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STATE SCAN NMDC UNDER VALUES KARNATAKA IRON ORE p18
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VOL. 10, ISSUE 3
FIRST STIRRINGS
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LAKHINA
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Will Shivraj survive
Simhastha?
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vol. 10, ISSUE 3 | JUNE 2016

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RIME Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has created a larger than life
image in just two years. The next 1,095 days will not only lay down the
roadmap of the BJP but also the Opposition. The days ahead will decide
which way the Indian polity and economy will move. In the two years gone
by, Modi has laid down the vision for India vis-a-vis the world. The game has
just reversedfor the last 60 years it was Congress versus others, now its
BJP versus others. Will the Opposition be able to consolidate and provide a
respectable fight to the Modi-led BJP? Does the Opposition have the vision and
decisive speed to match Modi? In that sense, Modi has completely changed
the dynamics of Indian politics and at present, there seems to be no leader to
match his stature at the national level. Mulayam Singhs political credibility will
be tested in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017. But he is unable to
look beyond caste combinations, forget the national agenda. As for Mayawati, it
is to be seen whether shell be able to emerge as a dark horse in the UP election.
Jayalalithaa may not like to join any Opposition grouping as she does not trust
the Opposition parties. Moreover, she may not like to come out of her cocoon.
Mamata Banerjee is a leader to be watched for the next three years and it will
be interesting to see how she performs in West Bengal. Also, to don a national
role she will have to make herself acceptable to the Opposition parties. The
stumbling block for Mamata is that the people who surround her dont have the
vision to run even a State. Mamatas image is that of an agitator, while to be a
pan-India leader you need a vision, persona and understanding of issues.
Nitish Kumar has the potential to emerge as a national leader, but he has
many problems within the State and his party. I doubt he will be able to emerge
out from his own problems and present himself as an acceptable leader of the
Opposition conglomerate. He lacks the spark of Modi and his body language
does not inspire the youth. Naveen Patnaik is suave, soft-spoken and an efficient administrator, but he appears to be content in his own kingdom. He may
welcome any combination which can weaken the BJP as he can easily deal with
the Congress. Chandrababu Naidu would have been an inspired choice for an
Opposition leader, but he has already chosen his political roadmap. The real crisis is with the Left parties, mainly CPI-M and CPI. They appear to have lost their
footing in the Indian political landscape. They owe their survival to the labour
unions across India. At most, they can only act as a catalyst to Opposition unity.
As for Arvind Kejriwal, he has a long way to go. He can join any bandwagon that
enhances his chances to remain relevant on the national horizon. Apart from
Kejriwal, all the others are leaders of a bygone era. Most of them are still caught
up in caste, religion and region while the world has become boundary less.
The real test is for the Congress Party. If everything goes as per plan, Rahul
Gandhi will formally take over as the party president. But, who will accept him
as the leader of Opposition? None, at this point. Rahul Gandhi alone will not be
able to emerge as a national leader as regional satraps will cede their political
space. So, there is a big vacuum in the Opposition. The paradox is that even
in the BJP, there is no second line of leadership that can match the persona of
Modi in the next three years.
ANIL TYAGI
Download the gfiles app
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editor@gfilesindia.com
gfiles inside the government

vol. 10, issue 3 | June 2016
CONTENTS
LETTERS
editor@gfilesindia.com
05 Bric-a-Brac
priyankas rent woes, kuldeep steals

a march, dlf holds sway, choices
before bjp
Spectre of superannuation
07 Eyes Wide Shut

time to face the public
08 Cover Story
are shivraj singh chouhans days

numbered as chief minister?
18 State Scan
karnataka: undervaluing iron ore

20 haryana: direct pension transfers
22 j&k: more than just connectivity
24 Governance
issues in transport infrastructure

32 revitalising the ganga
36 First Stirrings
the man behind the lakhina pattern
39 Book Review
what a democracy entails
40 Book Extract
the years of charan singh
48 Perspective
power of the intellect
49 Stock Doctor
india continues to outperform
57 By the Way
dd profile of lavasa, grumbling on

facebook, posting queues in delhi,
where are the tv professionals

Praise for performers

This is with reference to the article
Delivering at the last mile(gfiles, May
2016). I agree with the author that
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
exhorted civil servants to reform,
perform and transform. His 4 flagship
programmes-Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan
Yojana, Swachh Bharat (Gramin),
Swachh Vidalaya and Soil Health Card
have emerged the most appropriate
steps taken for the development of
India. We must acknowledge that how
our PM motivates civil servants, they
are not workers who work for wages;
they are civil servants engaged in the
noble task of public service. The way
Narendra Modi argued that if officers
reformed and performed,
transformation would become visible
on its own, is quite appreciable. Under
the Modi government public grievances
has been addressed more easily and
civil service day provides a unique
opportunity for introspection and to
check out for future strategies to deal
with the challenges being posed in
coming times. I hope more civil
servants come forward and dedicate
themselves whole-heartedly in their
work and also hope to read more such
articles in future.
LP Singh via email
I recently came across an old issue of

gfiles and one of the articles caught my
attention. It flagged an important issue
that seems to have been missed by
everyone else. This is with reference to
the article A step towards minimum
government? (gfiles, October 2015). I
agree with the author that the minimum
eligibility for joining civil services should
be raised to 27 years. The
recommendation of the 7th Central Pay
Commission is that all central
government employees should be retired
from service on completion of 33 years of
service or the age of 60 years. At the age
of 60 years, retirement is reasonable
because this is the age but retirement
after 33 years of service is not fair
because any person joining civil service
at an early age would retire by the age of
53 yearsan age when people are still
in process of settling their families.
Increasing the limit to 33 years of service
would be a better option because this
would increase the employment
opportunities for the youth who dream of
becoming a civil aspirant. Hope that the
government looks at either raising the
eligibility to 27 years or increasing the
years of service to at least 40 years.
P Kumar via email
Make in India
Many of us are eagerly looking forward
to see the results, both short term and
long term, of the various components on
the Make in India programme. The allencompassing nature of the initiative
bodes well for the economy and society
as a whole. It is hoped that the
expectations in terms of employment,
especially, come to fruit as soon as
possible. This is very important to stop
the trend of unrest and rebellion that is
sweeping among the educated youth of
the country.
Devendra Sinha via email
www.gfilesindia.com
Bric-a-brac
pros & cons
Vajpayee touch
how priyanka got the house
RIYANKA Gandhi, the daughter of late Prime Minister Rajiv

Gandhi, has been living at 35, Lodhi Estate in New Delhi, for
the last 14 years. As per records, she has to pay `3.76 lakh
annually as house rent to the government. Its a small amount for
the Gandhi family, but she is contesting the exorbitant rates being
charged by the government. The matter is bound to be
controversial in the changed regime, especially when the issue
concerns the Nehru-Gandhi family. Priyanka is protected by the
SPG which cant take the risk that she lives elsewhere, at a
vulnerable location. The house was allotted to her when Atal Bihari
Vajpayee took over as Prime Minister. Vajpayee used to take
care of the needs not only of the Gandhi family, but other
Opposition leaders also. Its learnt that the house was
allotted to Priyanka at the initiative of Vajpayee himself.
He deputed Brijesh Mishra to arrange for the house and
instructed his son-in-law, Ranjan Bhattacharya, to look
after the arrangements. Accordingly, 35, Lodhi Estate
was allotted to Priyanka in no time. Vajpayee even called Priyanka after the allotment and informed her that she could
get in touch with Bhattacharya whenever she had any problem. So far, she had not faced any problem. Who will she
get in touch with now?
DLF rules in Haryana

inquiry commission in limbo?
VERYBODY thought that with the change of guard in Haryana, the realty
giant DLF would be in problem. There is much hullabaloo in the State
and newspapers regarding the alleged linkages between DLF and Sonia
Gandhis son-in-law, Robert Vadra. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal
Khattar has constituted a one-man commission to dig out the truth.
However, almost one-and-a-half years have passed, but the government
is still in search of the truth. Insiders reveal that Khattar has a complete
file on land deals regarding DLF and Vadra. Had the BJP come down
strong on DLF, the realty developer would have been in amuddle. But
the scenario is contrary to expectations. DLF Vice-Chairman Rajiv Singh
regularly visits Chandigarh and meets ministers and officials. Haryana
Government Secretariat and HUDA offices wait for his visit. Some prominent
ministers have taken Singh for lunch in a five-star hotels in Chandigarh. Its
learnt that DLF has cultivated some of the top BJP and RSS functionaries
and are regularly in touch with them. And so, intelligent ministers have been
conveyed to look after the interests of DLF. It seems it is rightly said in Haryana,
DLF is the ruling party of the State!
www.indianbuzz.com

Kuldeeps homecoming
hooda angry at being ignored
ULDEEP Bishnoi, son of a veteran and influential Haryana politician Bhajan Lal, tried hard to
become a force in the State. He launched the Haryana Janhit Congress at the time when the
Bhupinder Singh Hooda as a Chief Minister instead of Bhajan Lal 12 years ago.
Congress chose Bhup
Kuldeep has a massive
K
mass
following among non-Jats in Haryana. Hooda managed the State
Congress so ruthle
ruthlessly that even another Jat leader, Birendra Singh, left and joined the BJP.
Hooda is so shrewd
shrew that he managed and operated through Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of
the Gandhi family,
fam
for nine years of his regime. Most of the Congress leaders were helpless
in the regime of Hooda. His son, Deependra Singh Hooda, is reportedly trying to
part of the Rahul Gandhi coterie but Randeep Sujewala has outwitted him in
become par
entry into the Congress was a low-key affair. It is said, Bishnoi was
the game. Bishnois
B
given an order
ord by the high command that he meet Shailaja Kumari, catch up with
Ashok Tanwar
Tanw and Ajay Yadav, but Hooda should not know about his entry into the
Congress. Hooda
Ho
though got the hint and asked for an appointment with Sonia Gandhi.
on ignoring him. Then a strong message from his side was sent to 10,
10 Janpath kept
k
Janpath, saying
sayi if the Modi government sends him to jail, he will not allow the Gandhi
family
famil to make him a scapegoat, and that he will open his mouth. He got an
appointment
with Sonia within two days of sending the message. Hooda is
ap
angry
that without taking him into confidence, Sonia got Kuldeep into the
a
Congress. The move was planned by none other than Ahmed Patel. There
was a time when Hooda used to ignore the phones of Ahmed bhai as he
had a direct line to Vadra. But times change fast in politics!
Kalyan is the front runner

choosing a chief minister in up
HO will be the chief ministerial candidate of the

BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Whosoever will be selected
for the coveted post, one thing is sure: the caste
factor will play a vital role. The BJP is caught in the
Brahmin-OBC dilemma in Uttar Pradesh.
Sources disclosed that Rajasthan
n Governor
Kalyan Singh is influencing BJP President
me. He is
Amit Shah to recommend his name.
the hero of the Ram Mandir movement.
ement.
Though Keshav Prasad Maurya iss the UP
BJP president, he may not be the
e choice
as he does not have any clout in the
State. Varun Gandhi, son of Sanjay
ay and
Maneka Gandhi, is also trying to woo
Shah. The BJP has to take a call whether it
desires to test a non-RSS politician
an in
the State. Varun, apart from

his youth, does not have much mass following within the
BJP and the State. One section within the BJP is also
pushing the name of Smriti Irani, but in the caste-ridden
state Irani does not have much chance. The strongest
candidate is Home Ministe
Minister Rajnath Singh. He has a
complete grip on the S
State but it is learnt that
Prime Minister Nare
Narendra Modi is not ready to
spare his Home M
Minister. The BJP cannot take
chances with the OBCs, who helped it come
to power by brea
breaking away from the
Congress social alliance of Dalits, Brahmins
and Muslims in th
the post-Mandal
Commission era. The BJP is unable to
decide whether th
they should project a Thakur
as a Chief Minister
Minis to woo the upper castes
or focus o
on the OBCs to counter the
Samajwadi
Party.
Sa
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EYES WIDE SHUT

prabhat kumar
Stories that need to be told

The outstanding work being done by many civil servants needs to be properly
showcased to change peoples perception of civil services
NCE a young IAS officer newly empanelled and large measure of integrity and avoidance of conflict with
promoted as Joint Secretary, obviously dissatisfied the politician. They are content with the security of service
with his posting in a not very coveted ministry in the conferred upon them by the Constitution. But they forget
Government of India, came to the Cabinet Secretary and what Benjamin Franklin said, he that is secure is not safe.
complained about the unfair treatment meted out to him And, it applies beautifully to the Indian bureaucrat.
The outstanding work being done by many of the civil
by the government. The Cabinet Secretary leaned back in
his chair and said, My boy, who said that government servants needs to be properly showcased. I am aware of
was fair? The anecdote illustrates the density of decision- hundreds of creative ideas being converted into peoplecentric projects implemented by the civil servants in the
making in personnel management in the government.
Granting that every action of the politico-bureaucratic rural areas of remote districts, which, if splashed in print
leadership in the area of postings and transfers of senior and videographed in documentaries and films, can change
functionaries of the Central Government cannot be peoples perception of civil services. Recent examples
defended either on logic or propriety, it is still inexplicable include, thousands of soak pits dug in Sitamarhi in Bihar
under the leadership of District
why joint secretaries and additionThe mainstream English media will Magistrate Rajiv Raushan; free
al secretaries should be routinely
never print these stories unless meals provided to everybody in
rotated
around
ministries.
they were sure that there was
Kozhikode town of Kerala led by
Normally a Joint Secretary is carefully selected for a particular minissomething for them in it. In my the District Magistrate P Nair;
try by the Appointment Committee view, the stories should be brought Kanchan Verma, DM of Fatehpur
in Uttar Pradesh, rejuvenating a
of the Cabinet for a normal tenure
out in the regional vernacular
dried up Sasur Khaderi river; and,
of five years. In the not-too-disnewspapers and local TV channels Aishvarya Singh, DM of West
tant-a-past, shifting of a Joint
Secretary in the middle of his tenure was resorted to in Sikkim, succeeding in making her district open defecation
extraordinary circumstances. However, in the present free. I am sure there are similar or even more spectacular
bureaucratic dispensation, it has become a fairly standard stories from other services waiting to be told.
We know the mainstream English media will never
practice. Recently in a social gathering, a senior officer
quipped that the central government seemed to have start- print these stories unless they were sure that there was
ed importing dubious administrative practices from the something for them in it. In my view, the stories should be
brought out in the regional vernacular newspapers and
State governments.
This does not mean that I buy the line of reasoning that local TV channels. In this context, I came across a coffee
fixed tenures improve professionalism and ensure better table bookaptly titled Recreating Excellencebrought
and more unprejudiced performance of civil servants. In out by the Department of Administrative Reforms and
fact, for once I tend to agree with Avay Shuklas argument released by the Prime Minister on the Civil Service Day
which presumably escaped everyones attention. It is like
that more than fixed tenures, they need sturdier spines.
The ambiguity and wooliness of most of our senior a manual of how to replicate innovative practices of public
bureaucrats is amazing. They generally want to do the service developed by civil servants in different parts of the
right thing, but the fear of losing their positions and per- country. Selected cases of initial models followed by sucquisites prevents them from getting into open defiance of cessful replicated projects make an interesting reading.
Endpoint: Has the time come for the faceless Babu to
political masters. The recent cases of officers bending to
the dictates from the Minister in the Ministry of Home enter the arena of public discourse without knocking? g
Affairs are but a reminder of the normal demeanour of The writer was the Cabinet Secretary and the first Governor of
bureaucrats. They are precariously balanced between a Jharkhand. He can be reached at pkumar1511@hotmail.com
www.indianbuzz.com

