Modi and his Mayajaal :
Modi celebrated the completion of his 10 years as Gujarat's chief minister with great pomp on October 7. For a nation bedazzled by this apparent success story that he has charted, a realistic report card based on CAG reports and information obtained through RTI is worth looking at.
The three-day Nano deal with the Tatas is well known. The land was allotted allegedly at Rs:900 per square metre when the market rate was Rs:10,000. A Rs:33,000 crore gift to Tata Motors. Land was allotted at Rs:1 per square metre to the Adanis for the Mundra Port and SEC, a rate less than 1 per cent of the market rate.
The 65,000 square metres of land belonging to the Navsari Agricultural University was forcibly taken away and sold to the Chhatrala Indian Hotel Group, in a deal allegedly brokered by the CM, causing a loss of Rs:426 crore to the exchequer. Essar Steel was allotted 2.08 lakh square metres of land in direct contravention of Supreme Court guidelines.
A huge plot near the Pakistan border was allotted to salt companies in contravention of basic border safety norms to a company allegedly close to BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu. Real estate developer K. Raheja was allotted 3,76,561 square metres of land at Rs:470 per square metre while the South West Air Command was asked to pay three times that price.
The government purchased cattle feed from a blacklisted company at Rs: 240 per 5kg, when the market rate was Rs:120. Despite investment of Rs:4,93,350 crore, the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation has earned only Rs:290 crore from 13 out of 51 oil and gas fields discovered. Its partner GeoGlobal has been hired in a sweetheart deal that goes way beyond profit sharing. Modi used private luxury aircraft 200 times in the last five years with the cost being borne by the favoured coterie of industrialists. The Rs:6237.33 crore Sujalam Sufalam Yojana announced in 2003, scheduled to be completed by 2005, remains in limbo. A Public Accounts Committee report indicating a fraud of Rs:500 crore has not been tabled in the Assembly.
Fisheries Minister Purushottam Solanki awarded contracts for fishing activities in 38 lakes in 2008, without inviting tenders when bidders were ready to pay Rs:25 lakh per lake. The High Court has just indicted the minister for a loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs:40 crore. However, the minister has not been removed from office.
Gujarat State Pipavav Power Station's 49 per cent of shares were sold to Swan Energy without any tenders. Gujarat's public debt has reached Rs:1,29,446 crore. There are villages in Bhavnagar district which, in spite of having electric connections, have not got electricity in the last 17 years.
Around 16,000 farmers, workers and labourers have committed suicide in the last 10 years because of economic hardships.
The malnutrition level for children below the age of five and the dropout rate of children between classes one and five are higher than the national average.
Once safe, Ahmedabad has been declared the third most dangerous city for women in the country.
Of 27,814 slum families evicted between 2002 and 2009 and promised alternate accommodation, only 10.42 per cent have been resettled. The accommodation provided is far from the city, and without basic infrastructure or transport facilities.
None of the above corrupt deals, the tip of the Gujarat iceberg, can be investigated because of the absence of a Lokayukta. With increasing attacks on RTI activists and whistleblowers, the government's attempts at gagging the lone voices gather further strength with the absence of an RTI commissioner to look at new RTI appeals. With big industry in cohorts with an ‘enabling' government, is it a surprise that Gujarat continues to hide behind the veil of the mayajaal of the vibrant state?
Articles from THE-WEEK publication 30.Oct.2011
Modi and his Mayajaal :
Modi celebrated the completion of his 10 years as Gujarat's chief minister with great pomp on October 7. For a nation bedazzled by this apparent success story that he has charted, a realistic report card based on CAG reports and information obtained through RTI is worth looking at.
The three-day Nano deal with the Tatas is well known. The land was allotted allegedly at Rs:900 per square metre when the market rate was Rs:10,000. A Rs:33,000 crore gift to Tata Motors. Land was allotted at Rs:1 per square metre to the Adanis for the Mundra Port and SEC, a rate less than 1 per cent of the market rate.
The 65,000 square metres of land belonging to the Navsari Agricultural University was forcibly taken away and sold to the Chhatrala Indian Hotel Group, in a deal allegedly brokered by the CM, causing a loss of Rs:426 crore to the exchequer. Essar Steel was allotted 2.08 lakh square metres of land in direct contravention of Supreme Court guidelines.
A huge plot near the Pakistan border was allotted to salt companies in contravention of basic border safety norms to a company allegedly close to BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu. Real estate developer K. Raheja was allotted 3,76,561 square metres of land at Rs:470 per square metre while the South West Air Command was asked to pay three times that price.
The government purchased cattle feed from a blacklisted company at Rs: 240 per 5kg, when the market rate was Rs:120. Despite investment of Rs:4,93,350 crore, the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation has earned only Rs:290 crore from 13 out of 51 oil and gas fields discovered. Its partner GeoGlobal has been hired in a sweetheart deal that goes way beyond profit sharing. Modi used private luxury aircraft 200 times in the last five years with the cost being borne by the favoured coterie of industrialists. The Rs:6237.33 crore Sujalam Sufalam Yojana announced in 2003, scheduled to be completed by 2005, remains in limbo. A Public Accounts Committee report indicating a fraud of Rs:500 crore has not been tabled in the Assembly.
Fisheries Minister Purushottam Solanki awarded contracts for fishing activities in 38 lakes in 2008, without inviting tenders when bidders were ready to pay Rs:25 lakh per lake. The High Court has just indicted the minister for a loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs:40 crore. However, the minister has not been removed from office.
Gujarat State Pipavav Power Station's 49 per cent of shares were sold to Swan Energy without any tenders. Gujarat's public debt has reached Rs:1,29,446 crore. There are villages in Bhavnagar district which, in spite of having electric connections, have not got electricity in the last 17 years.
Around 16,000 farmers, workers and labourers have committed suicide in the last 10 years because of economic hardships.
The malnutrition level for children below the age of five and the dropout rate of children between classes one and five are higher than the national average.
Once safe, Ahmedabad has been declared the third most dangerous city for women in the country.
Of 27,814 slum families evicted between 2002 and 2009 and promised alternate accommodation, only 10.42 per cent have been resettled. The accommodation provided is far from the city, and without basic infrastructure or transport facilities.
None of the above corrupt deals, the tip of the Gujarat iceberg, can be investigated because of the absence of a Lokayukta. With increasing attacks on RTI activists and whistleblowers, the government's attempts at gagging the lone voices gather further strength with the absence of an RTI commissioner to look at new RTI appeals. With big industry in cohorts with an ‘enabling' government, is it a surprise that Gujarat continues to hide behind the veil of the mayajaal of the vibrant state?
Articles from THE-WEEK publication 30.Oct.2011
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