent and middle classes and

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

25

GOVERNANCE

e-commerce regulations

the Internet penetration is adequate. In India, about 90 per cent of the goods are being ordered online and are moved by air, which increases the delivery costs for the e-retailers.” Indian e-retailers, who were earlier “dependent on third-party delivery firms”, changed their strategy. Issues specific to e-retailing, such as the “problems associated with fake addresses, cash-on-delivery, and higher expected return rates have made e-retailers consider setting up their captive intensive logistics businesses,” said the report. However, this has pushed up costs; captive models are 10-20 per cent more expensive than outsourced parties. “Facing difficulties... it (Flipkart) has started its own logistics arm named e-Kart. E-Kart provides a robust back-end support... and ensures timely deliveries. To achieve economies of scale, recently e-Kart started providing back-end support to other e-retailers,” said the PwC report. It added that Amazon India has set up a logistics arm named Amazon Logistics and started offering

26

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

There is no denying the fact that Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal sell to retail customers. Most of the consumers order products on the online platforms, receive them through couriers in a packed condition, and pay cash on delivery of the items same-day delivery. Aren’t these violations of the FDI rules in B2C? E-shenanigans Investigating agencies contend that e-retailers find novel ways to e-manipulate—and openly flout— the existing laws. For example, until 2013, Flipkart owned several warehouses even as it received foreign investment. This was barred under the FDI guidelines. This was an open secret. The PwC study mentioned that the company “started with a consign-

ment model where goods were procured on demand and turned into inventory e-retailer supported by registered suppliers....”

I

T added that “Flipkart established warehouses in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata, managing a fine balance between inventory and cost of delivery goods”. It was only after the ED initiated action against the firm and issued a showcause notice that the warehouses were either closed or sold to other firms. However, the new ownership of the warehouses is not clear and ED officials allege Flipkart exerts ‘significant influence’ over their management. One of the reasons that the ED doesn’t believe Flipkart’s assertions is that until recently the latter owned WS Retail, which acted as the frontend of the retail chain and interacted directly with the customers. However, to skirt around the FDI rules, the group company that received foreign investment was its B2B arm, Flipkart Online Services, which managed the online platform. This was an

www.gfilesindia.com

ownership structure created to fool the law enforcement agencies. Another grey area in the business is the role played by, what the e-retailers dub, the distribution centres and fulfilment centres. Amazon has several of the latter in the metros and others claim to manage distribution centres. A few experts feel that these centres act as part-warehouses and part-inventory management tools. Although they don’t pro-actively stock products, these are the places where items are bunched together before being couriered to the buyers. The centres act as regional and local hubs for the last-mile distribution in a specific geography. For example, the distribution centre in Delhi may cater to consumers in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The fulfilment centres also act as after-sales service points to ensure customer satisfaction. Therefore, they fulfil the core of marketing activities in modern jargon—customer happiness. Commissions & omissions The size of the e-retail business in the country is estimated at $6 billion in 2015. It is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 40-50 per cent until 2020. Of all the products sold online, electronics comprise 34 per cent, apparel and accessories 30 per cent, books 15 per cent, and beauty and personal care 10 per cent. Despite the decent size of the market, how come Amazon and Flipkart earn meagre annual revenues of `169 crore and `179 crore, respectively? Both the figures are less than $30 million each! As mentioned earlier, what the e-retailers show in their books are not the gross values of the sold merchandise, but only the commissions that they receive from the sellers. These entries are meant to convince

www.indianbuzz.com

the lawmakers that they don’t operate in the B2C segments, but receive fees to facilitate deals between buyers and sellers. However, the income tax department feels that in such cases, the e-retailers act as ‘commission agents’ and form a part of the distribution chain. Tax officials in Karnataka have put more spanners in the wheels of e-commerce. They allege that the e-retailers’ distribution and fulfilment centres actually act as warehouses and storehouses. They feel that most e-retailers store thousands of products at these centres even before they have received

Amazon publicly admits that it is more than an online platform. Its website says that it provides “certain marketing tools and logistics services to thirdparty sellers to enable them to sell online and deliver to customers” orders from the customers. In fact, experts contend that three-fourths of Amazon’s annual sales come from pre-stored or inventoried items. When senior managers of e-retailers talk to the media and at seminars, they boast that their logistics systems, coupled with advanced software, can predict future sale of most products. This gives them the flexibility to anticipate the movement of products which, in turn, enables faster delivery of the goods. This logistics system and management help them pick, pack, ship and reach most customers within 24 hours without making any mistakes. If what e-retailers themselves admit, and tax officials, contentions

are correct, one can technically and legally say that the former do maintain warehouses. In such cases, say the taxmen, it is the online retailers which have to pay value-added tax (VAT) on the products. At present, to prove that they are just trade facilitators, the e-retailers use their distribution and fulfilment centres for the lastmile connectivity, receive cash on deliveries, keep their commissions and pass on the remaining amounts to the various sellers, who end up paying VAT.

I

NCOME tax officials in Karnataka contend that the e-retailers should pay VAT. They have asked over 100 suppliers to stop providing goods to Amazon, which has a fulfilment centre in the state. The state is thinking of changes in the local laws—VAT is a state subject—to include e-commerce in the VAT ambit. E-retailers maintain that they shouldn’t pay VAT. The operations of the e-retailers are akin to what happened in the brick-and-mortar retail sector. At a time when FDI was only allowed in back-end organised retail, and not in front-end (physical retailers with FDI couldn’t open retail stores), the US-based Walmart exploited loopholes in the law. While it handled the wholesale procurement to the Bharti Group, which managed the stores, it was Walmart that took all the decisions related to the stores, including inventory, products’ placement of, look and feel of the shops, and even hiring of people. Clearly, e-retailers have acted against both the letter and spirit of the FDI guidelines. It is high time the government takes concrete action against their Indian operations, and provides clarity in the existing laws. The consumers wish to know whether FDI is allowed or banned in e-B2C. g

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

27

GOVERNANCE probe bureaucracy

A systemic rot The death of IAS officer DK Ravi has revealed the full extent of the corruption that has set into the political and administrative system of the country by MG DEVASAHAYAM

K

the state CID. Hemmed in from all sides, Siddaramaiah declared: “We are particular that the truth should come out.â€? Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President Parameshwara echoed WKLV 7KH \RXQJ ODG\ RIÂżFHU 5RKLQL Sindhuri Dasari, to whom Ravi had reportedly messaged a virtual ‘dying declaration’ while professing ‘eternal love’, did not lag behind. While her husband, Sudhir Reddy, moved the Karnataka High Court and obtained a stay against the interim CID report being made public, she herself went for a Facebook posting: “Truth Shall Prevail.â€? A full week after the death of the RIÂżFHU XQGHU LPPHQVH SXEOLF DQG political pressure, the Government of Karnataka handed over the investigation to the CBI. Everyone—parents, friends, colleagues, public and police—hunting for truth will now pin their hopes on the CBI which itself has

ARNATAKA’S crusader-IAS officer DK Ravi’s murder or ‘coerced’ suicide—yet to be established through independent investigation—has thrown the system into a tailspin and has exposed its rot. Within hours of discovery of the body, hanging from a ceiling fan in the officer’s apartment, and even before an FIR was registered, Bengaluru’s Police Commissioner pronounced it as a case of ‘suicide for personal reasons’. This was endorsed by the state’s Home Minister, KJ George, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the entire ruling establishment. To back this up, all kinds of innuendos were spread and leaks planted, romantically linking Ravi to one of his lady batchmates. ‘Sex’, ‘sleaze’ and ‘debauchery’ were the storylines advanced to tarnish the image and obfuscate the circumstances around the GHDWK RI WKLV FRXUDJHRXV RIÂżFHU who had dared the might of the PDUDXGLQJ PDÂżD ÂżUVW DV 'HSXW\ Commissioner, Kolar, and then as additional commissioner of enforcement in the commercial taxes department. An audio clip, containing a message by an MLA WKUHDWHQLQJ D JRYHUQPHQW RIÂżcial for not releasing seized sand trucks and speaking about the transfer of DK Ravi, added to the mystery. The public took to the streets, demanding a CBI probe DQG H[SUHVVLQJ QR FRQÂżGHQFH LQ DK Ravi

28

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

messed up many similar cases in the past. It is reported that from Day one there was a virtual stampede in the apartment where Ravi’s body hung, thereby erasing many possible clues. $V LW ORRNV QRZ DIWHU DOO WKLV ÂżUH DQG fury, the elusive truth may be buried in a grave in Doddakoppalu (village RI WKH GHFHDVHG RIÂżFHU JXDUGHG E\ the villagers who have lost faith in the government authorities! All this brings into focus the infamous idiom, “Something is rotten in the State of Denmarkâ€? in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Not many have tried to analyse this idiom, its true meaning and relevance to modern times. In the play, these words were spoken by Marcellous when Hamlet leaves him and Horatio to follow the ghost of his father, the murdered king of Denmark. When examined, this statement can refer to many of the things about the ruling class that were rotten in the state of Denmark, primary among them being corruption and moral decay. Most of these originated from the royalty, which in Hamlet’s words resembled “an un-weeded garden that grows to seedâ€?. In an un-weeded garden, the weeds would eventually corrupt and kill the once healthy plants and Denmark’s royalty was set on a course that would eventually spoil the whole country and bring it to ruin. This is precisely what India is, an un-weeded garden heading towards ruin. In the famous

www.gfilesindia.com

Mysterious circumstances raid them. He apparently received some threatening calls that fateful morning. When he went home around 11.30 HE death of 2009-batch IAS officer DK Ravi has stirred am, three strangers were among the visitors who were a hornets' nest. Why and how, are the questions recorded on the CCTV of the apartment, which was seized being fiercely contested, with the government led by the police later in the day and returned to the by Siddaramaiah and his police commissioner and home management and strangely, erased! Two mobile phones minister on one side and the people of the state and the belonging to Ravi were recovered from the living room by opposition parties on the other. The government made it the police, which, according to the police chief, had out to be a suicide by the officer after a failed love affair registered 44 calls addressed to a female colleague of his with the 'other woman' in his life, not being enamoured in less than half an hour! The Crime Investigation of the claim that the officer had made enemies with mafia Department of the Police, which was asked to conduct an variables like land-grabbers, tax evader businessmen, inquiry on the orders of the chief minister, is silent on the missing tax evaders' list from his house and his office! and the political nexus that links them all. The body of Ravi was discovered on March 16, 2015 Without a suicide note and the lack of the detailed postmortem and corroborative evidence, the around 6.40 pm, hanging from the fan in Unlike any normal CID police prepared an interim report to his bedroom, without any suicide note. scene of crime, the be submitted to the Chief Minister for There were two opinions about what tabling before the legislature (an could be the cause. The first reaction house and the room attempt aborted by the High Court came from MN Reddy, the Commissioner were invaded by through a stay order). of Police of the City of Bengaluru. He dignitaries, police People from all over the state rejected said, "Prima facie it looks a case of personnel and other the CID opinion as described by the suicide by the IAS officer." The body had just been taken for post-mortem. VIPs. Fingerprints could chief minister and home minister. Since the CID is subordinate to the chief The same explanation was given by no longer be lifted! minister and home minister, it would be Home Minister KJ George and later by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. People took the statements futile to expect justice for the deceased officer. A chorus made by the authorities with a pinch of salt. The eagerness for a CBI probe was sought by the agitating people of the and haste by the Chief Minister & Co was not only state, which was orchestrated by the ever-eager opposition premature but also inappropriate as the officer had neither parties, the BJP and JDS. A few leaders of the ruling party, written a suicide note nor was there any tell-tale evidence. including a minister, too were publicly in favour of a CBI The body was hanging from the ceiling fan and his feet probe. The chief minister resisted and the agitation spread were not much above the stool on which he could have to rural areas too. Caste organisations too joined the stood to reach the fan. Moreover, till noon, before he came movement and the Vishva Vokkaligara Vedike (Ravi was a home, he was planning raids on tax evaders as he was the Vokkaliga and his father-in-law a Congress leader) Additional Commercial Tax Commissioner. Unlike any conducted a padyatra. Another major community, normal scene of crime, the house and the room were Lingayats, also joined the fray with the most respected invaded by the home minister and many other dignitaries, Swamiji of Siddaganga Mutt (who is aged about 106 years) police personnel and other VIPs. Preliminary caution inaugurating the march. was thrown to the wind as taking of fingerprints, a Finally, rearguard action was taken by Congress mandatory requirement, could not be done. supremo Sonia Gandhi, who advised chief minister The upright, honest officer had, in the last quarter, Siddaramaiah to approach the Union Minister for Home to raided several tax evading companies to garner `129 crore insitute a CBI probe! for the state exchequer. He had another long list of such Harishchandra Bhat is a senior journalist based in companies and individuals with him and was planning to Benguluru

by HARISHCHANDRA BHAT

T

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

29

GOVERNANCE probe bureaucracy

Ashok Khemka

black money judgment, the Supreme Court quoted this passage from Robert Rotberg’s Book, When States Fail: Causes and Consequences, hinting that this is applicable to today’s India: “Failed States offer unparalleled economic opportunity—but only for a privileged few. Those around the ruler or ruling oligarchy grow richer while their less fortunate brethren starve. Immense profits are available from an awareness of regulatory advantages and currency speculation and arbitrage. But the privilege of making real money, when everything else is deteriorating, is confined to clients of the ruling elite.... The Nation-State’s responsibility to maximise the well-being and prosperity of all its citizens is conspicuously absent, if it ever existed.... Corruption flourishes in many States, but in failed States it often does so on an unusually destructive scale. There is widespread petty or lubricating corruption as a matter of course, but escalating levels of venal corruption mark failed States.â€? 7KHUH LV ÂżHUFH FRPSHWLWLRQ DPRQJ India’s ruling class—political, administrative, judicial and military—to escalate the levels of venal corruption. 0DÂżDV LQ PXOWLIDULRXV ÂżHOGV²ODQG sand, construction, water, forest, mines, mineral, liquor, drugs, arms— control the levers of power and are running amuck. These are the weeds that sprouted in the early years of de-

30

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

Durga Shakti Nagpal

Pursuit of ‘developmentat-any-cost’ has turned out to be very costly. The cost being paid is honesty, probity, integrity and equity, which are the cornerstones of the government and governance mocracy, overran the healthy crops during the Emergency’s autocracy and consolidated into kleptocracy of the thieves, by the thieves, for the thieves! The fault lies in the Nehru leadership failing to un-weed and the Indira leadership promoting the weeds to retain her hold on power. The latter went to the extreme extent of extinguishing democracy only to counter the massive anti-corruption movement launched by students in the 1970s under JP’s leadership.