COVER STORY
politics madhya pradesh
Simhastha jinx
www.gfilesindia.com
stalks Shivraj
No Chief Minister in
Madhya Pradesh has
survived beyond a few
months after holding
Simhastha in Ujjain,
right from the States
first Chief Minister Ravi
Shankar Shukla to the
fiery Uma Bharti in 2004.
It seems, Shivraj Singh
Chouhan too may go the
same way as the RSS is
reportedly angry with
him and the Modi-Shah
duo too does not trust
him much. So, are the
invigorated CBI
investigation into
Vyapam case and the
ouster of RSS
Organisation Secretary
Arvind Menon, perceived
to be close to the Chief
Minister, pointers to
Shivrajs end game?
Rakesh Dixit reports.
PIB
www.indianbuzz.com

COVER STORY
ILL Madhya Pradesh Chief

Minister
Shivraj
Singh
Chouhan
too
succumb
to a jinx surrounding Simhastha
Mahakumbh like many of his
predecessors? The jinx has it that no
Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh
survived beyond a few months after
organising Simhastha in Ujjain. Its
victims in public psyche are MPs first
chief minister Ravi Shankar Shukla
(1956), Govind Narayan Singh (1968),
Sundar Lal Patwa (1980 and 1992)
and Uma Bharti (2004). Shukla died
soon after the Simhastha; Govind
Narayan Singhs SVD government
fell after losing trust vote; Patwa was
victim to imposition of Presidents
rule twice and Uma Bharti was forced
to resign in the wake of the Hubli
tricolour case.
With the month-long Simhastha
having concluded on May 21 in Ujjain,
the jinx seems to be catching up with
the Chief Minister as his nemesis.
Speculation is rife for quite some time
that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is
likely to induct Shivraj in his cabinet
in the next reshuffle that is overdue.
BJP circles in New Delhi and
Bhopal are agog with rumours that
given Madhya Pradeshs impressive growth rate in agriculture under
Shivrajs decade-long leadership, the
Prime Minister is inclined to utilise
the MP Chief Ministers expertise at
the Centre. Shivraj untiringly boasts
of phenomenonal agricultural growth
of above 20 per cent in the State in the
last five years. He proudly cites four
consecutive Krishi Karman Award
given by the Union Agriculture
Ministry to Madhya Pradesh for the
feat unparalleled in the world.
Having firmly ensconced himself
on the Chief Ministers seat, Shivraj
understandably dreads prospects
of working directly under Modi.
He is also acutely conscious of the
10
PIB
A known Advani protg,

Shivraj has been unable to
win Modis full confidence
despite his abject
surrender before the Prime
Minister... The mutual
trust-deficit has caused
rumours to swirl from time
to time of Shivrajs
imminent ouster in the
last two years
Simhastha jinx. To ward off the superstition, Shivraj transformed the religious fair into a Madhya Pradesh governments mega event. It is a measure
of his fixation with the fair that the
Chief Minister visited Ujjain 22 times
during the month-long congregation.
Pilgrims entering Ujjain could be

forgiven for mistaking the Simhastha
Kumbh for a government event. The
smiling Chief Minister, his hands
folded in welcome, greeted visitors
through banners and hoardings on
every road leading to the city. No
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister so
brazenly harnessed the Simhastha to
market himself in the past. The State
public relations department spent
`600 crore on advertising this event.
This is over double the budget for
the entire 2004 Kumbh. In most of
these advertisements, Shivrajs face
dwarfed the Simhastha 2016 logo.
During the 2004 Kumbh, the BJP
government, led by Uma Bharati,
had earmarked `256 crore for the
religious congregation. State transport minister Bhupendra Singh, who
was also in-charge of the Simhastha,
www.gfilesindia.com
said that the total expenditure on the

mega fair this time could be up to
`5,000 crore.
BJP insiders say Chouhan aims to
emerge as an icon of soft Hindutva
in the mould of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
and saw the Simhastha Kumbh as the
perfect launch-pad to realise this goal.
They say that Chouhan is conscious
of the perception, both within and
outside his party, that he is an inclusive leader. All through his decadelong stint as the Chief Minister, he
has been cautious not to antagonise
minorities. This is in sharp contrast
to Prime Minister Narendra Modis
aggressive Hindutva. However, they
say that Chouhan did not want to give
the impression that he was pitching
to emerge as a more liberal alternative to Modi. His core team, therefore, devised strategies to involve
Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
chief Mohan Bhagwat in Shivrajs
image-building project at the Kumbh.
The RSS played a large role in
organising the fair. Its cadres were
involved in preparations. A large
number of Sangh affiliates were
allotted generous accommodation
during the fair. Shivrajs overeagerness to let the Sangh run the
show at the governments expense
flummoxed a section of BJP leaders
as well as officers engaged in
arrangements for the Kumbh. They
wondered whether the Chief Minister
wanted the RSS to help him break the
Simhastha jinx.
Although Shivraj has scoffed at the
superstition whenever he is reminded
of it, BJP insiders say they believe it
weighs heavy on his mind. This is why,
they say, the Chief Minister had been
focused on organising the Simhastha
since at least 2011.
In 2013, a project worth `430
crore, to bring Narmada water from
www.indianbuzz.com
Indore district to Ujjain to augment

the Kshipra Rivers water level for the
Kumbh, was executed in record time.
Also, the Chief Minister is said to have
had elaborate tantrik rituals performed for riding out the Simhastha
2016. But, political developments
surrounding him look too ominous
for comfort.
Gathering dark clouds over
Shivrajs chief ministership, however,
may not be linked to the Simhastha.
For, he had become susceptible ever
since the Modi-Amit Shah pair took
over the BJPs reign, heralding the
end of Advani era two years ago.
A known Advani protg, Shivraj
has been unable to win Modis full
confidence despite his abject surrender before the Prime Minister. In the
runup to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Advani had termed Shivrajs
performance as better than that of
the then Gujarat Chief Minister. The
comparison was viewed as an attempt
to elevate Shivraj in the BJP as a more
liberal and acceptable alternative to
Modi. Since then, Shivraj has gone
all out to dispel this impression. He
has even dubbed Modi as gods gift.
Nevertheless, his relation with the
Antony de Sa: Under a cloud
Prime Minister has remained far from

cordial. The mutual trust-deficit has
caused rumours to swirl from time to
time of Shivrajs imminent ouster in
the last two years.
BJP insiders say it is not as though
the Modi-Shah duo has yielded to
Shivrajs charm offensive. It is likelier that the central BJP leadership
wanted to give the Chief Minister a
long rope to bind himself with. Now
the rope could be snapped any time
soon to topple him, they aver.
ORE significantly, the RSS

has indicated that it might
not support Shivraj, should
the high command decide to remove
him. The RSS solidly stood by him
through thick and thin all along,
most notably when he was facing
the massive Vyapam scam storm last
year. The jinn of Vyapam has returned
to haunt the Chief Minister with the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
focusing its probe on veracity of the
pen drive that allegedly contains his
name as recommender for candidates
of a contract teacher test.
The pen drive, which the Congress
had procured from whistleblower Prashant Pandey, was rejected
as forged by the SIT. The Madhya
Pradesh High Court upheld the SIT
judgment. After the CBI took over the
Vyapam probe from the SIT on the
Supreme Court directive in July last
year, veracity of the pen drive is being
reinvestigated. It has been sent to the
Truth Lab, Hyderabad, for test. The
CBI is likely to submit its report on the
pen drive to the Supreme Court soon.
Shivrajs fate hinges on the Truth
Labs report.
Another Vyapam case, which
is likely to put the Chief Minister,
his wife Sadhna Singh and Chief
Secretary Antony de Sa in the
soup, pertains to the recruitment of

11
COVER STORY
transport constables. de Sa, who was

then Additional Chief Secretary in
the Transport Department, increased
number of transport constable posts
to be filled from the sanctioned 198 to
317. He did not get mandatory approval for increase in number from the
Finance or General Administration
Department for the test conducted in
2012 by the Vyapam. The Congress
has alleged that de Sa increased the
number of posts to accommodate candidates from Gondia (Maharashtra).
Gondia is the native town of Sadhna
Singh. It is widely assumed in political and bureaucratic circles that de Sa
flouted rules to appease Sadhna Singh.
HE Chief Minister may not

have been too worried about
the cases had he been assured
of the RSS and BJP high commands
support as before.
The BJPs patron body gave a
stern message to Shivraj by unceremoniously replacing the partys
State Organisation Secretary Arvind
Menon by Suhas Bhagat on April 11.
The RSSs sudden move is being
interpreted as BJP high commands
(read Narendra Modi) waning trust
in the Chief Minister. BJP insiders
say the RSS could not have taken the
decision without the prior approval of
BJP president Amit Shah.
Menon, who the RSS loaned to the
BJP in 2011, suited Shivrajs scheme of
things very well. A Malayali Brahmin
from Varanasi, Arvind came to Indore
with family and joined the Akhil
Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
in his school days. When Shivraj was
ABVP president in the early 1980s,
Menon was its secretary. They hit off
well with each other from their ABVP
days. Therefore, when the question
of a suitable candidate to replace
Makhan Singh as BJP Organision
Secretary arose, Chouhan sought
12
BJP insiders say Shivraj

aims to emerge as an icon
of soft Hindutva in the
mould of Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and saw the
Simhastha Kumbh as the
perfect launchpad to
realise this goal
his old friend and the RSS readily
obliged him.
Marked by deference and fear,
the RSS-Shivraj relationship saw
all important posts in academia and
cultural organisations being filled
with RSS men. Besides, the Sangh
also managed to procure many other
benefits, including precious land,
government houses, perquisite and
privileges to its votaries from the
Shivraj government. In return, the
RSS support to the BJP and the Chief
Minister remained unstinted.
The RSS-Shivraj equation began to
sour with Menon replacing Makhan
Singh five years ago. Menon started
widening his own network of acolytes.
Complaints
against
the
Organisation Secretary had begun to
land in Bhopal and at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur soon after he took
over. These comprised kickbacks in
transfer posting, selling out tickets
to party candidates for a big price in
various elections, influence-peddling
in bureaucracy for getting works done
of cohorts, and so on. What, however,
troubled the RSS more was reports of
Menon seeking sexual favours from
partys woman workers. A woman
from Jabalpur even went public
against Menon alleging rape. But
Shivraj stood by Menon.
Meanwhile, the Vyapam scam surfaced with arrest of a dozen imposters
for Pre-Medical Test candidates in
July 2013. It snowballed into a massive
political storm with names of two RSS
leaders figuring as recommenders of
candidates for recruitment to various
posts. Of these, former RSS chief KS
Sudarshan is dead. The other leader,
Suresh Soni, was divested of the job of
national coordinator between the RSS
and the BJP in the wake of his name
surfacing in the scam.
www.gfilesindia.com
Shivraj plays
it down
T is widely believed in the RSS

circles that the SIT, which was then
probing the scam, deliberately
leaked the RSS leaders names at the
behest of the Chief Minister. They
feel that Shivraj dragged the RSS into
the controversy to save his own skin.
Since then, the RSS has been nursing
a grudge against the Chief Minister.
Sangh leaders and volunteers also
resent the brazen ways in which the
Chief Ministers wife, Sadhna Singh,
manipulates bureaucrats. They see
in her style the imperiousness of a
Maharani, which is jarring for the
patriarchal mindset of the RSS. A
senior Sangh leader says, We saw
wives of former Chief Ministers
Sundar Lal Patwa, Kailash Joshi and
VK Sakhlecha. They would demurely
stay at home and never interfere with
their spouses decisions.
The Chief Minister is so touchy
about his wifes name being dragged
in public in connection with corruption that he has filed two defamation
cases against Congress leaders Ajay
Singh and KK Mishra. Singh had
accused Sadhna Singh of possessing
www.indianbuzz.com
PIB
To ward off the

superstition, Shivraj
transformed the religious
fair into a Madhya Pradesh
governments mega event.
It is a measure of his
fixation that he visited
Ujjain 22 times during the
month-long congregation
currency note counting machine and
Mishra had alleged her direct involvement in the Vpapam scam and awarding mining contacts.
With the RSS having virtually
put the Chief Minister on notice,
his hopes are now pinned on Prime
Minister Modi for survival. On the
surface, there is little, if anything, for
the party high command to be unhappy with the MP Chief Minister. There
is no apparent discontent within the
government over his leadership. The
local media is singing paeans for him.
The partys State unit, headed by
Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan, appears
fawningly behind the Chief Minister
AUGHING off the Simhastha

jinx, Chief Minister Shivraj
Singh Chouhan says such a
conception doesnt even occur to
him. I always think of action and
not staying (on the CM post),
Singh said in a recent interview.
On the removal of Arvind Menon
from the State BJP Organisation
Secretary post, the Chief Minister
said that no one has been
removed, only the responsibility has been changed. This is
the partys decision and we all
accept it.
under whose leadership the BJP has

been winning election after election
in the last one decade. What is more,
Chouhan has not demonstrated any
political ambition to ring alarm bells
in the Modi camp.
But as you scratch the surface
a little deep, unsavory face of the
Shivraj government emerges. True,
ministers dont express resentment
against the Chief Minister. But, it is
not as though they dont have grouses.
Off the record, a majority of ministers
resent Shivrajs style of functioning
which, they say, is marked by dominance of a coterie comprising a few
ministers, chosen bureaucrats and, of
course, his wife.
Of the 22 members in the Shivraj
cabinet, only a selected few, such as
Health Minister Narottam Mishra,
Transport
Minister
Bhupendra
Singh and Public Relations Minister
Rajendra Shukla, are trusted by the
Chief Minister for important tasks.
They enjoy the Chief Ministers full
confidence while others are left to sulk.

13
COVER STORY
Even senior ministers, such as

Home Minister Babulal Gaur, Forest
Minister Gaurishankar Shejwar,
Panchayat Minister Gopal Bhargava,
Industry Minister Yoshodhara Raje
Scindia, Higher Education Minister
Umashankar Gupta, Public Works
Minister Sartaj Singh, Law Minister
Kusum Mahadele and Finance
Minister Jayant Mallaiya, are overlooked while taking important decisions which are presented to them in
cabinet meetings as fait accompali by
the Chief Minister.
These ministers are reported to be
biding time to express resentment
before the high command, if
encouraged to do so. Gaur is unhappy
that he is not consulted for even lowlevel transfers in the police department,
forget important law and order related

decisions. Shejwar was made to play
a second fiddle to Rajendra Shukla
during the inauguration of the tiger
safari in Satna district in April,
though it was the forest departments
function. Yashodhara Raje Scindia
is sulking because her industry
department is being bifurcated.
While an industry body, headed by
the Chief Minister, is empowered to
take decisions on big industrial units,
decision-making process for small
and medium size industries is being
shifted to another department.
Umashankar Gupta was recently furious when he learnt that the
Chief Ministers office selected a site
for building a smart city in Bhopal
without consulting him. He and the
Tomar or Gehlot?
minister more than two decades ago. A simple and
honest politician, he is considered a staunch organWO names are being discussed in the BJP circles isation man. In the times when BJP is embracing
as probable successor of Shivraj Singh in case the Ambedkar more than ever before, his appointment as
CM would send signals that BJP conBJP high command decides to oust
tinues to look after the SCs well. Gehlot
him. They are Union Mining and Steel
represents Khatik community which is
Minister Narendra Tomar and Union
small in numbers. Also, Gehlot is close
Social Justice Minister Thawarchand
to Modi because of his stint as in-charge
Gehlot. As State BJP president and a
of Gujarat in the run-up to general elecsenior minister in the Shivraj government,
tions in May 2014. His weak point though
Tomar has established a wide support
is that his performance in Delhi has not
base in the State for himself.
been great. Also, he is not known well
But, Gehlots chances of succeeding
across Madhya Pradesh and thus has
Chouhan are brighter for two reasons. Narendra Tomar
low acceptability within the party.
One, he is a Dalit and, two, he is
As for Tomar, compared to Gehlot he
perceived as an honest politician.
has much better administrative capabiliGiven the growing perception of
ties. Further, he has been the State BJP
the BJP being anti-Dalit and soft on
chief twice and knows each and every
corruption, Gehlot could be the best
prominent worker of the party across 51
bet to woo back the Scheduled Castes
districts by name. His other strength is
which comprise 17 per cent of Madhya
his comfortable equation with Lok Sabha
Pradeshs population.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, a towering
Gehlot last held an office in the
leader from MP.
Sunderlal Patwa government as a State Thawarchand Gehlot
by POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
14
www.gfilesindia.com
Vyapam scam continues to dog Shivraj
doesnt seem to have forgiven Shivraj

for conspiring to snatch the Chief
Ministers post from her in 2006.
But after her re-entry in the BJP in
2011, the Sadhvi has kept a discreet
distance from MP politics, presumably at the behest of the party high
command. She keeps a low profile
during her MP visits. Jha is said to
be still nursing the wound the Chief
Minister had inflicted on him in 2013.
Months before the Assembly election,
Shivraj had Jha replaced by his friend
Narendra Singh Tomar as the State
BJP president.
I
other senior minister from Bhopal,
Babulal Gaur, strongly opposed the
move, forcing the Chief Minister to
announce shifting of the site.
Gopal Bhargava is riled against
the Chief Ministers open encouragement to his confidante Bhupendra
Singh to dominate BJP politics in
the Bundelkhand region. Bhargava
is senior to even Shivraj and wields
enormous influence in Bundelkhand
while Bhupendra is relatively novice.
PWD minister Sartaj Singh silently
suffers humiliation over contractors
for road constructions being chosen
in the Chief Ministers residence without his knowledge.
Finance minister Jayant Mallaiya
has stopped objecting to fiscal imprudence in the Chief Ministers fanciful schemes and ideas as his objections were overruled repeatedly.
As a result, the debt on the government has mounted to `1.20 lakh
crore, which in 2003 was `20,000
crore when Congress Chief Minister
Digvijay Singh demitted office.
State ministers are always behold-
www.indianbuzz.com
en to either the Chief Minister or his

trusted bureaucrats for taking decisions. Among them are former Chief
Minister Sundar Lal Patwas nephew,
Surendra, and former Chief Minister
Kailash Joshis son, Deepak.
As far as the 169 BJP MLAs in the
230-strong State Assembly are concerned, barring a few, such as highprofile Bhopal legislator Vishwas
Sarang, they are at the mercy of
bureaucrats at district and division
levels who take direct orders from the
all-powerful Chief Ministers office.
Senior BJP leader Kailash Narayan
Sarangs son, Vishwas, wields more
political clout in Bhopal than even
octogenarian minister Babulal Gaur.
Shivrajs three potential rivals
BJP general secretary Kailash
Vijayvargiya, vice president Prabhat
Jha and Union Water Resources
Minister Uma Bhartimight be willing to join hands for their common
political enemys ouster. But they are
unsure of the Modi-Shah support for
this as yet. Each of them has political
scores to settle against Shivraj. Uma
F all powers are mostly concentrated

in the hands of a coterie, one might
wonder, why dont these ministers,
MPs, MLAs and powerful leaders
air their grievances loud enough for
people to hear? It is because a glue
keeps their mouth firmly shut. The
glue allegedly is corruption. While the
Shivraj government has centralised
powers, it has reportedly at the
same time decentralised corruption.
BJP leaders have been morally
emasculated so much that they dont
have the guts to raise fingers at
rampant corruption at the top.
Most, if not all, MLAs and BJP
office bearers in Madhya Pradesh
are allegedly into dubious contract
businesses, such as liquor, mining,
construction, etc. Either they run the
businesses directly or through relatives and acolytes in collusion with
mafias. In the last 10 years, hundreds
of BJP leaders have become millionaires and, in some cases, billionaires,
thanks to generous help from the
State government.
The mafias under political patronage have irreparably destroyed many
a river bed by wanton sand mining in
Chambal and Narmada regions. This
is just one of the sources of plunder
of the States natural resources. Real

15
COVER STORY
estate business is another, education

is yet another.
The nexus of politician-policemedia-local administration at various levels ensure impunity for mafias
to fleece the State. They face little
political opposition because cadres
of the main opposition partythe
Congressis demoralised, having
been out of power for 12 years at
stretch. A large number of Congress
workers and leaders have, therefore,
become susceptible to inducements.
The ruling BJP has either silenced
protests with the help of governmentsponsored terror or suborned them by
sharing loot. Even Congress bigwigs
are not averse to accepting government inducements; the partys workers aver to justify their surrender.
Herein lies a major secret of BJPs
rolling juggernaut in election after
election in the State.
Left-liberal voices of subalterns
such as tribal and Dalits, which
used to be articulated through
voluntary organisations, are crushed
by branding them as naxalites or
their sympathisers.
ADHYA Pradeshs media

has played a dubious, if not
villainous, role in projection
of the Shivraj government as
progressive and pro-people. Never
before in MPs history, has the media
been so shamelessly subservient to
the government of the day. Shivrajs
government has penchant for holding
big events and such occasions
invariably accrue huge package deals
by way of advertisements to print and
electronic media in the State. For
pliable journalists, the public relations
department has devised many tricks to
dispense favours. Doling out largesse
in the name of advertisements to their
dodgy websites is one of them. The
Indian Express recently carried out
16
an investigative story as to how the

government distributed `12 crore to
websites run by spouses and relatives
of journalists in Bhopal.
The Chief Minister has reason to
consider himself fortunate for having
got not only a meek media but also
friendly people at the helm of institutions which could be potentially troublesome for him. The MP Information
Commission is peopled with staunch
RSS men. They have never entertained any Right to Information (RTI)
applications which could embarrass
the government. His government
rewarded incumbent Lokayukta,
Arvind Menon: Out in the cold
The BJPs patron body gave

a stern message to Shivraj
by unceremoniously
replacing the partys State
Organization Secretary
Arvind Menon by Suhas
Bhagat on April 11. The
RSSs sudden move is
being interpreted as BJP
high commands (read
Narendra Modi) waning
trust in the Chief Minister
Justice PP Naolekar, with one-year

extension. Justice Naolekar has the
dubious distinction of dismissing all
complaints against Shivrajs ministers on the grounds that no adequate
evidences were produced for action.
Governor Ram Naresh Yadav is morally and physically too weak to even
think of pointing out omissions and
commission of the government. At 88,
the ailing Yadav, who is an accused in
the Vyapam case, remains bed-ridden
in the confines of the Raj Bhawan.
Such an enviable position with
virtually no opposition has, unsurprisingly, deluded the Chief Minister
into believing that event management
can be a substitute to solid policy initiatives for winning over people.
Leading Madhya Pradeshs people
up the garden path has been his
forte ever since he assumed office on
November 29, 2005. He doesnt tire
of saying that Madhya Pradesh has
rid itself of Bimaru tag, even though
the egregious human development
indices that have historically caused
the State to share this shameful
acronym with other backward States,
have persisted, if not worsened.
He proclaims the States agriculture
has consistently achieved growth
rate in double digits but does not
explain the paradox as to how this
great feat coexists with 41 out of 51
districts reeling under severe drought
condition and Madhya Pradesh being
the third State after Maharashtra
and Telangana in farmer suicide
number. The Madhya Pradesh
government admitted last year in the
State Assembly that more than 1,100
farmers committed suicide in the
State in the past year.
The Chief Ministers boast about the
State having become most favoured
destination for industrialists flies in
the face of the fact that the industrial
sector in the State has, since 2009,
www.gfilesindia.com
expanded by only 2.1 per cent in 201314, down from 5.5 per cent in 201213. The State government records
reveals that out of 2,200 memoranda
of understanding (MoUs) signed
during the much tom-tommed Global
Investors Summit in Indore two years
ago, only 22 have been implemented.
Madhya Pradesh is also the worst
State to be born in India for over a
decade. For 11th year in a row, the
State registered the highest infant
mortality rate (IMR), according to the
Sample Registration System report
for 2014 released by the Registrar
General and Census Commissioner
of India. Infant mortality rate is the
number of deaths of infants under
one year per 1,000 live births. It is
the go-to figure to measure a States
health and for Madhya Pradesh, the
rate is 54. At the national level, it is
40. Maternal mortality rate (MMR)
has improved over the years, but still
remains one of the worst with 220/
one lakh deaths.
For the third consecutive year in
a row, Madhya Pradesh was ranked
number one by the National Crime
Records Bureau for the maximum
number of rape cases. In 2014, the
State recorded 5,076 rape cases,
which is an average of 13 rapes every
day. Half of the women who were
raped were minors.
More than 7,000 childrenmajority of them girlswent missing from
Madhya Pradesh in 2013 and 2014,
earning it the dubious distinction of
topping the list of States for missing
kids in the country.
As far as crimes against Scheduled
Castes are concerned, Madhya
Pradesh ranked fifth with 4,151 cases
reported in 2014. As many as 47,064
crimes against SCs were reported
in 2014 across the country, according
to NCRB.
Shivraj has a penchant for
www.indianbuzz.com
Babulal Gaur: Feeling left out
tive ritual which instantly touches

emotional chords of not only the
direct beneficiaries but also their
relatives and acquaintances.
Huge political gains from this
scheme inspired the Chief Minister
to cast his spell on elderly persons. In
2012, he announced a Mukhya Mantri
Teerth Darshan Yojana for elderly
men and women to go on guided
pilgrimage to Hindu temples across
India. The scheme too has got Shivraj
countless blessings of the beneficiaries and their acquaintances. The
schemes Hindutva-promotion aspect
is no less significant politically for the
ruling BJP.
spectacles over solid policy initiatives

on development. He relies more
on extravagant events, such as
mass marriages and governmentsponsored pilgrimage for elderly,
than sustainable programmes to win
over people. Such events afford him
opportunities to let his dramatic
oratory flow in full steam.
Organising mass marriages was
one of the political tools which
helped Shivraj ascend political
ladder. As Member of Parliament,
he would annually organise mass
marriages in his Vidisha parliamentary constituency.
As Chief Minister, he launched
a Ladli Laxmi Yojana under whose
aegis mass marriages turned into
a vote-catcher for the ruling party
and a money spinner for lower rung
bureaucracy. A plethora of scandals
surrounding fake brides and grooms
joining the annual spectacle over the
years didnt deter the Chief Minister
from keep ramping up funds for the
purpose. After all, it is this scheme
which has earned him the sobriquet
of Mama of States girls and he is
mighty pleased with that.
Ladli Laxmi Yojna is a demonstra-
HE State government realises

that it is far more expedient
to send elderly persons on
pilgrimage than ensuring their well
being through enhancing pension
amount for the destitute. Over 60
lakh elderly, disabled, widows and
abandoned women are waiting for
hike in their pension amount for
hold your breath21 years. They are
paid `150 per month as pension under
various social security schemes. The
monthly pension amount in Madhya
Pradesh is lowest because the State
government has been persistently
refusing to provide 50 per cent
matching grant in the amount paid by
the Union government to the targeted
beneficiaries. Worse, it often takes
four to six months for the paltry sum
to reach in their bank accounts.
The Chief Ministers self-belief
in working the audience up to his
advantage borders on narcissism.
His trademark public speakingsmug
smile, outstretched hands flailing,
I-me-my refrain, throwing questions
at the audience rhetorically followed
by
condescending
assurances
has become all-too familiar in the
State now. g