W

HILE unbending healthy crops are blown around like straw, the bending and crawling weeds are well rewarded with coveted postings and juicy sinecures. For kleptocracy to thrive, the ‘healthy crops’ should either be put out of harm’s way or made to shrink and fade away. Ravi was the latest victim and before him was his IPS batchmate, Narendra Kumar, who was killed for taking on the illegal mining mafia in the Morena district

Sanjiv Chaturvedi

of Madhya Pradesh. While on patrol duty, Kumar had tried to stop a tractor, which was loaded with illegally-mined stones. When the driver refused to stop, Kumar got out of his jeep and blocked the tractor’s path. The driver deliberately ran over him. /HW XV EULHĂ€\ ORRN DW WKH PRUH recent ‘Roll of the Houndedâ€? of IAS: ƒ Ashok Khemka (Haryana) exposed what he considered ‘suspicious’ deals between Robert Vadra and real HVWDWH ÂżUP '/) +H DOOHJHG WKDW WKH transactions had the sanction of the Haryana government. For his diligence, he has faced death threats and several complaints and chargesheets against him. In a 20-year-long career, Khemka has been shunted between 45 postings. ƒ U Sagayam (Tamil Nadu) has been in the IAS for 20 years and transferred as many times. He is a relentless anti-graft crusader. As District Collector, Madurai, he ensured fair HOHFWLRQV IRU WKH ÂżUVW WLPH LQ braving the wrath of the then ruling party bigwigs. After regime change, he confronted the powerful granite PDÂżD H[SRVLQJ D `16,000-crore scam and was shunted out within days. ƒ In August 2013, Ashish Kumar (Tamil Nadu), as District Collector of Tuticorin, came upon the massive loot of beach sand containing atomic minerals, including the prohibited monozite, in TN’s southern districts. Besides posing threat to national security, the heist is estimated to be of

www.gfilesindia.com

7.2 crore MT, valued at `1.76 lakh crore. Within two days of conducting the raid, he was kicked out. Since then, the government authorities are protecting the mining barons from any kind of action. ƒ As a young SDM in 2013, Durga Shakti Nagpal (UP), made a concerted bid to curb illegal sand mining along the Yamuna and Hindon, which was damaging the environment and altering the natural course of these rivers. She used smart strategies and surprise tactics to impound vehicles used for ferrying the sand and also ordered the arrest of several miners. For this, she was suspended. Later, bowing to public pressure, the suspension was revoked. ƒ Raju Narayana Swamy (Kerala) LV NQRZQ DV WKH ÂľFOHDQ XS RIÂżFHUÂś in the regions where he has served. His crusade against corruption startHG GXULQJ KLV YHU\ ÂżUVW MRE DQG KH went about taking on the then Public Works Minister, TU Kuruvilla, eventually leading to his resignation, and former minister PJ Joseph’s. For his WURXEOHV WKH RIÂżFHU KDV EHHQ WUDQVferred 20 times in as many years and HYHQ EHHQ IRUFHG WR UHSRUW WR RIÂżFHUV junior to him. ƒ Rashmi V Mahesh (Karnataka) is widely credited with cleaning up the CET process, curbing seat blocking and irregularities in seat distribution, when she was the Executive Director of the Karnataka Education Authority. At the behest of private college lobbies, she was sent on leave and then posted as Director, Administrative Training Institute, Mysore. Here, too, she uncovered several irregularities during the tenure of her predecessor and even had to face mob fury for her actions. ƒ There is also Sanjiv Chaturvedi of the Indian Forest Service (Haryana), who has been battling the ma-

www.indianbuzz.com

ÂżD EDFNHG E\ FRUUXSW HOHPHQWV LQ WKH government. He had unearthed massive forestry and mining scams, in the process getting hounded by the state government with repeated transfers, chargesheets and suspension. There are many outside this circle who lost their lives for daring the corrupt and the venal. Lalit Mehta used RTI to expose NREGA-related scams and was killed on May 15, 2008, in Jharkhand. Satyendra Dubey, an InGLDQ (QJLQHHULQJ 6HUYLFH RIÂżFHU ZDV gunned down on November 27, 2003, in Gaya, Bihar, for exposing corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral NHAI project. Shanmughan Manjunath, a *UDGH $ RIÂżFHU LQ WKH ,QGLDQ 2LO &RUporation, was murdered for taking on

A full week after the death of the officer, under immense public and political pressure, the Government of Karnataka handed over the investigation to the CBI WKH RLO PD¿D DQG H[SRVLQJ LOOHJDO SHWURO SXPSV LQ /DNKLPSXU .KHUL 83 selling adulterated fuel. SP Mahantesh, the Karnataka Administrative 6HUYLFH RI¿FHU H[SRVHG LUUHJXODULWLHV in allotment of land to cooperative soFLHWLHV 2Q 0D\ KH ZDV EHDWen mercilessly with an iron rod and DIWHU ¿YH GD\V VXFFXPEHG WR LQMXULHV A more recent case is that of Tamil Nadu’s agro-engineer, Muthukumarasamy, who unable to bear the tortuous extortion demands of a minister and his collection agents, jumped before a running train. Post-Emergency, the system became so distorted that it does not protect, support or guide honest and FRPSHWHQW RI¿FHUV $V '& &KDQGLgarh, capital of Punjab and Haryana,

I have been a victim to the combined onslaught of these governments and the CBI because I had taken on powerful encroachers, violators and corrupt RIÂżFLDOV &RPSODLQWV ZHUH RUFKHVWUDWed and fake inquiries held. My senior RIÂżFHUV EDUULQJ RQH H[FHSWLRQ GLG not stand by me and at the slightest hint from vested interests, threw me to the wolves. I was also frequently transferred. What is worse, a chief minister, who commandeered my services twice to save his chair—cracking GRZQ RQ WKH LOOLFLW OLTXRU PDÂżD DIWHU two consecutive hooch tragedies and resolving a major power crisis—discarded me as ‘inconvenient’ after I clashed with two of his ministers over corruption and malpractices indulged in by them!

T

HE situation is more serious today. At lower levels of the government, bribes are being demanded as a matter of right and these bribe-takers share the booty and enjoy full protection from people ‘higher-up’. In the top echelons, the predatory economic policies and the callousness in managing natural resources has opened up vast opportunities for moneybags and marauders to indulge in loot and crush anyone daring to resist. Many of these worthies are now occupying elected offices from panchayats to Parliament and hold sway over the people and government machinery. This is the rot in India’s administrative system. Pursuit of ‘development-at-anycost’ has turned out to be very costly. The cost being paid is honesty, probity, integrity and equity, which are the cornerstones of the government and governance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power with a trumpeting call for good governance. Ten months down the line, it remains a mere call! g

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

31

EXPOSÉ

mining madhya pradesh

AJAY DUBEY

El Dorado for sand mafia The blatant flouting of the law by the sand mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh is set to get worse with the state government coming out with an even more liberal policy. The nexus between the mafia, politician and bureaucrat is very strong, emboldening the sand mafia even more by RAKESH DIXIT

T

HE coming days will be marked by hectic activity in the sand mining business in Madhya Pradesh since lease periods of a majority of the state’s 1,700 sand mines have lapsed

32

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

in March. The state government’s liberal mining policy, announced on March 12, has ensured that the multibillion-rupee sand mining business attracts more players to the bidding. It’s going to be an exciting time for those who control, monitor and

protect the sand mafias spread across the state. These include ruling party politicians and personnel of police, forest, mining and revenue departments. Their cosy nexus is geared up to jockey for the favourite ones for cutting the best possible

www.gfilesindia.com

deals in the nearly `70,000-crore sand mining trade. And the stakes are higher this time around. The state government has not only expanded the area of mining but has also set a highly ambitious target for revenue. To meet the target, significant changes have been made in the policy to facilitate mining in larger areas. A taste of things to come is apparent in the alleged audio conversation between the BJP MLA from Bhind, Narayan Singh Kushwaha, and a senior mining officer. Kushwaha is heard demanding `1 lakh from the officer. The audio went viral on March 18. The BJP MLA is a protégé of Union Mining and Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is alleged to be the most powerful protector of the sand mafia in the Chambal-Gwalior region. Just how audacious the illegal sand miners have become under the political patronage in the region can be gauged by a recent coming to light of a temporary bridge built on the Sindh river to transport illegally mined sand. On March 20, the bridge collapsed due to the heavy sand traffic over it. It was only after this that the Bhind district administration woke up to the seriousness of the illegal mining. The Collector and SP with a large posse of police rushed to the spot. However, unsurprisingly, no one was arrested. Madhya Pradesh has become a veritable El Dorado for the sand mafia in the last 10 years of BJP rule. The illegal sand mining business is estimated at `20,000 crore. The state government gets peanuts in royalty when compared to the stupendously huge profit the mafia manages to pocket. Sand mine contractors bid for mines by forming groups or companies and sometimes in individual capacity. Cartelisation of contractors is also a common practice

www.indianbuzz.com

in the Chambal and Gwalior regions. The cartelisation ensures that the auction process remains under the control of a group of contractors. The most controversial company in this field, whose name is often tossed around in political discourse on illegal sand mining, is the Bhopal-based Shiva Construction Company. This is because the company’s promoters are allegedly linked to the family of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The company’s rampant mining operation in Nasrullaganj area—in the Budni assembly constituency of the chief minister—is frequently cited by the opposition as proof of the connivance of the sand mafia with the top administrative levels of the State.

The illegal sand mining business is estimated at `20,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh. The government gets peanuts in royalty when compared to the stupendously huge profit the mafia manages to pocket In 2012, a Congress MLAs’ committee did a spot survey of the company’s operation. The panel found that in Sehore district’s Nasrullaganj area, Shiva Construction had illegally carried out activities in 10 villages even though permission was granted only in four villages. The then leader of the opposition, Ajay Singh, alleged in the Assembly that Shiva Construction was granted permission for sand mining in 16 hectares in four villages, but it had carried out mining operations in 377 hectares, causing a threat to the course of the river and environment.