17
STATE SCAN
karnataka mining
IRON ORE HEIST
NMDC Ltd is allegedly selling iron ore from Bellary mines at a steep discount
by K SUBRAMANIAN
HE iron ore mining industry in Karnataka grabbed

headlines in 2008 when the States Lokayukta reported largescale illegal mining in Bellary, Chitradurga
and Tumkur districts. This eventually forced the Supreme
Court to intervene and suspend all mining and transportation operations. The ban was lifted in 2011 when the apex
court ordered introduction of e-auction mechanism for
iron ore in the State, with a ceiling of 30 million tonne per
annum, to put an end to indiscriminate mining and ensure
fair and transparent pricing.
Five years down the line, Karnatakas iron ore mining
industry is again in the news for wrong reasons. This time,
there are allegations that the largest miner of iron ore in
the State, government-owned NMDC Ltd, has been selling
the mineral at a steep discount and causing a huge loss to
the State and central government exchequers despite the
introduction of auction mechanism.
18
For any auction process to arrive at an effective price

discovery, a widely diverse seller and buyer base is a must.
After all, the entire idea of conducting an auction is to let
the market create various price points, depending on the
demand and supply situation, and decide the price of any
commodity. Such vibrant pricing mechanism ensures that
neither the seller nor the buyer is put at a disadvantage.
However, the e-auction process in Karnataka hasnt led to
similar results since the State has one dominant seller
NMDCand one dominant buyerJSW Steel, a very large
steel producer. According to NGO, Samaj Parivarthana
Samudaya, NMDC has been under pricing the iron ore that
is sold through its two mining leases in Bellary district
with a view to benefit a few private steel, pig iron and
sponge iron industries in Karnataka.
The NGO, which had earlier played a crucial role in
exposing illegal mining in the State, filed a writ petition in
the Karnataka High Court in April on this issue. On the
HCs direction, the NGO has recently written a letter to the
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source: cseindia.org
Union ministries of mining and steel for conducting an

investigation into the under-valuing of iron ore price by
NMDC from its Bellary mines between 2011 and 2015.
With the State-owned miner doing this, the State government faces revenue loss in the form of royalty, cess, sales
tax, 10 per cent contribution to Special Purpose Vehicle
and contribution to District Mineral Fund.
Since the base price is fixed by NMDC, which is the
dominant seller, it sets the benchmark for other iron ore
miners in the State. Consequently, the revenue loss is significantly higher. According to the letter written by the
NGO to the two central ministries, The price gap between
international import parity price and NMDC price is
almost `2,000 per tonne. This implies NMDC could have
priced its iron ore sales of 12 million tonne per annum
from Karnataka at approximately `2,000 per tonne higher
than current prices and, in turn, earning `2,400 crore per
year in additional profits, the letter says.
In last financial year, for example, NMDC produced 11.6
million tonne iron ore from its Karnataka mines. Of this,
9.66 million tonne was bought by JSW. While the import
parity price of grade 62 iron ore was `4,688.20 per tonne
for JSW, NMDC sold the same grade to the steel major at
`3,007.80 per tonne in the last fiscal, thereby resulting in
www.indianbuzz.com
an average loss of `1,680 per tonne for the State-owned

mining company. As per the NGOs letter, the under pricing by NMDC has also led to an estimated loss ranging
from `1,687-3,217 crore to the governments exchequer in
the financial year 2015-16.
While NMDC continues to follow the curious practice
of selling iron ore at a discount, other government-owned
miners like Hindustan Copper and NALCO fix the price of
copper and aluminum in line with the prevailing international prices. Iron ore mining in Karnataka cannot be an
exception to the rule and it is imperative that the auction
price reflects the global price trend. It is, thus, high time
the government stepped in and corrected this faulty policy
to make pricing realistic and remunerative. g

19
STATE SCAN
haryana sunil kumar gulati
Thari Pension Thare Paas
Haryana shows the way

Direct Benefit Transfer of social security pension into accounts of over 22 lakh
beneficiaries has proved to be a huge success.
ARYANA had been trying various modes of Direct Benefit

Transfer over the yearslike
through money ordersbut they were
costly and cumbersome. Also, there
was no scope of reconciliation. Then,
from April 2011, efforts were made for
Electronic Benefit Transfer through
no-frills savings account, offered
by the banks under the Financial
Inclusion Scheme, using the Business
Correspondent (BC) model. More
than 19 lakh bank accounts were created and the scheme was attempted in
all the districts of the State. But the
model failed miserably and people
came out in the streets due to major
gaps in the implementation methodology, like too much reliance on
BCAs and poor conduct of BCAs, etc.
Finally, the government had to go
back to the old system of distribution
of pension through gram sarpanches
and municipal staff in urban areas.
This not only resulted in local level
corruption, but also tied up the Social
Justice Department,, Development
and Panchayats Department as also
Urban Local Bodies, into spending a
huge amount of time and energy in
the monthly pension disbursal.
With a view to bring in more transparency in the disbursal mechanism,
the Council of Ministers in its very
first meeting held on November 5,
2014, decided that: The Council of
Ministers on its own accord decided
20
that the Department of Social Justice

and Empowerment will increase the
Old Age Samman Allowance and
other Social Security Allowances to
`1,200 per month from `1,000 per
month, with effect from January 1,
2015, (to be disbursed in February
2015) through bank accounts of individual beneficiaries. It was further
decided that the allowances will be
enhanced by a sum of `200 every
year in the month of January for the
next four years thereafter as well.
The draft modalities were worked
out and presented in the DCs/ SPs
The project has covered all

81 towns and 6,756 villages
of Haryana and involves
disbursing eight kinds
of pension involving a
pension amount of `276
crore per month
Conference held on December 8,
2014, under the chairmanship of
Haryana Chief Minister. A detailed
presentation was made, signifying the
main features of direct transfer of
pensions and allowances into the
bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
With the complete commissioning
of the Thari Pension Thare Paas
project, Haryana has become the first
State in the country to disburse Social
Security Pensions through Direct
Benefit Transfer only to all its Social

Security pensioners. The project has
covered all 81 towns and 6,756 villages of Haryana and involves disbursing eight kinds of pensionOld
Age Pension, Disabled, Widow,
Destitute Children, Ladli, Non-School
Going MR Children, Eunuchs and
Dwarfsinvolving a pension amount
of `276 crore per month (`3,400 crore
per annum at `1,400 per beneficiary).
This has checked the leakage of pension to the out-migrants and also the
dead besides other irregularities.
Almost 8-10 per cent pensioners have
got eliminated automatically by shifting to the DBT mode, which has led to
the saving of almost over `200-280
crore per annum.
A major challenge arose when it
was realised that with Brick and
Mortar Bank branches in only 1,438
villages, innovative village-wise planning would be essential. The disbursal
of pension is now being done through
eight different modes in a major exercise which started in January 2015.
The modes were selected by villagewise mapping, keeping in mind the
stakeholders preferences as also the
ground reality for the 6,756 villages.
This resulted, after numerous iterations, in allotting 816 villages (12 per
cent) to Post Office Banks, 988 villages (14 per cent) to Resident BCAs
(BC Agents), 240 to Non-Resident
BCAs (3 per cent), 807 villages (12 per
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get the pension as per the Service

Level commitment.
The State has also planned to give
six-months pension as advance to
differently-abled pensioners. The
State has also increased the grant for
diet money for the visually and hearing-impaired students, apart from
lepers, and is making its disbursal as
DBT mode.
O
Launch function of the pension scheme
cent) to PACS Sale Point made into

Business Facilitators, 67 villages (1
per cent) to Vodafone M-pesa and two
villages (0.1 per cent) to Common
Service Centres (CSC). Most of these
disbursing agents were within 2 km of
the resident pensioners. Next, villages
near physical disbursing agents were
explored by allotting 1,244 villages
(18 per cent) to nearby Banks, 599 to
nearby Post office Banks (8 per cent),
178 to nearby BCA (2 per cent) and
376 to additional BCAs (5 per cent).
Provision has been made that all
above 80 year old or disabled villagers, who are bedridden, are given
pension at their doorstep after office
hours by the disbursing agent. Now
about 2,337 CSCs are being opened in
the State and as soon as they get BCA
or Aadhaar-enabled payment gateways, pension will also be distributed
through them. They are also being
used for getting Jeevan Praman Patra
uploaded on the department website.
The major outcomes of the Thari
Pension Thare Paas DBT project are:
1. Time of Municipal Committee
workers has been saved; they can
focus on their core job.
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2. Staff of DSWO office is also now

free to cater to the interests of disabled, elderly and work seriously
on drug de-addiction
3. People can see their account ledger
online and see when their money
came. They can also save the money
and use it when necessary. Their
propensity to blow up cash on
liquor, etc., has got far reduced by
the environment created as also the
safety of money in banks apart
from interest income. So, the saving habit will increase.
4. At least 1.6 lakh people have
dropped out even without deduplication and the State will be
able to save almost `200-280 crore
on this account.
5. The State can now do innovative
things like Adapting Homes for the
Disabled, and may be even for
Elderly later.
6. There is a scope for continuous deduplication and improvement as all
data is on the Database. Aadhaar
linkage has been done in case of
almost 84 per cent pensioners.
7. The pensioners can now submit
their forms at the CSC itself and
VER 1.43 lakh pensioners are

disabled and the good news
is that uploading of accounts
of the disabled has been found to be
more than total uploading. In urban
areas, it is a big more than 11.7 per
cent compared to total pensioners
while in rural areas it is 4.4 per cent
more than that of total pensioners.
Similarly, needy widows have also
been 11.8 per cent more active in
urban areas and 5.6 per cent more
active in rural areas in getting their
accounts uploaded as compared to
total beneficiaries. This is great news
for the 6.14 lakh widows enrolled with
the department, of which 1.13 lakh are
above 60 years of age. There is also a
complaint window on the department
website where anyone can anonymously give information about wrong
pension being taken by anyone. List
of all pensioners in the village/ ward
can be seen on the internet by anyone,
resulting in transparency.
The major reason of the success has
been the constant support and pressure from the CMs office as well as
SJEM office, which triggered the process in the right earnest. The message
and intent was loud and clearthis
work was to be done and the State
meant business. So, DBT in Haryana
has happened for 22.2 lakh people. g
The writer is an IAS officer and Additional

Chief Secretary with the Social Justice and
Empowerment Department, Government
of Haryana

21
STATESCAN
XXX XXXXX
Jammu
& Kashmir Udhampur
Connecting people
Bridges under Project Rahat have connected schools, hospitals and Anganwadi
centres, reducing the distance traversed by local people and making them safe
by DR SHAHID IQBAL CHOUDHARY
ROJECT Rahat was initiated

by the District Administration
of Udhampur in October 2015
after a three-month long participatory planning and consultation
exercise as well as technology
sharing agreements.
Bridges under Project Rahat,
spanning up to 30-40 metres, have
been initiated near schools in hilly
terrain, remote hamlets, traditional
paths, livestock movement routes,
nomadic migration routes, ration
carriage access and approaches to
sources of water. In the recent past,
a large number of lives were lost,
thousands of students deprived of
education, livestock perished and
livelihood affected due to flooding of
22
rivulets having huge catchment areas.

So, bridges were planned at critical
points, providing round the year
connectivity in villages.
Stages of Project Rahat: The
project was conceived and planned
at the District Administration level
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and executed through the Rural

Development Department. The process included: planning meetings;
resource mobilisation; public meetings and consultations; participatory
planning; visits to DRDO-HESCO
Dehradun; designing; initiation and
construction; testing; launching and
dedication; and, social audit.
Unique model of funding:
No additional sources were requisitioned. Instead, available resources
under various plans were converged
for the construction of footbridges as
community asset.
Funding through convergence: The project has been
designed under convergence of funds
from various sources/ heads and contribution of community resources
like MGNREGA, Corporate Social
Responsibility, District Innovation
Fund, Untied Grants, SCA to TSP,
SCA to SCSP, MPLADS, MLA-CDF,
Bad-Pocket Initiative, Community
Development Plan grants, District
Plan, SDRF, timber, etc
Phases: Initially the project was
launched in two phases with a target
of 114 bridges. However, after massive
public demand and successful
implementation on ground, Phase-III
with additional 56 bridges has been
planned. This makes the total number
of bridges 170 (See Table 1).
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Table 1
S.No
Phase
No. Of Bridges
Date of Start
Completion
1.
56
10/2015
03/2016
2.
II
56
02/2016
05/2016
3.
Urban
02
02/2016
05/2016
4.
III
56
04/2016
07/2016
Table 2
No. of Schools
Distance Students AWWCs Ration
bridges connected Reduced benefitted
Depots
Households Population
170
35789
327
349.05
27465
512
183
181750
Table 3
(` Lakhs)
Bridges Est Cost MGNREGA

170
Benefit
Analysis:
Bridges
constructed under Project Rahat
have connected schools, hospitals,
Anganwadi centres, ration depots and
also reduced the distance traversed by
local inhabitants (See Table 2).
The project benefits 327 schools,
having an enrolment of 27,465
students. It reduces the distance by
349 km cumulatively in the district
for reaching these schools. A total of
183 depotshaving 30,069 families
comprising 1,30,635 personshave
been benefitted in terms of ration
carriage and transportation. Overall,
a population of 1,81,750 has been
benefitted by these bridges. Also, 512
Anganwadi centres are connected.
Employment: Project Rahat has
generated more than 42,250 persondays of employment for both skilled
and unskilled labour in the district.
Specifications: The bridges
have been designed with technology
developed by Defense Research and
1817.110 1314.577
Gap
Funding
563.433
Development Organisation (DRDO)

and provided through Dehradunbased HESCO. It has a load/ weight
bearing capacity of 500 kg/ sq m.
Funding/Budget: Bridges under
Project Rahat have been constructed
under convergence with major
funding under MGNREGA and
proportionate Gap Funding from
other schemes (See Table 3).
Timeline: The bridges have been
constructed in record time. More
than 170 bridges will be completed
by July 2016. As many as 103 bridges
are nearing completion and 56 have
been completed.
Project team: A dedicated project team comprised of officers from
District Administration headed by
District Development Commissioner
along with Assistant Commissioner
Development, Block Development
Officers, Engineers from REW and
Technical Consultants supervises
the planning and implementation
of Project Rahat. The project was
planned and designed by me, when I
was posted as DC Udhampur. g
(The writer is Additional Special Secretary
to the J&K Chief Minister)

23
GOVERNANCE
economy infrastructure
Transport infrastructure
A tough road ahead

What is the state of play in Indias transport infrastructure and services?
Where are we going? A snapshot of the sector and some contemporary issues
by MANOJ SINGH
RANSPORT is an important part of the infrastructure

required for a countrys growth.
It brings mobility to people and
goods. Transport is intimately connected to the geography of a country
as well as its demography. There are
many ways of looking at transport:
through various modesroad, rail,
24
waterways and airways; through the

areas it servesintra-city and intercity transport; rural transport; and
depending on what is transported
goods and passenger transport. An
extension of transport is logistics,
which adds dimensions of connectivity, intermodality and integration
of physical modes and the processes
related to transport activity. Another
way of looking at transport is from
the perspective of infrastructure and

services as two different parts of the
overall transport provision.
First, let us talk of the bedrock
over which the transport services are
produced i.e. the infrastructure part.
India has a road length of 4.7 million
km, one of the highest in the world,
of which surfaced roads are 2.5 million km (NTDPC 2014, p 49). The
road network, like anywhere else in
www.gfilesindia.com
the world, is hierarchical with around

90,000 km of National Highways
(NH) constituting only 1.5 per cent
of the network, but carrying 40 per
cent of the traffic. NHs are followed
by State Highways and major district
roads, aggregating around 1.2 million km (25 per cent of the network),
and the last tier comprises the rural
road network, which is 60 per cent of
the total network. The balance 15 per
cent or so of the network is formed by
urban roads (9 per cent) and project
roads (6 per cent).
The road network expansion
has benefitted from structured
investments, the two most important
being
the
National
Highway
Development Programme (NHDP)
and the Pradhan Mantri Grameen
Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The NHDP
was aimed at strengthening and
widening high-density corridors
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of National Highways and the

PMGSY was designed to improve the
accessibility of habitations in rural
areas. Launched in 2000, the NHDP
has contributed largely towards
improving the capacity and road
quality of the NHs. The length of NHs
with two lanes increased from 25,395
km in 1996 to 41,518 km in 2012,
and those with four lanes and above
from 1,170 km to 17,774 km. The
PMGSY was launched on December
25, 2000, with an aim to provide
connectivity to rural habitations in
phases. In the first phase, habitations
with a minimum population of 1,000
in plains areas and 500 in tribal,
hilly and desert areas were taken
up. Till March 31, 2014, 81 per cent
of villages in these two categories
had been served. By all accounts, the
PMGSY programme has been a big
success in improving connections
to markets, educational institutions
and healthcare centres. While NHs
and rural roads have received special
attention of planners, State Highways
and major district roads have been
largely left to the individual states
for improvement.
Investment in the NHDP has
improved the quality of NHs, lead-
By all accounts, the PMGSY

programme has been a big
success in improving
connections to markets,
educational institutions and
healthcare centres. While
NHs and rural roads have
received special attention of
planners, State Highways
and major district roads
have been largely left to
the individual states for
their improvement
ing to improvement in journey time,

but still nearly 25 per cent of the NHs
are single-lane. Since the NHs are not
access-controlled, speeds are much
below international norms and safety
is also endangered. The NHs pass
through busy city centres. The solution to that would be access-controlled
expressways and NHDP phase 7 does
have sanction for developing 1,000
km of expressways at a cost of `17,000
crore (2006 prices). However, rising
cost of land acquisition and physical
difficulty in acquiring land is likely to
set this programme back.
N the rail side, the total network

length is around 64,600 route
kilometres. Railways have had
the difficulty of multiple gauges,
which is being tackled through the
unigauge programme. Nearly 100 per
cent of the freight traffic and 98 per
cent of the passenger traffic is carried
by the broad gauge (BG). Ten per cent
of the system is metre gauge, which
is getting progressively converted to
BG, and 3.6 per cent is narrow gauge
catering mainly to hilly and heritage
railways. Network expansion of the
railways has been at a slow pace
although capacity expansion through
gauge conversion and doubling/
tripling/quadrupling has been faster,
though not to the desired level of
the capacity required. In fact, lack of
capacity of the rail network in stretches
where it is badly required has been
universally agreed as one of the most
critical problems facing the rail sector
and, indeed, the transport sector.
Historically, the fastest expan-sion of
railways took place from its inception
in 1853 till 1900 when the total route
kilometres increased to 39,835 km.
The rate of growth declined during
the next 50 years, reaching 53.596
km in 1950-51. In the next 60 years,
since the beginning of the Plan era,

25
GOVERNANCE
the route length increased to 64,600

km (NTDPC 2014, pp. 42). Today,
there is a great demand for increasing
the reach of the rail network to the
unaccessed parts of the country as well
as to increasing capacity of the railway
system through modernisation, speed
upgradation and safety enhancement.
N the aviation side, there has

been an explosive growth in
civil aviation sector in the last
decade which has resulted in the
India becoming the worlds ninth
largest aviation market. The number
of operational airports has increased
from 50 in 2000 to 84 in 2012. The
Private sector has invested in a big way
with the modernisation of Delhi and
Mumbai airports and development of
greenfield airports at Hyderabad and
Bengaluru. This has led to a step up,
both in capacity as well as quality of
infrastructure, in the airport sector.
The State-owned operator, the
Airports Authority of India (AAI),
has played a key role in modernising
airports at Kolkata and Chennai
as well as extending the reach to
many small parts of the country
through its network of airports in all
the state capitals and vital tourist,
commercial
and
administrative
centres. Airports at some locations
are enclaves in the facilities owned by
the Indian Air Force.
The water-based transportation
system comprises ports and inland
26
waterways. While ports are the main

gateways for international trade,
catering to 95 per cent of Indias
external trade, inland waterways
have a good, but hitherto untapped,
potential for cargo as well as passenger movement. There are 13 major
ports and 200 non-major ports along
the coastline and islands. Since 195051, when there were six major ports,
seven more have been added and
numerous non-major ports have
been developed, mainly by Gujarat
followed by Andhra Pradesh, Goa and
Maharashtra. Over the years, capacity in the port sector in India has been
increasing, especially with capacity addition in the non-major sector
Ninty-eight per cent of

the energy needs of
transportation are met
through petroleum
products, and nearly half
of the total consumption
of petroleum products in
India occurs on account
of transport activities.
Energy security and
low carbon growth
model considerations
therefore demand a shift
to rail and water-based
transport modes
increasing at a faster rate. In 198485, capacity utilisation in the major

port sector was 81 per cent, which
increased to 95 per cent in 1990-91
(NTDPC 2014), indicating that during
this period cargo growth was higher
as compared to the growth in capacity. Capacity utilisation remained
high during the 1990s but came down
to about 80 per cent in 2011-12 and,
more recently, to 70 per cent in 201314 as a result of the commissioning of
various capacity addition projects in
the recent past.
In the case of inland waterways,
India has 14,500 km of navigable
waterways, including rivers, backwaters and canals, of which 5,200 km
of rivers and 485 km of canals are
suitable for mechanised transportation. Inland Water Transport (IWT)
has received focused attention since
the creation of the Inland Waterways
Authority of India (IWAI) in 1986.
There are five National Waterways
NW1, River Ganga (1,620 km);
NW2, River Brahmaputra (891
km); NW3, West Coast Canal (205
km); NW4, Kakinada to Puducherry
Canal System along with rivers
Godavari and Krishna; and NW 5, the
Brahmani and Mahanadi delta along
with the East Coast Canal (623 km).
The Barak river is likely to be declared
the sixth NW. More cargo is carried by
Goa and Mumbai waterways than the
NWs, the formers contribution being
around 68 per cent in 2011-12. Overall
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the IWT system carries a minuscule

1.5 per cent of the total traffic.
Urban transport is another important aspect of the sector. According
to the 2011 census, 32 per cent of
Indias population is urban, which
although lower than its international
peers (China is 45 per cent, Mexico
is 78 per cent and Brazil is 87 per
cent), is sufficiently large to require a
well-functioning public transport system. There are 53 million-plus cities
included in the 468 class I (lakh plus)
urban agglomeration/cities, which
have 70 per cent of the urban population. In terms of urban infrastructure,
the urban road length has increased
from 46,361 km in 1961 to 411,840 km
in 2011; the Mumbai suburban rail
system has benefited from the World
Bank-funded Mumbai Rail Vikas
Corporation through additional track
capacity; many cities have invested in
Bus Rapid Transport infrastructure
and rail-based metro systems have
come up in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru
and are being extended in these
cities and many more cities are in the
course of constructing or planning
a metro. Suburban railway systems
have not proliferated much beyond
the cities where they originally had
www.indianbuzz.com
a presenceMumbai, Delhi, Kolkata

and Chennaialthough it is considered to be a much cheaper alternative
to the metro.
ET us look at the trend in the traffic for which the infrastructure

is built. Road and rail dominate
Indias transport usage, contributing
to 87 per cent of the transport output.
It is useful to look at the passenger
and freight transport separately and
even intercity and intra-city differentiation is useful. Rail dominates
the long-distance bulk cargo market
(coal, ores, cement, aggregates and
so) over which it has a cost advantage.
Many commodities, such as fruits and
vegetables, FMCG and white goods
and automobiles, even over long
distances are carried almost exclusively by road. Indian Railways have
recently entered the billion tonne
club whose railways carry more than
1 billion tonne of originating traffic,
a rather exclusive collection of four
countries (US, China, Russia being
the other three) and are expected to
carry 1,105 million tonnes of originating traffic and 688 billion ntkm (net
tonne kilometre). But freight carried
by railways is only around 30 per cent
of total traffic. This share is steadily

declining while the freight carried by
road is increasing to around 65 per
cent. The balance is being contributed by coastal shipping (domestic
cargo moved between Indian ports)
and IWT.
There is unanimity amongst
experts that modal rebalancing or
shifting of existing distribution of
freight in favour of rail and waterways is one of the big public policy
challenges in view of the energy and
environmental sustainability of these
modes. In this context, it is generally
pointed out that comparable countries, US and China, have not only a
larger share of rail at around 50 per
cent, they also have a significant contribution of water-borne transport of
around 15 per cent. While talking of
freight, ports account for 95 per cent
of exim cargo by volume. In terms
of capacity, this sector is the least
stressed with capacity utilisation
almost nearing international norms.
In 2013-14, 973 mt (million tonnes)
was handled at Indian ports, of which
555 mt was at major ports and 417 mt
at non-major ports. The long-term
trend, from 1990-91 to 2011-12, is that
the overall port traffic increased at a

27
GOVERNANCE
CAGR of 8.6 per cent, but the traffic

at non-major ports increased by 18
per cent and that at major ports by
6.4 per cent. It is expected that in the
near future the non-major ports will
equalise and even overtake the major
ports in cargo handling.
Airports cater to only 5 per cent
freight traffic by volume, but nearly 30
per cent by value. In 2011-12, Indian
airports had a cargo throughput of
2.28 million tonnes. The open skies
policy for air cargo started in the early
1990s, under which Indian and foreign carriers were allowed to operate
scheduled and non-scheduled cargo
services to/from any airport in India.
This helped air cargo traffic increase
from 0.9 mt at a CAGR of 9.2 per cent.
ASSENGER
transport
has
dynamics different from freight.
In a country as large as India,
which is not only urbanising fast
but also has a high degree of internal migration, there is an increasing
need for fast and safe intercity mobil-
28
ity. Air transport is increasingly filling this gap although rail transport
remains the choice of not only the
lower income but even the middle
and upper middle class travellers. The
scale of rail and air passenger traffic
in India is not comparable yet, with
Railways carrying 25 million passengers per day as compared to around
0.5 million by airlines. In 2013-14,
Indian Railways carried nearly 9 billion passengers whereas the Indian
airports handled 170 million passengers, 47 million international and
There has been an

explosive growth in the
civil aviation sector in the
last decade which has
resulted in India becoming
the worlds ninth largest
aviation market. The
number of operational
airports has increased from
50 in 2000 to 84 in 2012
123 million domestic. In the case of