T

HE Congress committee’s spot survey followed a senior mining department officer’s report. Subsequently, a showcause notice was served by the mining department in December 2011 to Shiva Construction. The company was alleged to have illegally mined `378 crore worth of sand. Within days of the notice, the concerned officer was transferred. Shiva Construction, on the contrary, has thrived in the last five years even as the fine slapped on it for violation of lease terms remains unrecovered. Sand mining is a relatively low-risk and low-capital business, compared to mining of major minerals. Therefore, there are no big players in this trade. Big players are in mining of major minerals, such as coal, iron, bauxite and so on. The two most controversial mining barons in the state are Sudhir Sharma of the SR group and the BJP MLA from Vijayraghavgarh, Sanjay Pathak. Sharma is in jail since January 2014 for his involvement in the Professional Examination Board (PEB) scam. His transformation from a private school teacher to a billionaire powerbroker within a decade of BJP rule in the state bears inglorious testimony to the vice-like grip of the mafia over the government. Pathak had won the 2008 Assembly election on a Congress ticket. At that time he had declared his assets as worth `34 crore. In 2013, he showed assets worth `141 crore while filing his nomination for the Assembly poll. Within six months of winning on the Congress ticket, the 43-year-old politician-businessman from Katni district resigned from the party. He had wisely anticipated the BJP was set to form the government at the Centre under Narendra Modi’s leadership. He returned to the assembly on a BJP ticket. Mining department sources say

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

33

EXPOSÉ

mining madhya pradesh

illegal sand mining is largely a politician-controlled trade. In almost all districts, ruling party MPs, MLAs and other leaders handpick their acolytes to bid for mining. In some cases, family members act as the front for elected representatives too. Sand mines are among the chief minister’s most potent instruments to win loyalty of local BJP leaders across the state. That is why the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) virtually controls the bidding process through the chief minister’s most trusted IAS officer, SK Mishra. He is the secretary to the chief minister as well as public relations commissioner. Till 2012, Mishra was the Secretary, Mining. But the nationwide outrage in the wake of the murder of IPS officer Narendra Kumar Singh on March 8, 2012, forced the chief minister to shift Mishra from the mining department. The raging controversy had brought to the fore how the then mining secretary favoured a chosen few in giving mining contracts at the behest of the chief minister. However, Mishra still holds sway in the mining business. Although the incumbent Mining Secretary, Shiv Shekhar Shukla, has sought to bring transparency in the bidding process,

Trade goes inter-state

U

NDER the Congress rule, sand mining used to be controlled by village panchayats. Also, mining was not such a big moneyspinner. The BJP government made it a billion-rupee business by authorising collectors and the MP State Mining Corporation to control bidding for sand mines. The procedural change transformed the business as ruling party politicians started encouraging organised mafias to indulge in sand mining in connivance with the officers in the mining, revenue, police, transport and forest departments. With the growth of business and ill-gotten wealth of the nexus, sand mining beckoned mafias from neighbouring states, particularly Uttar Pradesh. In the last two years, mining in Madhya Pradesh has become an inter-state organised crime. The Chambal and Sindh riverbeds in the Gwalior-Chambal region adjoining UP and Rajasthan are easy prey for inter-state mafias. Sand illegally mined from the Chambal river is one-third in price compared to legally procured sand. That is why sand from Chambal is illegally transported for construction works in cities of UP and Rajasthan. Recent police action in the villages on the MP-UP and MP-Rajasthan borders has revealed massive transport of sand to the neighbouring states. The growing demand for Chambal sand has turned mining into a veritable cottage industry in the region. Villagers, who earlier used to collect sand from riverbeds for small profit, have now been roped in by big mafias as commission agents. The villagers collect sand and store the consignment at their farms, only for mafias to transport it to cities in UP and Rajasthan besides towns in Madhya Pradesh. In recent joint actions, the forest and mining department sleuths detected many such collection centres of sand in Nayakpura and Piprai villages in Bhind district. Illegal sand storage at farms is relatively less risky and more profitable for villagers. As part of the big network of mafias, villagers prefer to clandestinely collect sand at their farms. Henchmen of the mafias load the stored sand in trucks or trolleys for transport beyond the state’s borders, often in the dead of night. Demand for such illegal sand comes from as far away as Dholpur, Agra, Sawai Madhopur, Gwalior, Sheopur, Guna and Shivpuri. Sand mined from the riverbed of the Sindh is also in high demand in the adjoining states. But Chambal sand is much cheaper. While one trolley of Sindh sand costs `8,000, that of Chambal costs only `1,400. When the sand reaches its final destination, its price shoots up by nearly four times the price paid by the mafias to the agent-villagers. Divisional forest officer (DFO) of Morena Vincent Raheem says the department has curbed local sale of illegal sand to a great extent but checking transportation outside the state is still a big challenge. With the government further liberalising the mining policy, more inter-state mafias are likely to join the bandwagon. MAHESH SHIVHARE

34

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

www.gfilesindia.com

sand mafias are confident that it is Mishra who still calls the shots in contract allotment. Shukla, another trusted IAS officer of the chief minister, is hopeful that the e-auction process introduced in the new sand mining policy will curb the practice of illegal mining to a great extent. On March 21, Shukla told prospective sand mine bidders through videoconferencing that “through the new technique, the auction will be open to all and the entire process will be transparent”. However, those in the know of government functioning are sceptical of Shukla’s claim. Right to Information (RTI) activist Ajay Dubey, who has brought to the fore many a wrongdoing in the mining business, says the mafias are too well-entrenched in the business to be weeded out through e-auction unless the chief minister shows strong political will to clamp down on them.

M

ADHYA Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Arun Yadav says the policy is fundamentally flawed as it allows the government to cherry-pick prospective bidders. Mafias, in connivance with ruling party politicians and bureaucrats, have been mercilessly plundering the state’s riverbeds. Rampant sand mining has posed a crisis for over a dozen rivers in the state. The state’s biodiversity is in serious danger. Concerned over the alarming degradation of environment due to untrammelled sand mining, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in August 2014 ordered a blanket ban on sand mining. The Madhya Pradesh government cried foul over the NGT verdict, arguing that this will badly hit the construction industry. The state

www.indianbuzz.com

MAHESH SHIVHARE

Mining department sources say illegal sand mining is largely a politiciancontrolled trade. In almost all districts, ruling party MPs, MLAs and other leaders handpick their acolytes to bid for mining government’s plea against the NGT ruling is under the consideration of the Supreme Court. Now the state government has come out with a new sand mining policy which not only subverts the NGT ruling but also invites mafias to dredge and transport sand from across the state’s rivers with greater impunity. The state Cabinet on March 12 approved the Sand Mining Policy 2015, notifying an additional 3,000

hectares of area for quarrying to bring down market prices of sand and make it available at cheap rates. The Chouhan government has given free rein to rural inhabitants to obtain and use sand free of cost, meaning that persons from rural areas need not purchase sand anymore. Health minister and government spokesman Narottam Mishra says that under the new policy, the State Mineral Development Corporation will undertake sand mining throughout all tehsils of 18 districts. “The mining corporation at present is engaged in sand mining from only 53 tehsils of those 18 districts. New policy gives the corporation excavation rights in all tehsils of the districts,” Mishra explained. “In the remaining 33 districts, collectors will auction sand mines through e-auction.” The corporation will also give quarrying contracts through e-auction. Bidders

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

35

EXPOSÉ

mining madhya pradesh

for this process will have to deposit only 10 per cent as security deposit—as against the earlier 25 per cent—under the provisions of the Sand Mining Policy. “E-auction and rationalisation of security deposit amount will simplify bidding process and bring transparency,” Narottam Mishra claimed. The new policy has abolished the provision which earlier prohibited another sand mine within a 10-km radius of the mine sanctioned to the state mining corporation. The provision to charge royalty equal to that charged by the corporation has also been abolished on the grounds that this will make sand cheaper for the consumer.

A

LTHOUGH environmental clearance is still mandatory, the policy provides for optimum mining of sand in the state. The government argues this will make more sand available at affordable rates in the open market and bring more revenue to the exchequer. As of now, district collectors auction, operate and control 1,237 sand mines in an area of 2,677.554 hectares. Of them, 1,181 mines in 2,070.01 hectares are of less than five hectares while 55 mines are of more than five hectares. The state corporation operates, auctions and controls 450 sand mines. Of them, 285 sand mines are of less than five hectares while 165 are of more than five hectares. Under the revised plan, the sand mines will be of five hectares or more with a total area of 9,570 hectares across the state. However, the number of mines will be 1,009. The collectors will now operate 586 sand mines, while the corporation will run 423 mines in 5,033 hectares. The government has envisaged revenue of `880 crore against the existing `180 crore from the

36

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

The dying rivers

P

AHANBARRI was a small village of 3,000 people in Hoshangabad district. Situated on the bank of the Tawa river—a tributary of the Narmada river—the 200-year-old village was known for its fertile soil. On August 1, 2014, the river changed its course, broke its bank and entered the village. A thick layer of sand, up to four feet in height, enveloped the thriving paddy and vegetables sown in 500 acres of its agricultural land. About 100 acres of land, which were fields earlier, is a part of the river now. Residents of Pahanbarri submitted a memorandum to the district authorities to relocate them as there was no hope of return to normalcy. They say that sand mining in Maroda village, upstream of Pahanbarri along the Tawa, had caused this damage. They fear that if the mining continues, they will have to face more instances of flooding like this. This is just one example of devastation the rampant sand mining is causing to the rivers and land in the state. Like Tawa, a dozen other tributaries of the Narmada river are facing crisis. Sand mining has reduced half a dozen tributaries of the Narmada

in Narsinghpur district to muddy culverts. Two decades ago, rivers such as Shakkar, Sher, Sitarewa, Dudhi, Umar, Barureva, Pandajhir, Majha and Hiran used to flow majestically. The riverbeds would be used to produce watermelons and muskmelon. The sand mafias’ insatiable greed has today almost killed the rivers. The three-tier layers that shored the rivers have been destroyed due to illegal mining. Narmada, a lifeline of Madhya Pradesh, is also pockmarked at many places along its 1,000-km course through the state with shallow swamps. Sindh river in the Gwalior-Chambal region is probably the most heinously raped river. On the banks of the river in Chandpur and Raipur ghats, sand worth billions of rupees has been dredged with the help of submarines and boats. The mafias have drilled as deep as 70 to 80 ft in the riverbed to dredge sand. Specially built crude submarines are brought from Uttar Pradesh for drilling. Mafias are not afraid of using even dynamite to break stones in the rivers. Environmentalists say the explosions by dynamite have caused massive damage to the Narmada, Chambal, Betwa, Kel and Banganga river areas. The stone quarrying has not only

auction of 2.28 crore cubic metre of sand each year. The corporation will levy `125 per cubic metre as royalty and administrative expenses while collectors will levy equal royalty from an expected quantity of 6.80 crore cubic metres against the total available quantity of 2.28 crore cubic metres earlier. Insiders in the sand mining business contend that the state government’s extraordinary generosity

towards sand miners will make competition in the business more violent. On an average, two persons reportedly get killed per day in violence related to illegal sand mining activity in the state. In 2013-14, as many as 715 persons lost their lives in clashes among mafias and with police. In 2014-15, the death toll till December 31, 2014, is already at 457. The brutal killing of IPs officer Narendra Kumar Singh in Morena

www.gfilesindia.com

disturbed the course of the rivers, but has also damaged biodiversity along the banks. This is because mafias fell trees along the rivers. These are then used for fires to heat the stones on the riverbeds. The heating softens stones and renders them easier to break. Quarrying along the Son river in the Vindhya region has seriously endangered the ghariyal sanctuary. Environmentalist Rajiv Chouhan of For Conservation of Nature says that if this continues unchecked, rivers will die. Sand acts as a filter in a river. If sand is dredged out without any checks, it will not only result in a fall in the water level but also lead to pollution of the rivers. Expressing concern over illegal sand mining from the Narmada riverbed, the central bench of the National Green Tribunal has asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to

examine the impact on rivers in the last 10 years. The bench’s directions came while hearing a petition filed by an NGO, Paryavaran & Manav Sanrakshan Samiti, in August last year. “The MoEF must come forward with a practical policy, taking into account the present nature and the pace at which the development is taking place and also taking into account the negative impact it is going to have on the ecology of various rivers as sand is generally extracted from the riverbed,” the order stated. The bench also directed the state government to file an affidavit regarding how many cases had been registered against those persons on whose behalf unauthorised extraction or transportation of mineral had been carried out in Madhya Pradesh.

district on March 8, 2013, had caused a nationwide uproar. Singh, who was SDO (Police), was run over by the driver of a tractor-trolley laden with illegal sand. His death brought illegal sand mining in Madhya Pradesh into the national focus, but the outrage petered down with the passage of days. Incidents of attacks on police, forest and revenue officers and personnel are quite frequent in the state, particularly in the Gwalior-Chambal

region. But they seldom attract the attention of the national media. In December last year, a police constable was injured when the sand mafia attacked a mining inspection team after it seized tractor-trolleys, allegedly carrying sand without valid documents, near a village in Hoshangabad district. The team, led by mining inspector Archana Choudhary, spotted the sand-laden vehicles and stopped

www.indianbuzz.com

them for checking. As the team was taking the tractor-trolleys to Dehat Police Station, the attackers pelted stones, causing injury to constable Hemant Raj. Such violent attacks on government personnel are more frequent in the Chambal region but are highly underreported. News reports on the nexus of mafia-politicians-bureaucrats are rare. The nexus is so well-entrenched in the political life of the state that it has ceased to shock people. The new policy is likely to add more violence to the gory business of illegal sand mining because notorious dons from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi are reportedly eyeing the lucrative business. Coming days are crucial as fresh bidding for mines is set to start after April.

M

ADHYA Pradesh Congress committee president Yadav says the new mining policy will further strengthen the grip of the nexus on the mining business. “Sand mafias influence the bidding process and the government succumbs to their pressure. Since ruling party politicians provide protection to mafias, the government does not act against them. As a result, the state exchequer suffers revenue loss to the tune of hundreds of crores of rupees,” he alleges. Staggering figures of non-recovery of fines on the sand mining companies corroborate the PCC chief’s allegations. In two of the 51 districts in the state—Sehore and Mandla—the administration has failed to recover `1,300 crore as fines slapped on sand miners for violating the lease terms. In almost all districts, 50 to 100 cases each are pending against sand miners but the nexus of mafia-politicianbureaucrat manages to scuttle punitive action against the offenders. g

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

37

FIRST STIRRINGS surrinder lal kapur

Retired, but not tired

NARENDRA KAUSHIK

Surrinder Lal Kapur lived a full and interesting life as a civil servant, and he continues to do so even years after retirement

38

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

by NARENDRA KAUSHIK

I

T was sometime in the summer of 1985. Surrinder Lal Kapur, the 1960-batch IAS officer, the then Financial Commissioner (Taxation) in his home state, Punjab, was in Srinagar to participate in a meeting of sales tax and excise officers of the northern zone. He was introduced to a young IAS from Jammu & Kashmir, Sham Singh Kapur. Sham was

Commissioner (Excise and Taxation) in Srinagar. He had mongoloid features and reminded Lal of somebody in Spiti, a sub-division in Punjab then (now it is part of Himachal Pradesh), where he had served as Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) for close to two years in 1963-64. “Are you Dharampal’s son?” he asked the young civil servant. Dharampal (a name he used before people from outside Lahaul-Spiti.

www.gfilesindia.com

Locally, he was known as Rigzin Chewang) was an employee in the SDM’s office during Lal’s posting in Spiti. When the latter replied in the affirmative, Lal was even more flummoxed. “How come your surname is Kapur?” he enquired. Sham’s reply was an extremely pleasant surprise for him. “My father adopted the name of an SDM who did some very good work in our sub-division.” Sham Singh Kapur, whose family had probably migrated from Pakistan during Partition, retired in April 2011 as Chief Secretary of Jammu & Kashmir. During his nearly two-year-long tenure in Spiti, which was his second posting as SDM (he cut his teeth in Pathankot in 1962), Lal claims to have done some innovative work in the sub-division. He says he persuaded the government to open a boarding school in Manali for children of Spiti because the sub-division lacked good schools. “Schools in those days had 30 to 40 students and would run with a single teacher,” he recollects. Lal says he even forced the doctor of a local dispensary to return to Spiti from Kullu. “The doctor would play cards the whole day in a club in Kullu. I threatened him with arrest if he did not report to his place of duty,” he reminisces. Lal also served as Deputy Commissioner, Patiala, Joint Commissioner (Excise), Director (Public Relations) and Secretary to the Punjab Governor, late Dharma Vira. Before shifting to the Centre on deputation in 1979, he also worked as Secretary (Industries and Public Relations) and Commissioner (Excise and Taxation), Patiala. He went back to Punjab in 1985. During his stint as DC, Patiala, Lal helped people in Samana, a town in the district, to set up a private college. The college organised a special

www.indianbuzz.com

function last year to honour him. Lal hit newspaper headlines in July 1988 after an inebriated KPS Gill, the then Director-General of Police (DGP) of Punjab, misbehaved with IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj at a party at his residence. Lal and his wife were prosecution witnesses in the case, which resulted in Gill’s conviction 17 years later. Lal, then Financial Commissioner (Home), had submitted a report on the incident to the then Governor, Siddhartha Shankar Ray. Since the incident took place in the lawns of his official bungalow in Chandigarh, Lal apologised to Deol twice. The latter, along with her husband BR Bajaj (also an IAS officer), still filed a case against Gill.

Lal hit newspaper headlines in July 1988 after an inebriated KPS Gill, the then Director-General of Police (DGP) of Punjab, misbehaved with IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj at a party at his residence The ‘unfortunate’ incident hogged the media headlines for several years. So much so that when Lal was working with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and was in Lagos, Nigeria, a Sindhi couple, who hosted a dinner for him, showed him a copy of India Today magazine and enquired, “Are you the same SL Kapur?” Lal served as the Home Secretary of Punjab till 1991, when the state was reeling under terrorism and was under President’s Rule. In 1990, during a profiling exercise of terrorists, he discovered that 90 per cent of the terrorists were from Patti region of Tarn

Taran district. “I visited Sur Singh, a village a dreaded terrorist came from. The terrorist’s father begged me to protect his other son from going astray and joining his brother,” he remembers. The unusual request gave him an idea: why not provide employment to youth whose elder brothers had taken up the gun and thus finish off terrorists’ nursery? He bounced the idea off the then Governor, NK Mukherjee, but the latter was not receptive. When Mukherjee was replaced by Virendra Verma, Lal revived the proposal. Verma, for a change, gave him the goahead.

L

al says he decided to train youth by forming a task force under a retired major general as commandant. He found space in Kapurthala for the training institute. According to him, the task force trained tens of thousands of youth for employment in the army and paramilitary. It also imparted skills to youth for other jobs. In 1991, Lal came to Delhi on deputation. In 1995, the sexagenarian retired as Secretary (Small Scale Industry and Food Processing). In the same year, he was appointed member of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), an agency under the Union Finance Ministry. He demitted the agency four years later. In 2005, he became a Director on the Yes Bank board. Three years later he got promoted to the Chairman’s post and played a role in the dispute between bank promoters Rana Kapur and sister-in-law Madhu Kapur. He retired from the private sector bank in 2013, marking his third superannuation from nine-to-five jobs. But has Lal really retired? The man from Jalandhar claims he continues to chair Yes Bank Foundation. g

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

39

SILLY POINT humour mk kaw

The farce called electronic media T

HERE was a time when Times Now claimed to be the most watched show on television. Arnab Goswami was touted as the most ardently watched anchor. A time came when reams of newsprint were devoted to a close analysis of the reasons for the immense popularity of Arnab’s prime time show, Newshour. Experts pointed out the reasons for the mass appeal. Arnab was famous for posing a question and then refusing to hear the answer. The most frequently made request of the panellists was a plaintive, “Let me have my say, Arnab!”, or “If you are not interested in what we have to say, why call us for a discussion?” Meanwhile, Arnab would pronounce his verdict as soon as he popped his question. Obviously, he had a tremendous research team which collated all the facts for him; he had access to all the documents. He read all the articles that had appeared in the print media. He did not have any sides or ideologies. So, obviously, he was the best one to pronounce an objective verdict on a contentious issue. He knew it and used his advantages to the hilt. The other merit of his programme was that there was no discipline of any kind. Arnab provided the lead by interrupting all the panellists without a by your leave. Often he would egg on the silent ones by saying, “this is an open discussion. So feel free to make your point as soon as you feel like it.” He never interrupted a heckler to

40

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

make him hold his tongue. He never advised the participants to observe the niceties of a debate on national television and speak only when called upon to do so. And, whenever he felt the decibel count was too low, he would add to the cacophony by shouting, “You have much to answer for, Mister Jyotirmoy Sarkar… you have much to answer for, Mister Jyotirmoy Sarkar,” ad infinitum till other hecklers joined the fray and raised the decibel count to acceptable peaks. I once advised a former top bureaucrat to join the Newshour debate on an important topic concerning the civil services. He said witheringly that he had no intention of projecting a postage stamp face and being hardly visible or audible unless he became a party to the shouting brigade. These days, when one has time, one surfs from one news channel to another. Increasingly, one finds the other anchors trying to out-Arnab Arnab. There was a time when Rahul

Arnab never advised the participants to observe the niceties of a debate on national television and speak only when called upon to do so. If he felt the decibel count was too low, he would add to the cacophony by shouting

Shivshankar seemed to be a sedate, equable personality, following all the rules of a college debating society. Now he specialises in calling friends from Pakistan and the separatists from Kashmir and not letting them speak. He pontificates at them and, when he loses steam, brings into play stalwarts like Marouf and General Bakshi and Ashok Pandit, who can be depended upon in shutting up the enemies within and without. Rahul himself is unable to get in a phrase edgewise and is reduced to saying in a plaintive refrain, “Just a second, just a second, just a second...”, but no one gives him that crucial second. While on this subject, we should ruminate over the elasticity of time on television. The anchors often say, “Okay, let us wind up the discussion. You have five seconds each.” One wonders how elastic those seconds are, as the voluble speakers keep on letting forth steam and sputum for interminable minutes. The antithesis to Arnab is the patrician Karan Thapar, whose personality exudes the sedateness of the family background (he is the son of General Thapar, a Chief of Army Staff and a product of Doon School and St Stephen’s) and his earlier stint on the BBC. He has imbibed the steely look of Hard Talk and can look chillingly satirical and silence his interviewee with an imperious gesture. But Indian television has injected

www.gfilesindia.com

A

UN

AR

a desi flavour into his biting sarcasm and sometimes his subjects turn around and give him a dose of his own medicine. Over the years, he has lost some of his pungency and looks almost human at times, especially at the end of an interview when he masks his wolfish teeth with a genial smile. The other Rahul (Kanwal) of TV Today has a pleasant face and a warm smile. He has no obvious skews in his

www.indianbuzz.com

coverage of news and views. like Rajdeep Sardesai the best. He has lustrous eyes and is well up with the facts, but he does not ride roughshod over his interlocutors. Like his father, he plays cricket and tries to be balanced in his approach. His conclusions come at the end of a programme and seem to be derived from the tenor of the discussion. But the fact that the Editor’s verdict comes sharp on the heels of the debate

I

seems to arouse the shrewd suspicion that his observations are a foregone conclusion drafted by Sagarika Ghose and his team of advisers. And the story of how Reliance bought up TV 18 in order to get rid of Rajdeep and Sagarika and their mentor, Raghav Behl, is a scathing comment on the farce called electronic media on Indian television. g MK Kaw is a former Secretary, Government of India

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

41

BOOK EXTRACT

prime ministers indira gandhi

Janardan Thakur started his career in journalism with the nationalist Patna daily, The Searchlight, in December 1959. In his long and distinguished career spanning the reign of each Prime Minister since Independence, Thakur reported from the thick of some of the most momentous contemporary events at home and afar—JP’s ‘total revolution’, the Emergency, the bristling emergence of Sanjay Gandhi, the fall and rise of Indira Gandhi and then the rise and fall of Rajiv, the Kremlin of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Khomeini’s revolution in Iran, Ronald Reagan’s re-election in an America swinging Right, VP Singh’s ascent as a messiah with tainted magic and the rasping run to power of the BJP. Thakur’s journalism, from the very start, broke traditional moulds of reportage and writing, going beyond the story that meets the eye and into processes and personalities that made them happen. His stories on the Bihar famine of the mid-1960s and the manmade floods that ravaged the State were a sensation. He was perhaps alone in predicting defeat for Indira Gandhi in 1977 and again singular in exposing the corroded innards of the Janata Government that followed. A Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center, Hawaii, in 1971, Thakur moved to New Delhi as a Special Correspondent for the Ananda Bazar Patrika group of publications in 1976. He went freelance in 1980 and turned syndicated columnist. In 1989-91, he was Editor of the fortnightly Onlooker, and The Free Press Journal. Thakur authored All The Prime Minister’s Men, probably the most successful of the crop of books that followed the Emergency. His All the Janata Men, the story of the men who destroyed the first non-Congress government in New Delhi, was equally successful. He passed away on July 12, 1999.