Railways, one less known aspect is
that nearly 50 per cent of the traffic
is the suburban passengers carried
in the likes of the Mumbai suburban
system. The second important point is
that in 2013-14, rail passenger traffic
showed a slight decline. In comparison, the air traffic grew at 6 per cent
in 2013-14 and in recent months the
domestic air traffic has increased in
double digits (16 per cent in November
2014 against the same month of the
previous year). Between 2001-02
and 2011-11, the domestic air traffic
increased at a CAGR of 14.3 per cent
and the international segment at 10.2
per cent. During the same period, the
numbers of air operators increased
from 5 to 13 and the fleet size from 132
to 340 aircrafts (NTDPC 2014).
Rail passenger demand suffers
from supply side constraints with
most popular trains not able to meet
the demand in full. During peak seasons, especially involving travel of
the migrant labour during the Chhat
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festival from North India to Bihar, the

demand goes up by 4 or 5 times the
normal traffic. Apart from capacity,
intercity rail travel also needs higher
average speeds since people are moving over longer distancesthe job
market in fast growing cities such as
Delhi and Bengaluru being served
by people from as far as the NorthEastbesides travelling for education and health facilities. A proper
strategy for enhancement of speed
through semi-high speed routes i.e.
upgradation of maximum speeds
up to 160 kmph or high speed on
dedicated track is needed.
Road transport, however, remains
the dominant mode of inter-urban
travel with its share being nearly 90
per cent in BTKM (billion tonne kilometres) terms as compared to 10 per
cent share for Railways. Buses and
private vehicles, including cars, are a
popular choice especially in the relatively shorter distance band up to 300
km. Increasingly long distances, such
as Bengaluru to Mumbai or Bengaluru
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to Hyderabad trips, are being undertaken by buses. This trend is gaining

momentum due to lack of capacity
in rail and introduction of superior
services in buses such as online booking. For example, redBus.com offers
67,000 routes and 1,800 bus operators. While the growth of buses is
a positive development, especially
when viewed in the context of increasing use of private vehicles, planners
also lament the increasing share of
road vis--vis rail in passenger traffic,
which was around 10 per cent in 201112 as compared to 90 per cent by road,
given the ready market for rail-based
transport in India.
RBAN transport is an area

where the supply deficit is the
most. This has led to increasing
dependence on private vehicles for
intra-city travel. Since 1991, the total
number of registered motor vehicles has gone up from 21.4 million to
141.8 million in 2011, a more than sixfold increase (NTDPC 2014, pp. 57).
Of this, the growth in two-wheeler

private transport has been particularly high, having gone up from 14.2
million to 101.8 million, a rise of more
than 13 times. During the last decade,
the annual growth rate of the motor
vehicle population in India has been
around 10 per cent. However, the
share of buses has declined to 1.1 per
cent of all registered vehicles in 2011
from 11.1 per cent in 1951. This decline
has been more severe in the last decade. For example, the number of cars
in Delhi increased at an annual rate
of 9 per cent whereas the number of
buses grew at only 1 per cent during
2000-09 (NTDPC 2014, pp. 58). The
result of this growth, while quite in
line with other developing countries
and having a positive impact on the
manufacturing sector in the country,
has had a baneful influence on the
environment, safety and energy use in
cities, especially the metropolitan cities. Delhis air quality is amongst the
worst of all cities in the world according to recent media reports and, in

29
GOVERNANCE
2011, many Indian cities featured

in the World Health Organisations
(WHO) list of the worlds 100 most
polluted cities. Pollution in cities is a
complex affair and fuelled by multiple
sources such as vehicle exhaust, road
dust, industrial fumes, construction
dust and so on. A recent study of six
citiesDelhi, Kanpur, Bengaluru,
Pune, Chennai and Mumbaishows
that the transport sector is responsible for a majority of NOx and 30-35
per cent of the particulate matter (PM) emissions in these cities
(NTDPC 2014, pp. 313).
HIS indicates the social burden

of transport and its negative
externalities. At an aggregate
level, the transport sector in India is
the second-largest contributor to CO2
emissions and, in 2007, generated
142 MtCO2 equivalents. Within the
transport sector, road contributes 87
per cent of the total CO2 emissions,
aviation 7 per cent and rail 5 per cent.
In the business-as-usual scenario,
a CO2 emission from transport is
expected to go up to 900 million in
2030. From the energy consumption
point of view, the transport sector
accounts for 18 per cent of the total
energy needs of transportation in the
country. Ninty-eight per cent of the
energy needs of transportation are
met through petroleum products, and
nearly half of the total consumption
of petroleum products in India occurs
on account of transport activities. The
other 2 per cent of energy consumption in transport comes from electricity and gas. Energy security and low
carbon growth model considerations
therefore demand a shift to rail and
water-based transport modes.
If modal rebalancing has to take
place as a desirable goal of the transport policy in years to come, the
National Transport Development
30
Policy Committee (NTDPC), which

has provided 20-year perspective
planning for the period 2012-32, has
given an ambitious plan for rail freight
share to be 50 per cent by 2031-32,
with the respective rail and road
shares moving in the following trajectory: 35:65 in the 12th Plan, 39:61 in
the 13th, 45:55 in the 14th and 50:50
in the 15th Plan. For this to happen,
rail freight growth has to be 11 to 12
per cent per annum and road freight
growth 7 to 8 per cent per annum. The
enormity of this task can be appreciated from the fact that long-term growth
of rail freight in the past has been 4
years of the Plan. Apart from underinvestment, another reason for low
rate of growth of rail freight is the low
growth in the segments which provide the rail freight, that is, coal, steel,
iron ore, and so on. The strong crosssubsidisation of passenger charges by
freight is another reason, but it may
also be that if rail freight charges are
reduced whether there would be the
carrying capacity to cater to the additional demand. For this reason, the
line of argument of the NTDPC that
Urban transport is an area

where the supply deficit is
the most. This has led to
increasing dependence on
private vehicles for intracity travel. Since 1991, the
total number of registered
motor vehicles has gone up
from 21.4 million to 141.8
million in 2011, a more than
six-fold increase
per cent per annum. At the current
rate, the rail share would be reduced
to 25 per cent by 2020. One of the
principal reasons for this, according
to NTDPC, is the underinvestment in
railways. This is borne out by recent
experience. The annual investment in
Railways in India in the recent past
has been about $8 billion per annum,
which pales into comparison when
compared to China which invested
nearly $100 billion per annum for the
past decade or so. The 12th Five Year
Plan had a target of 5.19 lakh crore
for rail investment. But, at the current trend, it is not likely to be more
than half this amount unless there is
a major change from the first three
there needs to be a multi-year investment plan fully supported by a credible funding plan is a very sound suggestion which should be incorporated
in the government agenda for the
transport sector. The positive aspect
about investment in the rail sector is
that there is a great capacity to absorb
the funding, a point which has been
proven by the acceleration of Railway
projects in the North-East.
It is known that Railways have
a huge shelf of on-going projects
of new lines (excluding the two
dedicated freight corridor projects),
gauge conversion and doubling
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numbering around 370, which require

`180,000 crore for completion. Such
a large shelf was definitely a result
of the politically directed choice of
projects, but it must also be said
that there is a strong demand for
rail connectivity from the people
at large which gets manifested in
articulation for these projects through
elected representatives.
Under such a scenario and in
the face of funding constraints,
prioritisation of projects is a good
2014, respectively. In 2014-15, `5,700

crore has been allocated to projects in
the North-East and commissioning
of 460 km is expected to take place, a
step up of 60 per cent and 50 per cent,
respectively, over 2013-14 levels.
Apart from focused funding, a large
share of the credit would go to the
leadership and team of professionals who were involved in execution of
the projects as well as the support of
the State governments in settling land
acquisition, environmental clearanc-
way forward. As a result of such a

comprehensive exercise undertaken
for North-East infrastructure by the
Planning Commission in July 2013,
and followed up in January 2014 by
a conference of the Chief Ministers
of the North-East states convened by
the then PM, there has been a step
up in funding of the ongoing national
projects in the North-East which has
led to marked increase in their progress. Small but politically significant
projects, such as bringing the states
of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya
on the rail map, have been accomplished in April 2014 and August
es and law and order machinery. Such

successful implementation provides a
template for projects in not only rail
but other transport sectors as well.
www.indianbuzz.com
HE current focus is on execution

of ongoing projects. In the road
sector, for the period April to
October 2014, 3,419 km of roads were
awarded and 1,984 km constructed, as
against 907 km awarded and 787 km
constructed during April to September
2013. The major issue in the road sector is the lack of response from the
private sector to the BOT projects. Ten
BOT (Toll) projects put up for bidding
in the first 6 months have not found

any response. The lack of investor
response is mainly on account of banks
having reached lending limits in their
exposure to the infrastructure sector.
Due to the institutionalised mechanism of the NHDP programme and
executing agency in the form of NHAI,
the road sector is able to plan a change
in the implementation plan from BOT
to funding based on NHAI borrowing and budgetary support. However,
due to resource limitations, revival of
the PPP programme would still be an
important part of the governments
efforts. Attracting long-term financing, such as pension funds and sovereign funds, into Indias infrastructure
sector would be an important policy
imperative. The recent opening up of
the FDI and domestic investment in
Indian Railways is a timely decision in
this regard. While the NTDPC has recommended a funding pattern for the
transport sector up to 2031-32, which
goes up to 3.3 per cent of GDP in the
12th Plan and further stabilising at 3.7
per cent of the GDP in the subsequent
plans (NTDPC 2014, pp. 124), the real
challenge would be in realising this
level of investment.
The demand for transport will continue to grow; the real challenge is
to meet the supply in a way which is
sustainable and cost-effective for the
users. The past trend shows that the
direction of growth needs to be more
balanced than has been till now, with
a greater emphasis on rail and waterbased transport modes. Urban transport also requires focused attention.
The institutional challenges are the
maximum in urban transport, but
finding the level of investment that
is required is also not easy. Capacity
in executing the projects and running
operations is also vital in providing a
modern, efficient and safe transport
infrastructure and services. g

31
GOVERNANCE
environment devender singh aswal
Namami Gange
Purifying
WKH3XULHU
Attention needs to be given to the proposals
ensuring that the environmental flow of the Ganga is
maintained along with meeting hydropower needs
OR countless millions, the tripathgamini Ganga, the story

of Indias civilization, is a river
of eternal faith and deliverance, a
baitarni. The promise to purify the
mother Ganga, declared one among
the 10 most polluted rivers of the
world, galvanized the electoral campaign of the 16th Lok Sabha. Elected
to power, the new government
rechristened the Water Resources
Ministry as the Ministry for Water
Resources, River Development and
Ganga Rejuvenation (WR, RD and
GR) and launched the Namami
Gange Programme for rejuvenation
of the Ganga in May 2015. The drive
to clean the Ganga is not new as the
Ganga Action Plan-I (GAP-I) was
first started in 1985 and augmented
in 1993 (GAP-II). Taken together,
the Government of India invested
Rs 4,168 crore on pollution control,
maintenance of environmental flows
and conservation. Since the measures proved grossly deficient and
mindful of the enormity of the challenge, the Government constituted
an Integrated Ganga Conservation
Mission, called the Namami Gange in
May 2015 with an outlay of Rs 20,000
32
crore for the purpose.