42

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

Indira’s comeback

T

HE hurriedly cobbled coalition of parties was swept out in 1980 largely because all its leaders were a squabbling bunch of men, who spent nearly all their time abusing one another in public view, unmindful of what it was doing to the people. They took their power for granted. They had finished Indira Gandhi, and with her the Nehru dynasty, never to rise again. Or, so they thought in their wisdom. Wise men, many of whom had fought for the country’s freedom, talked of great idealism. but had ended up being self-seeking men content with power and pelf. A dissident faction of the Janata Party, composed of some of the very people who had brought Mrs Gandhi’s edifice down were now doing their damnedest, out of sheer pique against their hated colleagues, to put her on the wall again. Imagine the great ‘giant-killer’ of Rae Bareli plotting with his erstwhile enemy, Sanjay, to pull down Morarji Desai from his high perch. And this for the purpose of installing Chaudhary Charan Singh on a throne hanging by a slender thread which Sanjay and his mother could snap any time. In three years of drift and dithering, all that the blundering gerontocracy had done was to lay the red carpet for Indira Gandhi’s return. She was back, as though she had never gone away, now promising to give the country something new, something different: A Government that Works. She had said it with great alacrity at her first press conference after her Second Coming, almost as though she had been waiting for someone to ask the right question. Little could she have expected that question to come from me. It had been one of the most remarkable comebacks in history. The harried lady, with many more strands of grey in her hair, many more lines on her furrowed brow, had gone around the Country telling the people: “Is desh ko sirf Indira Gandhi hi chala sakti hai (Only Indira Gandhi can run this country),” and the people had believed her. “The Indian middle-classes had always had a deepseated fear of chaos and disorder,” commented Ashis Nandy. “Alienated from a society which has lived for centuries in near-anarchic state, they projected into their political leaders the search for a more cohesive, welldefined ‘hard’ and purposeful politics. They forgot that in a heterogeneous fragmented polity the search for order

www.gfilesindia.com

can too easily degenerate into a search for a leader who would freeze the society and impose on it a stability which would destroy the spirit of the civilisation. In India, the choice could never be between chaos and stability, but between manageable and unmanageable chaos, between humane and unhuman anarchy, and between tolerable and intolerable disorder.” The people preferred the avatar of the Emergency to Charan Singh, who having manoeuvred himself into unelected office as PM, proceeded to revive the very same preventive detention laws which Mrs Gandhi had abused in 1975. Na haat par na paat par, Indiraji ki baat par, Mohar lagegi haat par (Not on caste or creed, but on Indira Gandhi’s promise, the ballot will be stamped on the hand) It was the Indira slogan which had worked like a magic. She had such different faces, some of which the people loved so much. At different times, she could even be different people: an imperious leader who brooked no opposition, an utterly determined and courageous person who was neither overawed by hurdles nor deterred by what the Cassandras said or wrote. A powerful lady who had been hunted down by her enemies, a champion of the poor who had been removed from the scene by vested interests. It had seemed she had just returned to her habitat after a prolonged trek in the mountains. But it did not take even a hundred days for the people’s disenchantment to begin anew. Prices rose, lawlessness mounted, Punjab and Assam were in turmoil, hoodlums and lumpens stalked the land. A hundred days after her return, the country was still without a budget. Nothing like a policy to control the prices was anywhere in sight. The makers of the Indira legend were themselves becoming its victims. “The legend,” wrote former Editor of The Statesman, Pran Chopra, “is not only that Mrs Gandhi alone can save India but that she can do so all by herself, armed with nothing more than her charisma and the love of the people for her. Not her party, not her colleagues, not her policies but only the magic of her personality is needed to do the trick.” If there had been a magic, it was fast fading. Indeed, if you saw her closely, she was no longer the same Indira Gandhi. She had gone under some diabolical shadow, as it were. Her old ‘Chanakya’, DP Mishra, who often

www.indianbuzz.com

spent time in Delhi those days, had shared with me his theory about Indira Gandhi’s fading image. ,”Her political world,” he said, “has been completely shattered by her son.” Sanjay Gandhi had built his own ‘political world’ on the ruins of his mother’s. He had ‘stolen the thunder’ in more ways than one. He had given a new face to the party, a face in his own mould, which was totally alien to Indira Gandhi, but she had no option but to adopt it because she had become so dependent on her son, whom she considered the real victor, the man who had salvaged her crown from the Janata quagmire. He had become much more than just a son who had shone in her reflected glory; he had become almost her mentor, and she had virtually moved into the shadows, leaving the centre-stage to him. She was the Prime Minister again, but the shots were now called by Sanjay Gandhi. He had picked the party candidates for the elections, and now he was putting his men in key places—ministers at the Centre, chief ministers in the crucial states. One of his creations was our protagonist to come, Raja Vishwanath Pratap Singh of Manda, whom Sanjay made the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, because his mother would not let him take the post himself. She wanted him to be in Delhi with her, to run the country. Mrs Gandhi still had some of her old people, here and there, but they had become ‘outsiders’, who were there more at the sufferance of the Rehnuma, as Giani Zail Singh used to call Sanjay Gandhi, than in their own right.

B

LUFF was the name of the political game now. If there was any lapse in the government’s performance, Indira and Sanjay had the perfect alibi: the Janata government. Those wretched usurpers had made such a mess of everything that it would take time just to clean it up. The Gandhis were actually becoming more imperious, more irresponsible, more contemptuous of the people. They did not seem to have forgotten what the people had done to them in 1977. Sanjay was now determined to take his revenge for the lese-majeste the people had committed. To rub in the point, as it were, they had picked up a non-entity and foisted him as the country’s President. “The lady,” thought one distinguished commentator of the political scene, had “crossed the Rubicon from mania to megalomania. Perhaps because it is her second coming, frenzy fits her snugly. Without batting an eyelid, she indulges in palpable untruths, such as that she neither appoints nor dismisses chief ministers of

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

43

BOOK EXTRACT

prime ministers indira gandhi

states...A Prime Minister whose second nature is uttering untruths, can be a trailblazer of an ominous kind.” June 23, 1980. Sanjay Gandhi’s body lay in the hospital, mangled and mutilated. Mourners pushed their way in and out of the room. Suddenly there was commotion and everyone was asked to leave. Indira Gandhi wanted time alone with her son’s body. As she entered, her face showed more worry than pain. From the hospital she rushed to the crash site a second time. The whole area had already been cordoned off. Mrs G walked around the rubble, her eyes searching. She told the guards she was looking for a bunch of keys and a wrist watch. Both were found. A sense of relief showed on her face, but people started asking questions. Why did the shattered mother have to go looking for a bunch of keys and a watch by herself? When and how did she know that the two things were not on the body? Had she looked through the pockets of her dead son’s kurta in the quiet of the hospital room? Only ten days before his death, Mrs G took Sanjay in

44

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

a ceremonial motorcade to the AICC office and installed him as the party’s general secretary. She looked overjoyed. Twenty-five years earlier, Jawaharlal Nehru’s voice had also been choked when he spoke at a ceremony at the AICC’s Jantar Mantar office to felicitate Indu on her becoming Congress President. Older people recalled that tears had rolled down the cheeks of Motilal Nehru when he saw Jawahar being taken in a Congress presidential procession some 50 years before.

I

NDIRA Gandhi was in a shattered state. She had suddenly lost her ‘only friend, philosopher and guide.” She had the image of being a decisive person, but she had always depend on someone or the other for ideas, counsel, and moral support to make up her mind. During the days of the ‘kitchen cabinet’, she had relied on people like Dinesh Singh, Asoka Mehta and C Subramaniam. The devaluation, as we saw, had been the handiwork of this group. Later this position came to be occupied by the left lobby whose think-tank was the Haksar-Kumaramangalam- DP Dhar

www.gfilesindia.com

group. It was this lobby which engineered the 1969 split, bank nationalisation, constitutional amendments and a host of other radical measures. It had egged her on to a confrontation with JP. Then started the third chapter. With the declaration of Emergency, Sanjay dislodged all of the other “Navratnas” of the court and became the sole adviser and executor. Bansilal, VC Shukla, Jagmohan, Bhinder and others were all side-kicks of the enfant terrible with no direct access to Indira Gandhi. They had to propitiate Sanjay to get a nod from the lady, and those who did not follow this rule had to suffer, as hider Kumar Gujral did. After her comeback, Indira was convinced that Sanjay had always been right in his political perceptions and decisions. “He had been totally opposed to elections in 1977. He proved right. He pushed Mrs G for a split in the Congress in 1978. It worked. He extended support to Charan Singh and later withdrew it. Superb tactics. He got nine state assemblies dissolved. The gamble paid. He got the wings of the old guards clipped in the distribution of state assembly tickets. No harm done. In the garb of a “generation revolution” he got a large number of personal followers elected to the assemblies. A giant step toward succession.” The Indira-Sanjay duo must have been the world’s most arbitrary hirer and firer of men. Their appointments defied all logic. Sometimes they chose men because they were so honest and angelic, sometimes because they were so corrupt and knavish. No principles were involved, except the principle of loyalty. Indira had never been allergic to corrupt men or to people on the make; she must surely have developed an immunity toward such people during her long years of apprenticeship to her father, a noble figure who not only tolerated but at times even promoted the worst of knaves and carpetbaggers. Had Mrs. Gandhi been averse to corrupt men she would not have granted the Hyderabad Nizami to someone like Dr Chenna Reddy or the Sultanate of Maharashtra to Abdul Rehman Antulay or the Bihar zamindari to Dr Jagannath Mishra. What an odd man out was Vishwanath Pratap Singh, but then he was not just a princeling but a good courtier, too. No rules applied. When Chenna Reddy’s corruption assumed gigantic proportions he was rewarded with a governorship. If Anjiah came to be known as the most inept man to succeed Reddy and became a bit of a joke in Andhra Pradesh, could he ever beat the clown of a chief minister Mrs Gandhi chose for the land of Shivaji? There was no better explanation given for the Babasaheb calamity than the one given by the inimitable cartoonist, RK Laxman. A row of kowtowing Congress minions, and the imperial lady

www.indianbuzz.com

turning around with a finger pointed toward a chubby face in the line, “You there, you be the next chief minister,” and then asking, “Er, what’s your name?” That about summed up all the rationale that Mrs Gandhi and her son had for hiring her men. Now Sanjay was gone, and his mother’s world lay in splinters. Whom would she turn to now? She had to rebuild her own political world. Many thought she would fall back on traditional politicians for consolation and counsel. But that had its complications, for she had a more important goal now: to create a new successor who would keep the dynasty going. She had to build a niche for Rajiv Gandhi. The new heir-apparent’s dilemma was that he fitted neither with the old, nor with the new, and to create his own following or build his own ‘political world’ was a tall order. Willy-nilly, a coterie did gather around him, the ‘whiz kids’ or the computer boys as some called them, but much as they tried, they found it hard to sell him to the people. Some thought he was ‘too good and clean for politics’, others that he was ‘too dumb’. Several years later, journalist Dhiren Bhagat, after his long and hilarious interview with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was to describe him as “an amiable duffer”.

I

take you back a little, to the time the first Son of India was still rising. Rajiv Gandhi in those days was content with co-piloting Avros. On one of his stop-overs at Patna, he had walked into the airport restaurant and taken a side table for himself. So shy and withdrawn it was hard to make any conversation with him. He blushed at every question, never looking up from his plate of fried eggs as he mumbled his ambiguous answers. On one point, though, he was quite categorical: “No politics for me...Never.” Politics was something left entirely to the other brother. Then suddenly on June 23, 1980, Sanjay was dead. A situation in the family quite akin to what John F Kennedy once wrote about his own clan: “Joe (Junior) was supposed to be the politician. When he died, I took his place. If anything happened to me, Bobby would take my place. If something happened to Bobby, Teddy would take his place.” Indira Gandhi had only two sons: the younger one who was supposed to be the politician, and the elder one who loved his family, his music, his flying. Rajiv was caught in a dilemma: should he carry on with flying or switch over to the family’s main occupation for at least three generations - politics. g Excerpted from Prime Ministers: Nehru to Vajpayee by Janardan Thakur, Eeshwar Prakashan, New Delhi

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

45

MY CORNER

tribute amitabh thakur

An ode to Rahul Sharma He has played his role as a true IPS officer successfully, in periods of acute crisis, without being partisan to one and all

R

AHUL Sharma was an Indian Police Service officer of the Gujarat cadre, belonging to the 1992 batch, who sought voluntary retirement on November 20, 2014. His request was finally accepted on February 28, 2015. Thus, today Rahul is an ex-IPS officer. At the time of his retirement, he was DIG (armed unit) at Rajkot, Gujarat. Almost all his batchmates are in the rank of Inspector General. In contrast, Rahul was only a DIG, and hence a superseded officer. In addition, as per newspaper reports, he had two departmental inquiries pending against him at the time of retirement, in addition to an adverse remark in his Annual Confidential Report (ACR). In short, technically and officially, a failed officer—not promoted, not posted on some so-called important assignment, being departmentally probed, having adverse remarks and so on. Yet Rahul is the man I would have always liked to be. Again, Rahul is among the IPS officers for whom I have the highest regard. To put it frankly, Rahul is among my role models, knowing fully well that I can never be like him. The question naturally is why, do I consider Rahul my favourite, relegating to the background so many of the super-achievers, those who are occu-

46

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

pying the highest posts of extreme public importance, those who have or had bright careers and those who are officially considered super-successful in the job? The answer is plain and simple. To me, Rahul personifies truth and valour; he personifies simplicity and honesty and he also personifies humility and good nature. And these definitely are qualities that make a person truly human and are undoubtedly above all kinds of material advances and worldly advantages. Another question that naturally arises is, how can I say so, what authority do I have to characterise and explain a person who lives some thousand miles from my place of residence and with whom I have had very few interactions? The answer again is small but

It has been repeatedly said that when the 2002 Gujarat riots broke out on February 28, Sharma, who was the Superintendent of Police in Bhavnagar district, became widely known as one of the few district police chiefs to have “responded vigorously” to control the violence

truly powerful: my inner voice, an innate feeling. And I know for sure that nothing in this mundane and inconsistent world is more powerful and consistent than a person’s inner voice. It is true that I know Rahul personally and I know him well. We were batchmates in the IPS. We were together for around one-and-a-half years in the National Police Academy at Hyderabad. We became reasonably close there because of added facts like belonging to the same state, Bihar, and being alumni of the same engineering college, IIT Kanpur, where he was two years senior to me, though we did not know each other in the college. Even later, in service, we used to talk to each other only once in a while. But I must say, my opinion is not based on personal contact or some personal liking or disliking or some kind of irrational thinking but is definitely based on fact. To begin with, right from the Academy days, we could see Rahul as an extremely transparent, truthful, innately honest, sincere, reliable and sober person. He was equally wellmannered and decent not with some kind of plasticity but with an earthiness and genuineness, which made his personality surface very naturally, effervescently and soothingly. He was plainspeaking and always to the point. There was not an iota

www.gfilesindia.com

of ruffling arrogance in him, of whatever little achievements many of us visibly showed during my interactions. Thankfully, he continued to retain these qualities all through his police service and this must have been the reason for his playing his role as a true IPS officer so successfully, in all periods of acute crisis, without being partisan to one and all. What most newspaper stories unanimously say is that Rahul played a crucial role in policing operations during the 2002 Gujarat riots. It has been repeatedly said that when the 2002 Gujarat riots broke out on February 28, Sharma, who was the Superintendent of Police (SP) in Bhavnagar district, became widely known as one of the few district police chiefs to have “responded vigorously” to control the violence. Among his heroic feats was the way he strongly handled the mob of about 10,000 people who tried to set fire to a madrassa on the outskirts of Bhavnagar, a residential Muslim school sheltering 400 students. Ex-Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani, mentioned this brave act in the Parliament. Again, as per various documents, in his new role as Deputy Commissioner in Ahmedabad, Rahul did a fantastic job while investigating the Gulbarga Society and Naroda Patiya cases. He personally worked to get the mobile phone call data records (CDR) of many key players in these riots, which he allegedly handed over to a senior police officer, to be lost in the process, but which he retraced from his computer and submitted before many inquiry commissions. This is today widely acknowledged as the key evidence resulting in

www.indianbuzz.com

Rahul personifies truth and valour; he personifies simplicity and honesty and he also personifies humility and good nature. And these definitely are qualities that make a person truly human and are undoubtedly above all kinds of material advances and worldly advantages the conviction of many political leaders and police officers, including Maya Kodnani, Jaideep Patel, Babu Bajrangi, and so on.

I

T is many years since Rahul’s wellknown exploits happened and much has changed but the man Rahul has not changed—the same shyness, the same humility, the same decency, the same effervescence and the same loyalty to truth and duty. Apparently, he has suffered a lot during the process but unlike many others, he does not carry any hard feelings and still retains his disarming

smile which makes him very different from the rest of us. That is why, whenever I see Rahul or talk to him or hear about him, I am always filled with a rare sense of joy and respect. Pride as well because I am Rahul’s batchmate, because I am from the same institute that Rahul belongs to. I must say Rahul is not the only one of his kind. I personally know of another officer who resembles Rahul in many of his traits and characteristics, Devesh Chaturvedi, an IAS officer in UP, who incidentally is again from IIT Kanpur, with whom I had an opportunity to share an official relationship some 15 years ago when I was SP of the district where he was the District Magistrate. Thankfully again, Devesh retains his original character in the same manner as Rahul, which comes forth so naturally through his smile and his openness. Hence, Rahul is not alone in his circle, but this circle is definitely not large. Since Rahul is no longer an IPS officer and will now probably work as an advocate, hence I thought it my duty to bring forth these facts and to pay tribute to this man, who truly deserves to be respected, making him and everyone else understand that promotions and ACRs are for ordinary mortals and not for people like Rahul Sharma, who stand much above these routine evaluations. Thanks, Rahul, for being what all of us should have been but most of us fail to be because of one or more weakness or because of self-imposed limitations. g Amitabh Thakur, an IPS officer from UP, is also working for transparency in governance. The views expressed are personal.

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

47

STOCK DOCTOR dr gs sood

Slow, but steady

T

HE market is going through a very tricky situation with a lot happening on the policy front, including insurance and mining Bills being cleared and allocation of coal blocks progressing with satisfactory speed, yet the widely held perception of not much happening at the ground level is taking its toll. Though this may be due to a multiplicity of factors— both global and local out playing— the tension between the market participants and the government can be best described in this cricket season as resulting from the former wanting to play a One-Day International and the government having no option but to play a Test match. The market may be in for a consolidation phase with the US Fed likely to raise interest rates around September-October, strengthening the dollar. Though economic fundamentals have greatly improved with shrinking current account deficit, controlled fiscal deficit, accelerating growth, moderating inflation, lowering interest rates and key reforms being pushed up, the dollar may yet affect an emerging market like India in two ways—one, involving the tapering FII inflows and two, companies with lots of dollar debt getting into serious trouble. This may not only add to banking sector NPAs but also reduce lending in the medium term. A recent IMF report has found that the stress level for Indian firms is at its highest since the early 2000s on all the four parameters viz, interest cover ratio, profitability, liquidity and leverage. The prevailing low-

growth environment, coupled with possible external shocks, can lead to a potential doubling of such vulnerable companies. A CARE Ratings post-December quarter results analysis of 2,894 companies finds that 1) net sales dropped 1.8 per cent y-o-y, 2) net profit declined by 31.6 per cent y-oy, and 3) interest cover declined from 2.9 in Q3 FY14 to 2.2 in Q3 FY15. The IMF doesn’t expect a great FY16 either and estimates a growth of 7.5 per cent as per the new CSO numbers since it doesn’t expect revival of investment demand anytime soon. Corporate results for the March quarter are also likely to remain muted. The terrible shape of the banking system is further cause for worry. The recent untimely rains have further raised concerns with regard to food inflation and may lead to the RBI deferring any further

rate cut. Business sentiment has fallen to its lowest level since April 2014 and demand has seen decisive moderation. The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing firms for February was at a five-month low with IIP data also not inspiring any confidence. However, in the larger picture, India still looks as the most investible alternative amongst the emerging markets. Russia, due to a drop in oil prices, and Brazil, due to lower commodity prices, stand on a weak wicket. China is slowing down. The valuations at a PE of around 16-17 times, though a bit stretched, are in line with the long-term average and the expectations of earnings expansion may still support them. Investors with a long-term commitment for 3-5 years may not only stay invested but may use any steep correction to get into quality low-debt company stocks. g

Stock Shop BY

RAKESH BHARDWAJ

Phillips Carbon Black (CMP `112)

T

HE largest producer of Carbon Black (CB) in India and sixth largest in the world, the company has the largest CB capacity of 4,72,000 MT p.a. across four locations in India with a co-generation green power plant at each location aggregating 76MW. The company is the fastest growing CB company in the world. With leading tyre companies around the globe being its customers, the company exports to more than 50 countries.

EBITDA margin for Q3FY15 expanded by 71 bps q-o-q to 10 per cent led by margin improvement in carbon black and power segments. The company reported a profit of `70 million, up 69 per cent q-o-q driven by lower interest and financing charges. The company is further expected to become more competitive vis-à-vis Chinese players globally as CBFS (Carbon Black Feedstock) prices have fallen due to decline in crude oil prices. The stock available at discount to its book value may give decent returns in one-two years.

The author has no exposure in the stock recommended in this column. gfiles does not accept responsibility for investment decisions by readers of this column. Investment-related queries may be sent to editor@gfilesindia.com with Bhardwaj’s name in the subject line.

48

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

www.gfilesindia.com

STOCK DOCTOR dr gs sood

The author has no exposure in the stock recommended in this column. gfiles does not accept responsibility for investment decisions by readers of this column. Investment-related queries may be sent to editor@gfilesindia.com with Bhardwaj’s name in the subject line.

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

49

PERSPECTIVE nature sadhguru

Spirituality with trees

A

question I am frequently asked is, ‘Why is a mystic, a spiritual leader, planting trees?’ The reference is to Project Green Hands, an Isha environmental initiative, under which 22.9 million trees have been planted since the year 2004 in Tamil Nadu state. My usual rejoinder is, ‘In this tradition, people always attained enlightenment under a tree. I am preparing so many people with the necessary yogic sadhana. But where are the trees? The ambience is missing! Who will believe you if you say you got enlightened under a concrete building? You deserve a tree!’ Unfortunately, human consciousness has grown so compartmentalised that most people have forgotten that what you consider to be your ‘body’ is just a piece of the planet. Interdependence is not a metaphysical or scientific theory. It is a reality. Your physical existence is possible only because of your body’s seamless ability to respond to the entire universe. If your body wasn’t responding, you wouldn’t be able to exist for a moment. Modern physics has established that the universe is just a great dance of energy, and every subatomic particle in your body is in constant dialogue with the entire cosmos. The aim of the spiritual process is to make this dry scientific fact a living experience for you. You have probably thought about this connection intellectually. But if you had experienced this, would anyone have to tell you, ‘Plant trees, protect the forests, save the world’?

50

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

Would it even be necessary? The 22nd of April has been designated Earth Day. It is the right occasion to remind ourselves of a fact we ignore at our own peril: the fact that we are organically connected to everything around us. Once this becomes a living experience, caring for the environment as we care for ourselves is a natural consequence. Most religions look up to the heavens for inspiration; a few look down. The few that seek the divine down in the earth have proved to be more humane and ecologically sensitive. Those that look up usually end up worshipping every other planet but this one! The spiritual process is, however, about looking neither up nor down, but looking within. And once you look inward, you cannot escape a fundamental realisation: you are an inseparable part of everything around you. This is not the goal of spirituality; it is its very basis. Trees happen to be our closest relatives. What they exhale, we inhale. What we exhale, they inhale. This transaction is on all the time. Whether you are aware of it or not, one half of your pulmonary system is hanging up there right now on a tree! If you establish even a psychological connection with a single tree and simply remind yourself five times a day of the constant transaction between both of you, you will see the

transformation in just a few days. You will start connecting with everything around you differently. You won’t limit yourself to a tree. Using this simple process, we at Isha have unleashed Project Green Hands. We spent several years planting trees in people’s minds, which is the most difficult terrain! Now transplanting those on to land happens that much more effortlessly. When I was at the World Economic Forum in Davos some years ago, a gentleman asked me if I was that ‘amazing tree-planter’. I told him I wasn’t. Planting trees is the job of other agencies, but because they are not doing their job, I am! I don’t consider this some great achievement. It is just the need of the moment, no more. It happened. Two men were working. One man was digging a hole. The other was closing it up. The third man, who was watching this, puzzled, asked, ‘What are you doing?’ The first said, ‘It’s my duty to dig holes.’ The second said, ‘And it’s my duty to close them up. There’s also another guy who plants trees, but he’s on leave.’ It’s because he’s been on leave so long that I’ve stepped in! The gentleman then asked me what my work really was. I said, to make people flower. That is my real work, my only work. g Sadhguru, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader (www.ishafoundation.org)