The consortium of seven IITs
which prepared the Ganga River
Basin Management Plan estimated
that total sewage generation of the 11
basin states is 12,051 MLD as against
the available treatment capacity of
5,717 MLD, leaving a gap of 6,334
0/'$VSHUWKHODWHVWJXUHVRIWKH
MoEF&CC, total estimated sewage
RIRDGHG LQWR WKH *DQJD LV
as against the available capacity of
2,126 MLD, leaving a gap of 5,175
MLD. There are 764 grossly polluting
industries such as tanneries, pulp and
paper, sugar, textiles, chemicals, etc.,
generating 501 MLD of waste water,
substantial part of which is being
DOORZHGWRRZLQWRWKHULYHU1RWDEO\
the 11 Ganga basin states account
for 45 per cent of the total chemical
fertilizer consumption in the country,
amounting to 10 million tonnes
per year. The agricultural runoff
poses serious danger as nitrogen
and phosphorus eventually drain
into surface and subsurface water
which feed the Ganga river system,
including the aquifers. Whether the
occurrence of arsenic in the Gangetic
plains down Unnow in UP, adversely
affecting millions of people, is due to

geogenic or anthropogenic reasons or
both, is yet to be established. Another
major pollutant is the Municipal
Solid Waste, an estimated 14,000
tonnes per day, generated from cities/
towns situated on the main stem of
the Ganga, which, if not treated and
disposed of properly, enters the water
bodies and the rivers, choking them
and threatening aquatic life.
Interception,
diversion
and
treatment of sewage is therefore
required before the treated water
is discharged back into the river.
But due to unconscionable delay in
land acquisition, adverse weather
conditions, court cases and want
of funds, etc., the work of STPs at
Badrinath, Deoprayag, Karanprayag,
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Rudraparyag, Joshimath, Kannauj,

Begusarai, Buxar, Hajipur and
Munger sanctioned between 2008 to
2010 continues to languish. Besides,
there is sub optimal performance of
STPs and Sewage Pumping Stations
(SPS), non-availability of funds for
Operations & Maintenance (O&M)
of sewerage works, erratic supply of
HOHFWULFLW\ XQDYDLODELOLW\ RI TXDOLHG
manpower, lack of motivation for
O&M staff and the reluctance to
work in O&M plants which is seen
as punishment.
, QWHUHVWLQJO\DVWHVWLHGE\H[SHUWV
human excreta if thrown in the soil
become manure and if discharged into
water, poison the water. Toilets need
PRUH ZDWHU WR XVK WKH H[FUHWD DQG
WKHXVKHGH[FUHWDSROOXWHVWKHZDWHU
www.indianbuzz.com
in a big way and it involves a huge and

recurring cost to convert the polluted
water into pure or semi-pure water.
The problem is likely to aggravate as
India becomes from a water-stressed
country to a water-scarce country.
IRMALTA and aviralta require

an adequate environmental
flow (e-flow). An environmental
flow, the soul of the river, is a water
regime needed to maintain the
ecological integrity of a river for
survival of its biota from onslaught
of
anthropogenic
interventions.
E-flow helps in self-purification of
the river, sustains aquatic life and
vegetation, recharges ground water
and supports livelihood. As early as
1916, the Britishers were compelled
by Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya and

the Indian Princes to secure release
of 1000 cusec water continuously at
Haridwar to ensure the Aviral Ganga.
The agreement subsists in view of
article 363 of the Constitution but
only in breach. Shockingly, no norms
for e-flows have been stipulated as yet.
Different institutions / committees
have suggested e-flows ranging
from 20-50 per cent during the lean
season and 20-30 per cent, during
the non-lean season for the Ganga.
Since the Ganga remains dry over
long stretches and the unbearable
pollution load, many aquatic species
are on the verge of extinction or have
disappeared. Worse, the dams have
divided the Ganga into two separate
parts, obstructing aquatic movement

33
GOVERNANCE
environment devender singh aswal
and spawning. Hydrologists like Prof.

Tare of IIT Kanpur and Prof. U.R.
Chaudhary, founder of Madan Mohan
Malviya Institute of River Hydrology
and ex-professor IIT Mumbai and
BHU and, other experts who deposed
before the committee, termed free
aquatic movement as the barometer
of the health of the river.
ENOWNED activist, Anupam

Mishra, working in the field of
water management and rejuvenation of water bodies, testified
that there were 25 to 30 lakh ponds
before the British came to India. Such
water bodies recharged the groundwater and the groundwater in turn
charges the river in lean months The
Indian irrigation system was based
on sound traditional water management techniques. The ancient system
of water preservation in tals khals
and chals and bawries, etc, was
an effective time-tested method of
rainwater harvesting. The water so
collected, met local needs round the
year, created forest cover, charged
the groundwater and was a steady
source of water to the tributaries. For
instance, such a community revived
the Gad Ganga, extinct for 70-80
years in Uttarakhand. Experts were
unanimous in their view that tanks,
lakes and water bodies in the catchment areas are an integral part of
the hydrological cycle which must be
restored and conserved.
Whether navigation would affect
WKHSXULW\DQGRZRIWKH*DQJDWKH
Shipping Ministry submitted that
navigation is a non-consumptive use
of water and, therefore, navigation
would neither be helpful nor harmful
for rejuvenation of the Ganga. It
was also stated that maintenance
dredging for navigation purpose in
WRWDOLW\ GRHV QRW DIIHFW VLJQLFDQWO\
the hydro-morphological parameters
34
of the Ganga. However, according to

one view, the movement of barges/
inland vessels in the rivers improves
the BOD by agitation of the water. It
was also submitted that the current
practice of sand mining in the river
Ganga and its tributaries is seriously
GDPDJLQJ DTXDWLF RUD DQG IDXQD
6LQFHVDQGDQGJUDYHOOWHUDQGSXULI\
the water, there is a strong need for
evolving a sand mining policy for the
Ganga and its tributaries.
About the impact of river front
GHYHORSPHQW DQG EHDXWLFDWLRQ
Prof. Tare and Prof. Chaudhary said
WKDW WKH *DQJD VKRXOG RZ LQ LWV
natural form and as far as possible.
Channelizing and plastering will not
be good for the health of the river.
Hydrologists were unanimous that
Hydrologists were
unanimous that the natural
sand embankments and the
flood plains must not be
altered, damaged or
encroached upon so as to
conserve the self-cleaning
character of the river
the natural sand embankments and

WKHRRGSODLQVPXVWQRWEHDOWHUHG
damaged or encroached upon so as to
conserve the self-cleaning character
RI WKH ULYHU ([SHUWV DOVR FODULHG
that burnt human ashes, instead of
polluting, purify the river.
The Ganga bears no comparison
with any river of the world because
of its highest point of origin, steep
gradient, kinetic energy and water
quality. Prof. Chaudhary referred to
the difference of 75 km between the
origin points of the Ganga and the
Yamuna and the material difference
in the colour of their waters, Ganga
water is completely whitish and
Yamuna water blue, signifying that
the quality, quantity and dynamics
of every river system like the human
system is different. He regretted
that dams have been built without
adequate knowledge of the anatomy,
morphology and cross section of
the river. Himalayan rocks are
sedimentary, fragile; the region has
steep slopes and is an active seismic
zone. For example, the height of the
Three Gorges Dam (TGD) in China is
181 metres and the Tehri Dam is 260.5
meters but the reservoir of TGD is 660
www.gfilesindia.com
irreversible damages of environment

in terms of loss of forest, degraded
water quality, geological and social
impact and that these hydro power
projects enhance landslides and
other disasters.
km and of Tehri Dam, 44 km. The

Himalayan slopes are 18 times steeper
WKDQWKHVORSHVRI7*'6ORSHGHQHV
energy but due to the high degree of
sedimentation, comparatively small
reservoir capacity and landslides in the
Himalayas, the energy generation is
much less800 MW in Tehri as against
18000 MW in TGD. Creation of huge
water bodies in active seismic zone
induces seismicity. Incontrovertibly,
reservoir sedimentation increases
water density, changes the water
colour and reduces, more markedly,
its oxygen content deteriorating the
water quality.
Another matter of constant concern
in Parliament has been the proposed
construction of 450 big and small
hydro power projects in Uttarakhand.
Malika Bhanot of Ganga Ahwaan,
an Uttarkashi based NGO, rued the
www.indianbuzz.com
The current practice of sand

mining in the river Ganga
and its tributaries is
seriously damaging aquatic
flora and fauna. Since sand
and gravel filter and purify
the water, there is a strong
need for evolving a sand
mining policy for the Ganga
and its tributaries
construction of bumper-to-bumper
hydro projects. It was claimed that
53 per cent of river Bhagirathi
is completely affected, impacted
and gone, despite the assurance
RI HFRORJLFDO RZ DQG aviralta
of the Ganga. Cutting, crushing,
blasting, tunneling and mining in the
sensitive-fragile Himalayas is doing
incalculable and irretrievable damage
to the Himalayan ecology. The
locals, whose houses have developed
cracks or have been pulverized by
the blasting of the Loharinath-Pala,
Pala-Maneri and Bhairon Ghaati
projects, are in despair. Besides,
due to blasting, many water springs
have disappeared.
The witness also quoted from the
DIGDYLW OHG LQ WKH 6XSUHPH &RXUW
by the Government containing the
QGLQJV RI DQ H[SHUW FRPPLWWHH ,W
was submitted that the construction
of hydro power projects in Ganga,
Bhagirathi and Alaknanda basins
has overburdened the local ecology
and that there are clear sightings of
TS shocking that 115 km of the

Ganga has been diverted completely into tunnels and lakes in
Uttarakhand, depriving the people
of the glimpse of the Ganga. People
have to plead with the construction
companies to release some water
for performing the last rites of their
deceased dear ones or other sacred
religious ceremonies.
It was also submitted that by tampering with the waters right at the
source, the most significant quality
of the Ganga is being destroyed and
therefore, the Ganga waters after
Rishikesh is no longer the same
legendary Ganga jal. Though the
Ministry of Power attempted to clarify that the survey conducted by HNB
Garhwal University, Botanical Survey
of India and NEERI indicate that the
Tehri reservoir has no adverse impact
on the ecology of the surrounding
area, yet other findings and concerns
remain unaddressed.
The nation needs energy and
hydropower gives clean, green and
renewable energy. The nirmalta
and aviralta of the Ganga and the
hydropower can go hand in hand with
suitable structural changes in dam
designs. The committee has made
a wide range of recommendations
for rejuvenation of the Ganga.
Hopefully, the recommendations will
receive earnest consideration and get
implemented in mission mode for the
success of Namami Gange. g
The author is Additional Secretary, Lok
Sabha. The article is based on the 15th
Report of the Estimates Committee, 16th
Lok Sabha.

35
FIRST STIRRINGS
Anil Kumar Lakhina
Bringing a
paradigm shift
PHOTOS: RAVI BATRA
His reorganisation-cumclean up drive in

Ahmednagar in 1982,
lead to what is known as
Lakhina model. This
made him a role model
for the countrys
governance machinery.
36

NIL Kumar Lakhina, a 1974batch Maharashtra cadre

IAS, could never imagine
that a reorganisation-cum-clean up
drive in Ahmednagar collectorate he
carried out for nine months in 1982,
would lead to coinage of appellations
like Lakhina experiment, Lakhina
Pattern and Lakhina model.
He never thought that the drive
would make him a role model for the
entire governance machinery in the
country, from Jammu & Kashmir to

Kerala and right up to the top of the
executive pyramidPrime Minister
of Indiaand even fetch him a Padma
Shri from the President of India.
According to Lakhina, his limited
purpose in initiating the drive was to
improve the responsiveness of the
government to the requests and needs
of members of the public and to make
the district administration under him
people-oriented and corruption-free.
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His effort was directed to finding

answers to questions like, why common man has been reduced to paper
and why paper is a number?
The mammoth exercise, which
involved relocating 3 lakh files, over
200 Class I, Class II, Class III and
Class IV staff, rearranging cupboards,
almirahs, tables and chairs, weeding
out files weighing 100 tonnes and
converting the record room into a
sacred place a la kitchen in a home
where nobody would enter with his
shoes on.
Lakhina, now 68, recollects that
the first thing he did was to send a
team of officers and senior clerks to
Satara district, where then Collector
VP Raja had attempted to improve the
working conditions and evolve a
system of better contact with the
public. Next, he studied all the laiddown procedures.
A study was made about the kind of
visitors who turned up in 160-yearold Collectorate barracks to get their
works done. The visitors were classified into three broader categories
MLAs, MPs, MLCs, Chairmen of various co-operative units and political
party leaders; members of business
community, politicians from taluka,
friends and colleagues of the senior
officers or non-officials and ex-MLAs;
sarpanches, members of panchayat
samities, students, employees, citizens and villagers, etc. The first category would turn up to pursue development projects and use its influence to
get a particular license. The second
would want to check about clearance
of their bills. The third would come to
enquire about land records, encroachments on land, right of way, conversion of land use, irrigation rights,
collection of birth, succession, attestation certificates, police protection
or excesses and complaints against
other departments.
www.indianbuzz.com
Lakhina engaged Ahmednagarbased Kale-Mutha Consultants and

JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, for architectural advice. Clerks were asked to
sit in straight rows with each facing
the back of the other to avoid gossiping during office hours. Special enclosures with glass panes were made for
supervisory officers so that they could
keep an eye on their clerical staff.
To regulate clerk-public contact, a
counter and token system was
introduced for renewal of licenses,
issue of certificates, inquiries on fair
price shops and police patils. Lakhina
says he drew the token system idea
from the State Bank of India, where
According to Lakhina, his

limited purpose in initiating
the drive was to improve
the responsiveness of the
government to the requests
and needs of the public and
to make the district
administration under him
people-oriented
he had worked as Probationary
Officer (PO) before joining the civil
services. He quit the banking service
because, he claims, it trained him to
be an accountant.
Lakhina then ordered demystification of office procedures by writing
them down on leaflets and pamphlets
in simple vernacular language. The
leaflets, distributed free of charge,
were available for fair price shops,
licenses for arms, selling sugar,
grains, kerosene, running a cinema,
conversion of land use and grant of
land for residential, commercial and
industrial purposes.
This was followed by arranging
paper bundles systematically and
cataloguing all files compilation and
year-wise. Desk manuals were

prepared to make sure that even in
the absence of a dealing clerk, work
does not stop. The Collectorate
brought about improvement in
working condition of employees, dust
proofed the record room and arranged
for training of junior staff by senior
staff. The audit of record room
produced 10 truckloads of useless
paper, which fetched the state treasury
`26,000 from sale.
ITHIN months, the model

became a major attraction
for national and vernacular
media, State governments and the
Centre. So much so, six other districts
of Maharashtra and Mantralaya (headquarters of Maharashtra government)
replicated the model and states like
Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura,
Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and
Delhi-based Institute of Public
Administration (IIPA) sent their representatives to Ahmednagar to study
what came to be known by now as
Lakhina pattern.
The Film and Television Institute
of India (FTII) Pune, shot a documentary on the experiment and filmmaker
Basu Bhattacharya and PL Deshpande,
writer known as Maharashtras
beloved
personality,
visited
Ahmednagar to explore the initiative.
In May 1984, when Maharashtra
government decided to set up an
institute to streamline district-level
and grassroots administration, it
chose Lakhina for the job. The
instituteMaharashtra Institute of
Development Administrationhas
since been rechristened Yashwantrao
Chavan Academy of Administration
(YASHDA).
Exactly a year later, the then Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi wrote to all
State chief ministers to send their
reputed district collectors for short