www.gfilesindia.com

birthdays IAS officers’ birthdays April16, 2015 — May 15, 2015

IAS officers’ birthdays April 16, 2015 — May 15, 2015

R Venkatesan

S Ramaswamy

Pradip Kumar Mohanty

Lokesh Kumar Singh

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: UTTARAKHAND

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: BIHAR

venkatr@ias.nic.in

rswamys@ias.nic.in

mohantyp@ias.nic.in

lksingh03@ias.nic.in

Prabhas Kumar Jha

Rajani Kant Verma

G Latha Krishna Rao

Chauhan Sarita Chand

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: UNION TERRITORY

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: JAMMU & KASHMIR

jhapk@ias.nic.in

vermark@ias.nic.in

raogk1@ias.nic.in

chandcs@ias.nic.in

Alok Kumar Sinha

Krishna Kumar Khare

Hukum Singh Meena

Naveen Raj Singh

CADRE: BIHAR

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: BIHAR

CADRE: KARNATAKA

sinhaak2@ias.nic.in

krishnakhare.ias@ias.nic.in

meenahs@ias.nic.in

naveen@ias.nic.in

Sanjeevanee Kutty

Rakesh Kumar Verma

Jagdip Narayan Singh

LC Goyal

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: ODISHA

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: KERALA

kuttys@ias.nic.in

vrakeshk@ias.nic.in

singhjn@ias.nic.in

goyallc@ias.nic.in

Rakesh Kumar

Arun Kumar Yadav

S Narsing Rao

SM Sarkunde

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

CADRE: SIKKIM

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

rakesh.kumar@ias.nic.in

yarunkr@ias.nic.in

raosn@ias.nic.in

Sarkunde@ias.nic.in

Umesh Kumar

Sandeep Yadav

Mahesh Kumar Gupta

Peter W Ingty

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

kumaru@ias.nic.in

yadavs@ias.nic.in

guptamk1@ias.nic.in

ingtypw@ias.nic.in

Sripriya Rengarajan

V Sheshadari

Alka Upadhyaya

Suresh Kumar Goyal

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: HARYANA

rsripriya@ias.nic.in

seshadri99@ias.nic.in

ualka@ias.nic.in

goyalsk@ias.nic.in

Deepak Kapoor

M Angamuthu

M Rajamani

Girish SN

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

CADRE: ODISHA

CADRE : ODISHA

kapoord@ias.nic.in

angmuthu@ias.nic.in

rajmani1@ias.nic.in

sngirish@ias.nic.in

E Ramesh Kumar

Rajesh Kishore

Sujata Dass

Ashim Khurana

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: PUNJAB

CADRE: GUJARAT

kumarer@ias.nic.in

kishorer@ias.nic.in

dsujata@ias.nic.in

kashim@ias.nic.in

Mohan Lal Meena

Rabindra Panwar

VK Subburaj

S Chockalingam

CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA

CADRE: BIHAR

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

meenaml@ias.nic.in

panwarr@ias.nic.in

subburaj@ias.nic.in

sclingam@ias.nic.in

Sunil Kumar Gulati

Preeti Sudan

Rajiv Kumar Gupta

Arun Kumar Sinha

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

gulatisk@ias.nic.in

sudanp@ias.nic.in

guptark2@ias.nic.in

sinhaak5@ias.nic.in

Susheel Kumar

Saurabh Bhagat

Sanjay Gupta

Narendra Kumar Aswal

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: JAMMU & KASHMIR

CADRE: HIMACHAL PRADESH

CADRE: CHHATTISGARH

kumars9@ias.nic.in

bhagats@ias.nic.in

guptas2@ias.nic.in

aswalnk@ias.nic.in

Guruprasad Mohapatra

Arun Kumar Panda

MR Zagade

Mohd Mohsin

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: ODISHA

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: KARNATAKA

mgprasad@ias.nic.in

pandaak@ias.nic.in

zagademr@ias.nic.in

mohsinm@ias.nic.in

16-04-1959

16-04-1958

17-04-1956

17-04-1960

18-04-1975

18-04-1958

19-04-1972

20-04-1966

20-04-1971

20-04-1972

21-04-1961

21-04-1958

22-04-1962

22-04-1960

23-04-1959

24-04-1958

25-04-1971

25-04-1963

26-04-1973

27-04-1973

28-04-1975

28-04-1955

29-04-1960

30-04-1960

30-04-1977

30-04-1960

01-05-1956

01-05-1958

02-05-1963

02-05-1959

03-05-1958

03-05-1964

04-05-1966

04-05-1958

05-05-1956

05-05-1956

06-05-1962

06-05-1966

07-05-1958

08-05-1977

09-05-1970

09-05-1969

10-05-1955

10-05-1956

11-05-1959

12-05-1957

12-05-1977

13-05-1956

13-05-1967

14-05-1957

15-05-1957

15-05-1969

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

51

birthdays IPS officers’ birthdays April 16, 2015 — May 15, 2015

IPS officers’ birthdays April 16, 2015 — May 15, 2015

Lata Sehra

PS Sandhu

Anish Prasad

Padmakar S Ranipse

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA

CADRE: ODISHA

slata@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

pssandhu@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

anish@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

psranipse@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Yoshwant Kumar Jethawa

Sanjay Kumar Verma

N Madhusudhan Reddy

K Venkatesham

CADRE: ODISHA

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

yoshwantjethawa@mail.svpnpa.gov.in sanjaykr@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

nrmadhusudhan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

kvenkatesham@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Alok Mohan

Nalli Kr Subramawan

KS Balasubramaniam

Ishwar Singh

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: PUNJAB

alokmohan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

nksubramawan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

ksbsubramaniam@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

ishwarsingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Datla Sreenivas Varma

Wabang Jamir

SS Trivedi

Manish Shankar Sharma

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

dsvarma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

wabangjamir@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sstrivedi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

manishsharma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Guite Thangkhanlal

PVK Reddy

Sandeep Khirwar

SR Saravanan

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: NAGALAND

thangkhanlal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

pvkreddy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sandeepkirwar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

srsaravanan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

M Chandra Sekhar

Neera Rawat

Chiruvolu Srikanth

AYV Krishna

CADRE: HIMACHAL PRADESH

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

mcsekhar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

neera@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

srikanth@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

ayvk@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Saurabh Rao

Somesh Goel

SM Tarde

Meenu Choudhary

CADRE: UTTARAKHAND

CADRE: HIMACHAL PRADESH

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: AGMUT

srao@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

goel@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

tarde@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

meenu@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Keshav Kumar

K Padmakumar

K Ramachandra Rao

SRP Kalluri

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: CHHATTISGARH

keshavkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

padmakumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

kramachandrarao@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

srpkalluri@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Rajatava Bagchi

Sapna Tewari

Madhup Kumar Tiwari

Anand Kumar Srivastava

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: ODISHA

CADRE: AGMUT

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

rajatavab@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sapna@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

madhupt@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

aksrivastava@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Rupinder Singh

Navdeep Singh Virk

Raj Kanojia

Samant Kumar Goel

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: PUNJAB

rupinder@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

nsvirk@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

rajk@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

skgoel@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

S Narayan Singh

Kasireddy VRN Reddy

Rajesh Shrihari Kamble

Hemonlang Nongpluh

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: MANIPUR–TRIPURA

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

snarayansingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

kasireddy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

rskamble@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

hemonlang@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

S Suresh

A Kumar Agarwal

Arun Kumar Sinha

KB Singh

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: ODISHA

suresh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

akumaragarwal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

arunkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

kbsingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan

P Kandaswamy

Harpreet Singh Sidhu

N Shivakumar

CADRE: JHARKHAND

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: PUNJAB

CADRE: KARNATAKA

bibpradhan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

kandaswamy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

hssidhu@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

nshivakumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

16-04-1977

17-04-1968

18-04-1965

18-04-1970

20-04-1961

20-04-1974

20-04-1975

21-04-1961

21-04-1951

21-04-1971

22-04-1964

22-04-1967

23-04-1959

23-04-1963

23-04-1968

24-04-1969

24-04-1971

25-04-1957

26-04-1966

26-04-1961

27-04-1965

28-04-1966

28-04-1969

29-04-1966

29-04-1963

30-04-1963

01-05-1976

01-05-1969

02-05-1955

03-05-1959

04-05-1973

05-05-1972

06-05-1965

07-05-1966

08-05-1972

08-05-1959

08-05-1971

09-05-1963

09-05-1967

09-05-1968

10-05-1962

10-05-1966

11-05-1966

11-05-1970

12-05-1970

12-05-1975

12-05-1971

13-05-1967

13-05-1960

14-05-1963

15-05-1959

15-05-1962

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

52

gfiles inside the government

vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

www.gfilesindia.com

birthdays Lok Sabha Members

April 16, 2015 — May 15, 2015

Lok Sabha Members

April 16, 2015 — May 15, 2015

Karia Munda

Bijoy Chandra Barman

Keshav Prasad Maurya

Raksha Nikhil Khadase

BJP (Jharkhand)

AITC (West Bengal)

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

BJP (Maharashtra)

kariya.munda@sansad.nic.in

bc.barman@sansad.nic.in

keshav.prasad@sansad.nic.in

nr.khadase@sansad.nic.in

P Karunakaran

Ram Charitra

Muzaffar Hussain Baig

CPI-M (Kerala)

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

PDP (Jammu & Kashmir)

Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser

pkarunakaranmp@gmail.com

ram.charitra@sansad.nic.in

muzaffar.baig@sansad.nic.in

Jayant Sinha

Janardan Mishra

Shivaji Adhalrao Patil

BJP (Jharkhand)

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

SS (Maharashtra)

20-04-1936

20-04-1945

21-04-1963

01-05-1957

01-05-1964

01-05-1956

21-04-1971 AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

p.kumar@sansad.nic.in

MK Raghavan 21-04-1952 INC (Kerala)

calicutmp@yahoo.co.in

Subhash Patel 25-04-1978

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

subhash.patel@sansad.nic.in

Joice George 26-04-1970

Independent (Kerala)

joice.george@sansad.nic.in

Satish Chandra Dubey 02-05-1975 BJP (Bihar)

Ravindra Kumar 02-05-1958

BJP (Jharkhand)

ravindrak.ray@sansad.nic.in

Sidhant Mahapatra 04-05-1966 BJD (Odisha)

sssm234@gmail.com

C Mahendran 04-05-1972

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

Natubhai Gomanbhai Patel 04-05-1972

Ravindra Vishwanath Gaikwad

BJP (Dadar & Nagar Haveli)

27-04-1960

dnhmp2009@gmail.com

SS (Maharashtra)

Konakalla Narayana Rao

gr.vishwanath@sansad.nic.in

04-05-1950

Prasanna Kumar Patasani

TDP (Andhra Pradesh)

27-04-1946

knr12699@gmail.com

BJD (Odisha)

Kamla Devi Patle

Anupriya Patel 28-04-1981

APNA DAL (Uttar Pradesh)

anupriyasingh.patel@sansad.nic.in

Ponnusamy Venugopal 28-04-1952

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

Meenakshi Lekhi 30-04-1967 BJP (Delhi)

meenakashi.lekhi@sansad.nic.in

Naba Kumar Sarania 01-05-1969 IND (Assam)

08-05-1946

08-05-1956

05-05-1966

BJP (Chhattisgarh)

kd.patle@sansad.nic.in

Rama Devi 05-05-1949 BJP (Bihar)

Shailesh (Bulo Mandal) Kumar 06-05-1975 RJD (BIHAR)

shailesh.kumar19@sansad.nic.in

Balasubramaniam Senguttuvan 06-05-1956

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

senguttuvanb_gp@yahoo.com

13-05-1987

13-05-1958 LJSP (Bihar)

mahboobali.kaiser@sansad.nic.in

K Kamaraaj

shivajirao@sansad.nic.in

jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in

P Kumar

07-05-1969

Sanganna Amarappa Karadi 08-05-1950

13-05-1965

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

Anoop Mishra 13-05-1956

BJP (Karnataka)

BJP (Andhra Pradesh)

Dilip Kumar Mansukhlal Gandhi 09-05-1951

anoop.mishra@sansad.nic.in

Asaduddin Owaisi 13-05-1969

BJP (Maharashtra)

AIMIM (Telangana)

dmgandhi@sansad.nic.in

asad.owaisi@sansad.nic.in

Uma Saren 09-05-1984

AITC (West Bengal)

Rajya Sabha Members

April 16, 2015 — May 15, 2015

Avtar Singh Karimpuri

Hishey Lachungpa

BSP (Uttar Pradesh)

SDF (Sikkim)

as.karimpuri@sansad.nic.in

h.lachungpa@sansad.nic.in

Mukul Roy

VP Singh Badnore

AITC (West Bengal)

BJP (Rajasthan)

roy.mukul@sansad.nic.in

vps.badnore@sansad.nic.in

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Vijay Jawaharlal Darda

(Nominated)

INC (Maharashtra)

16-04-1964

17-04-1954

10-05-1967

12-05-1948

24-04-1973

14-05-1950

vijaydarda@sansad.nic.in

Anil Desai

Tiruchi Siva

02-05-1957

15-05-1954

SS (Maharashtra)

anil.desai@sansad.nic.in

DMK (Tamil Nadu)

tiruchi.siva@sansad.nic.in

Brijlal Khabri 10-05-1961

BSP (Uttar Pradesh)

bl.khabri@sansad.nic.in

SEND YOUR GREETINGS…

Want to wish someone best of luck for an important assignment or send a bouquet to an official or MP on his/her birthday, anniversary or promotion? gfiles will do it for you. The service is available only in Delhi. Contact us at adv@gfilesindia.com *Conditions apply

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

53

Tracking

For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com

PHOTOS: PIB

President Pranab Mukherjee with the officer trainees of the 68th batch of Indian Revenue Service from the National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT), Nagpur, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on March 13, 2015.

PRITAM SINGH

TV SOMANATHAN

S KISHORE

The 1984-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre has been appointed Additional Secretary in Ministry for Corporate Affairs.

The 1987-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The 1989-batch IAS officer has been appointed Secretary, Industries, in West Bengal.

BHARAT BHUSHAN VYAS

RAJESH KUMAR KHULLAR

DEVENDRA NATH GUPTA

The 1986-batch IAS officer has been appointed Principal Secretary to J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

The 1988-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been appointed Principal Secretary, Information and Public Relations, Haryana

The 1989-batch IAS officer has been appointed new Chief Electoral Officer, Odisha.

GULSHAN RAI

ANSHU SINHA

The cyber security expert has been appointed Special Secretary for Cyber Security in PMO.

The 1999-batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre has joined the Government of India as Director (Films) in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The 1991-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre has joined Government of India as Joint Secretary, Higher Education.

MADHUKAR GUPTA The 1985-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre has been deputed to the Government of India as Joint Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises.

ALOK KUMAR SINHA The 1979-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Chairman of the Bihar Public Service Commission.

ISHITA ROY

MUSSARAT-UL-ISLAM The Additional Secretary in the Information Department, has been appointed Additional Secretary (Press and Publicity) in the Chief Minister’s secretariat in Jammu & Kashmir

Moving On: IAS officers retiring in April 2015 ASSAM

Nilufar Alam Hazarika (1998) Larlyne Ingtipi (2001)

ANDHRA PRADESH

K Madhusudana Rao (1991)

CHHATTISGARH

Rajendra Prasad Jain (1990)

GUJARAT

Rajesh Kishore (1980) Hara Krushna Dash (1980) CP Patel (2003)

54

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Kanshi Ram Bharti (2001)

JAMMU & KASHMIR Abdul Maajid Ganai

KARNATAKA

MN Vijaykumar (1981)

MADHYA PRADESH

Swadeep Singh (1979) Sneh Lata Kumar (1979)

ODISHA

Hrusikesh Panda (1979)

Sailanedra Narayan Dey (1999) Guru Prasad Mishra (2000) Akshay Kumar Pani (2000) Srikanta Kabi (2000)

SIKKIM

AK Chettri (1998)

TAMIL NADU

K Ganesan (1981) PM Basheer Ahmed (1991)

UTTAR PRADESH

Saurabh Chandra (1978) Ravindra Singh (1979)

www.gfilesindia.com

Tracking

For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com

SANDEEP GARG The 1991-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been posted as Director General, Tourism and Advisor, Civil Aviation in Haryana.

RAJAGOPAL DEVARA The 1992-batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre has been empanelled for the post of Joint Secretary in Government of India.

GS MISHRA The 1994-batch IAS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre has taken over charge as Commissioner of Public Relations Department, Chhattisgarh.

MANISH RASTOGI The 1994-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation (MPRDC) as well as ex-officio Secretary, PWD in Madhya Pradesh.

SUBHASH CHANDRA

President Pranab Mukherjee with the probationers of the Indian P&T Accounts & Finance Service of 2013 and 2014 batches, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on March 26, 2015. Pradesh cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs for a period of five years.

P VENKATA RAMI REDDY

SANDEEP CHAKRAVORTY The 1996-batch IFS officer, Deputy High Commissioner in High Commission of India, Dhaka, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Peru.

The 1995-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been posted as Director General, Technical Education in Haryana.

The 2007-batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre has been transferred and posted as Joint Collector & Additional District Magistrate, Medak in Telangana.

M DANA KISHORE

PI SREEVIDYA

The 1996-batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre has been appointed Managing Director (MD), Rajiv Swagruha Corporation Limited (RSCL), Hyderabad.

The 2010-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchayat, DK District, Mangaluru in Karnataka.

KARNAIL SINGH

AJITABH SHARMA

ARUN KUMAR SINGH

CV MUNIRAJU

The 1996-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre has been assigned an additional charge of Chairman, Indira Gandhi Nahar Board (IGNB), Rajasthan.

The 1979-batch IFS officer has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the United States.

C SRIDHAR

The 1987-batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Additional Director General, Anti-Naxal Campaign, PHQ, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

The 1981-batch IFS officer has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The 2001-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been deputed Deputy Director at Deputy Secretary level in the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.

RAJIV SHANKAR SHANKAR The 2001-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre has been appointed Special Secretary, Redressal of Public Grievances in Himachal Pradesh.

SAURABH GAUR The 2002-batch IAS officer of the Andhra

www.indianbuzz.com

JS MUKUL

INDRA MANI PANDEY The 1990-batch IFS officer, Deputy Chief of Mission in Embassy of India, Paris, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Sultanate of Oman.

VIKRAM KUMAR DORAISWAMI The 1992-batch IFS officer, Ambassador of India to Uzbekistan, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Korea.

AK DHASMANA The 1981-batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been promoted to the rank of Special Director in the R&AW.

The 1984-batch IPS officer of the Union Territory cadre has been given pro-forma promotion to the rank of DG.

SUSHOBHAN BENERJEE The 1989-batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Additional Director General, Jail in Madhya Pradesh.

N MADHUSUDAN REDDY The 1997-batch IPS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre has been posted as Inspector General of Police, Personnel & Organization in Andhra Pradesh.

VIPUL AGGARWAL The 2001-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

55

ANIL BHATIA The 1996-batch ITS officer has been appointed Director in the UIDAI, Chandigarh under the NITI Aayog.

BHINAVA WALIA The 1989-batch IPoS officer has been appointed Deputy Director General, Postal Operations, Postal Directorate, New Delhi.

MANOJ KUMAR The 2003-batch IPoS officer has been appointed Director, Postal Service (DPS), Rajkot region, Gujarat circle.

President Pranab Mukherjee with the probationers of the Indian Postal Service of 2014 Batch, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on March 26, 2015. cadre has been appointed Managing Director of Gujarat Medical Services Corporation Limited, Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

LOKESH JAYASWAL The 1987-batch IFS officer of the Telangana cadre has been posted as Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF)/Conservator Forests, P&E Circle, Hyderabad.

NALINI MOHAN

appointed Director in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

KK SINGH The 2002-batch IRS officer has been appointed Joint Director, Enforcement Directorate, in Chandigarh.

KG GOYAL The 2003-batch IRS officer has been appointed Joint Director, Enforcement Directorate, in Jaipur.

The 1987-batch IFS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre has been assigned full additional charge of the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), State Level Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Board.

SATYABRATA KUMAR

RAJBIR PANWAR

The 1981-batch IES officer has been appointed Senior Adviser, Ministry of Panchayati Raj after the promotion to the Higher Administrative Grade (HAG).

The 1991-batch IFS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to Mansukhbhai Dhanibhai Vasava, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, at the Director Level.

M RAJKUMAR The 2000-batch IFS officer of the Union Territory cadre has been appointed Director in the Ministry of Coal.

SUKESH KUMAR JAIN The 1992-batch IRS officer has been appointed Officer on Special Duty to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

RAHUL SINGH The 2000-batch ITS officer has been

56

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

The 2004-batch IRS officer has been appointed Joint Director, Enforcement Directorate, in Mumbai.

RUGMINI PARMAR

DEVENDRA YADAV The 1995-batch ITS officer has been deputed Director in the Ministry of Minority Affairs in the Government of India. THE FOLLOWING ADDITIONAL JUDGES HAVE BEEN APPOINTED JUDGES OF DELHI HIGH COURT: JAYANT NATH, NAJMUSSAHAR WAZIRI, SANJEEV SACHDEVA, VIBHU BAKHRU, VALLURI KAMESWAR RAO, SUNITA GUPTA, DEEPA SHARMA, and VED PRAKASH VAISH

ASHWINI KUMAR MISHRA The 2000-batch IoFS officer has been appointed Director in Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

VISHNU KUMAR MATHUR The Justice has been appointed Chairperson, Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) at Allahabad.

KALLAKURI GIRIJA SHANKAR The Justice has been appointed Chairperson, Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) at Chennai.

SUNIL AMBWANI The Justice has been appointed the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court.

AJIT SINGH The Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, has been appointed Judge of Rajasthan High Court.

ASHOK CHOWDHRY The officer has been posted as Advisor, Public Grievances, Railway Board and promoted to Higher Administrative grade.

BP SHARMA The Executive Director, AAI, has taken over the charge as Chairman & Managing Director, Pawan Hans Limited.

RAJIV SINGH The former MTNL official is now Director (Finance) in the Prasar Bharati.

TS RAJU The Director (D&D), HAL, has joined as full-time Chairman, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

www.gfilesindia.com

...by the way Marathon meet in Haryana NDMC needs Chairman

T

he Home Ministry has been searching for a competent officer to replace Jalaj Shrivastva, a 1984-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre and Chairman, New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). As NDMC chairman, an officer has access to the all-powerful dignitaries who reside in Lutyens’ Delhi. There are many contenders for the coveted post. It’s an additional secretary’s post so many senior officers of the AGMUT cadre are aspiring for this prized position. There are two prominent names in the running. The only issue is that one of the concerned officers has served as principal secretary to Ajay Maken. Another officer who is also trying for the post has served Uma Bharati on her staff. So hectic lobbying is on. It has been learnt that a very senior officer, whose name emerged prominently in the Commonwealth Games scandal, is trying to instal his own confidant, so all the files still lying in the NDMC can be taken care of comfortably. The Home Ministry is facing a dilemma, as whoever it is likely to choose is in one way or another connected to Congress leaders—a natural corollary as the Congress ruled Delhi for 15 years. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has tasked his officials with searching for an efficient officer but they have not succeeded till now. There are many efficient and honest officers in the AGMUT cadre but the point is, does the Home Ministry really need such officers or are they looking for an officer who has the right connections and recommendations? Let us wait and watch. g

www.indianbuzz.com

H

ow will one feel, as a senior officer, when he is supposed to sit the whole day to attend a marathon meeting with the chief minister of a state and other Cabinet ministers along with his seniormost colleagues. Obviously, it will be tiring. The new dispensation in Haryana does not care much for the comfort and dipping efficiency of the officers. Haryana officials have not seen such a long session of meetings ever. The Haryana government has never believed in meetings. The trend in the government had been such that the chief minister or the chief secretary would brief the agenda on a one-to-one basis and the respective heads of departments would hold a meeting to implement the briefed agenda. Manohar Lal Khattar, the current Chief Minister of Haryana, has reversed the trend in the last week of March. He called a full-day meeting of the Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners of Haryana. It was the longest-ever meeting of bureaucrats to discuss the agenda of the state. The meeting is said to have started at 9.30 in the morning and finished at 9.30 in the evening. Bureaucrats were perplexed at the change in attitude of the new government. Though lunch and tea were served, yet sitting for such an extended period was a herculean task. After the meeting, some of the officers were complaining of headaches, backaches and swollen feet. A lady officer, while exiting the meeting, remarked to her colleague, “Why are you looking so fatigued? Just think that we all travelled from Delhi to New York.” Everybody laughed. g

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

57

...by the way Alert for CVC Absence of equality? uality?

H

ow is it that the Department of Urban Development opment in the Delhi government ent has the most number of Dalit (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) officers? It is surprising to learn that at the Principal Secretary, ry, Joint Secretary (Municipal Bodies), Deputy Secretary (Administration) as well as the Deputy Controller of Accounts are all from the Scheduled Caste category. Had it stopped here, the officials could understand the focus of the government. But the Special Secretary, Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary (National Livelihood Mission) and also the Joint Director (Planning) are all Scheduled Tribe officers. The Urban Development Department is a very important one as it not only deals with unauthorised colonies in Delhi but also governs the MLA Local Area Development Funds, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, all Municipal Corporations of Delhi, NDMC and the Jal Board. Nobody is able to pinpoint why all the Dalit officers are being posted in only the Urban Development Department. Not surprisingly, most of the officers have never lived in Delhi and are not aware of the geographical nuances of the capital. Dealing with unauthorised colonies is the most complex subject of this department. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should take the initiative and reallocate the Dalit officers rather than grouping them in a single department. g

T

he Modi government is looking for a new Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). We learn that there are 40 serious contenders for the post. The position has been lying vacant since September last year and the Commission is virtually being run by its Secretary, Alok Kumar, a 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. A strong contender is Devender Sikri, a retired 1975-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre. He has served as Secretary, Law & Justice. Sikri has also served in Home and Women and Child Development. His Gujarat connection is an added advantage. Also in the running is Arun Kumar Jain, a 1977-batch Nagaland-cadre IAS officer, retired as Secretary, Women and Child Development. Arun has vast experience of serving in Home, Prasar Bharti and Heavy Industries. His expertise in finance is an additional advantage. Arun is also known for his impeccable integrity. Pankaj Jain, another contender, is a retired 1978-batch IAS officer of the J&K cadre and Secretary, Water and a d former o e Sec eta y, Drinking in Sanitation. Pankaj is considered a fastco Trivedi track officer. Vishwapati Vishw (1977, IAS, MP cadre) who retired ca as Secr Secretary, Shipping, in November 2014 No is also al in the race. Trivedi has served in Tri Finance, Commerce, Fin Civil Civ Aviation and Home Affairs. H There’s GC Chaturvedi, former Petroleum f Secretary (1977) S and currently a serving as Member, ser Warehousing Development Regulatory Authority. Then there is Amarjeet Singh Lamba, a retired 1977-batch officer who was appointed Member of Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in 2013. He has also served as Secretary, DONER, and Special Secretary, Agriculture. One wonders who will be the chosen one! Files are piling up and major decisions have to be taken. So the government needs a new CVC. g ILLUSTRATIONS: ARUNA

58

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 1 | April 2015

www.gfilesindia.com

Regn.No.DL(C)-14/1161/2013-15 Licence No. U(C)-03/2013-15, Licence to post without prepayment Posted on 7th & 8th of every month at SPM SRT Nagar, Post Office, New Delhi 110055 R.N.I. No: DELENG/2007/19719. `200, vol. 9, issue 1 | Date of Publication: 5/4/2015 | Pages 56+4

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.