37
FIRST STIRRINGS
Anil Kumar Lakhina
term training courses in Lakhina

model to the MIDA. Subsequently,
in 1986, government of India awarded
Lakhina with Padma Shri award.
He headed the MIDA for twoand-ahalf years.
Lakhina believes what made him
a leader in Ahmednagar was not
just rearranging of the Collectorate.
His empathy towards Collectorate
employees and interest in social
activities like theatre and exhibitions
also contributed to this.
But the leadership quality of the
only son of late GD Chandan, a highlyqualified officer of the Press

Information Bureau (PIB), and
homemaker Prakash Rani, was on
display even in Bhandara where he
cut his teeth as Supernumerary
Assistant Collector.
Once he was assigned the job of
organising a cataract operation there.
In those days, cataract operations
were week-long affairs. The operations
were to be performed in a school
building, where to his dismay, he
found there was no water for
38

disinfecting the place. He visited

neighbouring villages to collect large
utensils for transporting water. I was
forced to innovate because I was the
leader on the ground. A crisis makes a
leader, he reminisces.
N March 1991, during the period

of Indias economic liberalisation, Lakhina was made Exports
Commissioner under the Union
Ministry of Commerce. He played a
major role in rewriting the countrys
import and export policies.
Between March 1995 to March

1999, he restructured manufacturing
processes in pharmaceutical set ups
as Commissioner, Food and Drug
Administration. In the next about
four years, he, as Vice-Chairman of
City and Industrial Development
Corporation (CIDCO), oversaw the
development of Navi Mumbai and
prepared the blue print of Indias first
Special Economic Zone (SEZ) there.
Lakhina is credited with planning
Indias first sea linkBandraWorli Sea Linkand Mumbai-Pune
expressway when he was the

Managing Director of Maharashtra
State Road Development Corporation
(MSRDC). Further, under his chairmanship, the Rural Electrification
Corporation (REC), a public sector
finance company, doubled its sanctions, disbursements and operational
profits and debuted on the Bombay
Stock Exchange (BSE) and the
National Stock Exchange (NSE).
He retired in February 2008 from
the REC.
Lakhina regrets all his achievements got eclipsed by Ahmednagar
experiment. My grudge is why should
I be judged by one achievement
alone? he asks.
Since his retirement from the civil
services, Lakhina has served as
Director of a number of private companies. In between, he formed the
Forum for the Advancement of Solar
Thermal (FAST), an advisory company which worked on addressing policy,
commercial, development and operational challenges in promoting the use
of solar thermal power in India.
I wanted to do something new and
more challenging, he explains his
shift to the private sector. Currently,
this father of two sons (both run their
own businesses), serves as Chairman
of Al Aftaab, a Dubai-based company
on renewable energy.
Of his 42 year-long career in public
and private sectors, Lakhina has
spent about half in managing energy
companies. Not a small achievement
considering that his maternal
grandfather Mulkraj Mehta, owned a
powerhouse, first in Moga and later in
Narela, before Independence. His
parents migrated from Pakistan
during the partition and he, the only
civil servant in his family, got into
civil services to train to be an officer
rather than an accountant. g
As told to Narendra Kaushik
www.gfilesindia.com
BOOK REVIEW
by GS SOOD
democracy non-fiction
Decriminalising the victims
HE facts contained in the book

may have faded out of the
memory of most since it is based
on the events that author revisited
after a gap of more than a decade of
his 20 years (1983-2003) association
at senior level with government of
India as frontline operation officer as
an Officer Commanding on Internal
security duty in field to policy making
and planning in Vigilance and Counter
Intelligence. But as the saying goes
that those who forget the history are
condemned to repeat it, the book is a
must read especially for those manning
the current establishment since the
onus now lies on Modi Government to
correct the grave misdeeds committed
by the previous regime knowingly or
unknowingly to remain in power.
Also, in a state of falsehood where
police and judiciary are turned into
coercive arms of the state to perpetrate
organised violence with deluge of
disinformation to give legitimacy
to state tyranny through its planted
operations on the pretext of preserving
unity and territorial integrity of the
nation, it becomes impossible for
independent scholars to have access
to reliable and authentic data (that
author as an insider provides) on
chain of such critical events that help
India sustain its proxy war against its
civil society and persistent criminal
acts of state agencies in India. On
one count, the author concludes
that police in every state of India is
one of the most hated and feared
organisation by the public due to
its predatory work culture. Public
in general do not trust the police its
corruption and criminalization.
www.indianbuzz.com
Title: At War Four Pillars of

Falsehood & Public of Republic
Author: Aridaman Jit Singh &
Nayani Singh
Publisher: Nishan Publisher; First
Edition edition (2015)
Publisher: English
The author has given an illustrative

account of how the Executive pillar
of democracy, manned by dumb
babus of IAS/IPS without any
domain expertise, devoid of problem
solving aptitude and organising
abilities appointed for being pliable
with criminal propensities, blind
obedience and loyalty to enlightened
political terrorists in position of power
doomed the public of this republic. He
illustrates with evidences as to how
theory of Controlled Chaos evolved
by evil political genius with sponsored
acts of terrorism through its rogue
intelligence and security agencies
was mistaken to belief that it would
ensure their continuity in power and
invariably lead to uncontrolled events
in politics.
He writes that if India will ever

disintegrate, it will be due to the
excesses of its existing colonial police
work culture and security forces.
Country is all about its people, rest
is all theory and vested interests
wrapped in piece of cloth handed
over to bunch of thugs in special
costumes, who march in rank and
file, for nothing but their livelihood
and brand it as Nationalism. Its
time to redefine the Nationalism
and make each and every anti people
state functionary accountable for his
acts of treason against the people and
the country.
Discussing the role of army in
democracies, the author observes
that Indian Army and paramilitary
forces will keep failing as long as
they will keep meddling in internal
political affairs of the country and
themselves to be used by divisive
political leadership against own
countrymen and will be doomed,
the day they will be pitted against
external aggression. They will have to
protect on two fronts, their internal
front of alienated masses who have
been their victims since last 68 years
and the adversary.
He says that if a corrupt political
government enacts the laws of
lawlessness to criminalise and
disintegrate a political movement
of civic sovereignty, it becomes the
moral responsibility of democratically
elected popular political government
to decriminalise the victims and not
only provide them relief but to honor
their sacrifices and compensate
them for the hardships these
victims endured. g

39
BOOK EXTRACT
prime ministers charan singh
Janardan Thakur started

his career in journalism
with the nationalist
The
Patna
daily,
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 afarJPs
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 Khomeinis revolution
in Iran, Ronald Reagans re-election in an America
swinging Right, VP Singhs ascent as a messiah
with tainted magic and the rasping run to power
of the BJP. Thakurs 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 Ministers 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.
40

All for a
tinsel crown
HARAN Singh was Indias Prime Minister for one

hundred and seventy-one days, but he set a unique
record. He sat for less than forty seconds in the Prime
Ministers seat in Parliament.
He was a man driven by an obsession. He had to
become the Prime Minister no matter what the cost or the
humiliation, no matter for how long. So desperate was he
to get the crown, if only to satisfy some deep craving in his
heart or just to prove his soothsayers right, that he forgot
all his Gandhian principles, all about means and ends. He
swallowed all his pride and prejudices, all his allergies
toward Indira Gandhi and Nehru. But having achieved
his goal he reverted to his old pride and principles even
at the cost of losing the crown he had wangled. All that
mattered was that he had worn the crown, never mind if it
had turned tinsel.
The Morarji government was barely two years old
when people started asking: How much longer will this
government dance around Indira Gandhi? How much
longer will the country live with a gerontocracy that cannot
see beyond its nose? How soon will the Janata Party break?
Was the country heading for another mid-term elections?
Questions came thick and fast, but there was very little by
way of answers. Pundits of the Press were full of answers,
but history makes political journalists look foolish, and the
history of those days had been particularly nasty to the
craft. But then politicians were in the same plight; they too
could not see the wood for the trees. Politicians were like
actors delivering dialogues from different plays of different
historical periods. The result was close to bedlam.
Tearing through this medley came the new challenge
of Charan Singh. He had displayed his power on Delhis
Rajpath on December 23, for the second time in two
years. Temporarily out of the Morarji Government, he
was celebrating his birthday. His followers thundered that
they were going to take over the Krishi Bhawan and the
Rail Bhawan and all the Bhawans. Behind them lay the
debris of a social system which some were still dreaming
to perpetuate.
It was almost like a death-wish, but with the
disenchantment with the Janata Government so complete
and the drive toward the Prime Ministers chair becoming
www.gfilesindia.com
so strong, Charan Singh was vulnerable to the new

overtures from Mrs Gandhi. At 77, Charan Singh had little
time left. He had been humiliated by the very party he
claimed to have built. I was hounded out like a dog, he
told reporters the day after he resigned from the Morarji
government. With growing dismay, Charan Singh had
watched his strength in Parliament being eroded, simply
because a Prime Minister had so many loaves and fish to
offer. He had started with at least 81 Bharatiya Lok Dal
men in the Lok Sabha, and now he expected no more than
50 to go out with him if he left the Janata Party.
Charan Singh looked at all other politicians from a high
moral perch, and they all looked very small and mean to
him. He thought Jagjivan Ram a man without
any sense of morality. In private he would
often ask his close aides, Woh chamar ka
kya khabar (What news of that cobbler?).
He was desperate to throw Morarji out.
His luck turned when he met Kalyanam, an
assistant to P.N. Balasubramaniam. From
him he learnt about all sorts of shady deals
between P.N. Balasubramaniam and Kanti
Desai. The businessman was a frequent
visitor to the Prime Ministers residence,
and Sanjay had been keeping a close watch
on him. He also knew of the deals between
Bala and Kanti, but he did not want to expose
Kanti through the information he got from
Bala because he was a friend of the Anands, his in-laws.
Besides, Sanjays main objective was not just to topple
Morarji government, but to destroy the Janata Party itself.
Finally installed on the throne, Charan started acting
high and mighty with the very people who had put him
there: the Gandhis. He spurned suggestions that he
should personally go to Mrs Gandhi and thank her for her
support. Why should I? he said, The people will think I
have surrendered to her. It will not be good for my image.
Within hours of Charan Singh becoming the Prime
Minister, even his Hanuman, Raj Narain, was acting
brave. At a Ramlila Maidan rally, he publicly denounced
Sanjay Gandhi. His friend, Maniram Bagri, described Mrs
Indira Gandhi as a rat whom they would soon crush.
Raj Narain only meant it to be his public face. On
returning to his residence, he immediately telephoned
Sanjay Gandhi and begged to be forgiven for the slip he
had made at the meeting.
But there were several other irritants, which were
making the Gandhis angry. The list of Congress ministers
to be included in the Charan Singh cabinet had enemies of
www.indianbuzz.com
the Indira Palace and some turncoats. The list had caused
a controversy even in the Congress (S) itself. Mrs Gandhis
emissaries made it very plain to Charan Singh that his days
were numbered. Ironically, Charan Singh did not even see
that he himself was now surrounded by some of the same
people he had earlier described as a pack of impotent
people. Now that he was himself heading the pack, all
of them had become potent. Nobody could have missed
the irony of the situation, the strange twist that politics
had taken. The same Raj Narain, who had vanquished
Indira Gandhi legally and electorally and brought down
her edifice was now hand in-glove with Sanjay Gandhi,
the enfant terrible of the Emergency. Charan Singh, who
had nothing but contempt for the Nehru
dynasty was now at the mercy of the wicked
Cleopatra, surviving on the sufferance of
Sanjay Gandhi. Indeed, the mother and son
could well have been paying Charan Singh
back, quite unknowingly, for having been
the biggest help in their comeback.
ET us go back a little to that morning

of October 1977 when Charan Singh
got Mrs Gandhi arrested. The Home
Minister, all of 75 years at that time, was
seldom known to smile. Even old associates
could not remember him smiling, except
perhaps when he played a hand of cards
with wife Gayatri Devi. But that particular morning, a
big smile played on his lips as he sat in the glare of arc
lights and flashing cameras. He looked triumphant. My
CBI is very efficient, he told the press happily. Any
country can be proud of such an organisation. The Home
Minister thought he had left no loopholes. He had done his
homework well. In Uttar Pradesh he had the reputation
of being an able administrator. Bureaucrats there were
said to have been in awe of him. But at this point, some
people had their doubts. What if you fail? one veteran
journalist, known to be close to the Congress, had asked
the Home Minister. What if the charges against her dont
hold? Charan Singh had looked at him contemptuously,
as though he were a dirty insect.
Will you resign if the charges fail? another
journalist had asked. Why should I resign? Charan Singh
had retorted.
Overnight, Indira Gandhi had become a national
martyr. Even mummy herself couldnt have written a
better script for herself, a jubilant Rajiv Gandhi, the Avro
pilot, had told a foreign correspondent that evening. It had

41
BOOK EXTRACT
almost seemed as though Charan Singh had just followed

the dictates of Indira Gandhi. Political prisoners,
commented Le Monde, are often regarded as martyrs in
India, where prison, as was once the case for the majority of
the members of Desai government, can be an antechamber
of power.
Charan Singh had played into her hands. The cronies
of his own court had been telling him day after day that
the Shah Commission (which probed the Emergency
excesses of Mrs Gandhi, and which she kept defying
valiantly as just political vendetta) was stealing the
thunder that was his by right. Have her arrested, they
said to him, and the country will be at your feet. You will
become the nations hero.
Instead, he became the nations
laughing stock.
Charan Singh had convinced
Prime Minister Desai and some
of his other colleagues that there
were foolproof criminal cases
and there was simply no chance
for anything to go wrong. A
more inept handling was hard
to imagine. From beginning to
end. A single action, meant to
turn Charan Singh into a national
hero, left the myth of his
administrative ability thoroughly
and completely exposed.
few days later, Charan

Singh got a letter from the
party president, Chandra
Shekhar, conveying his anguish over the mishandling of
the arrest. The Home Minister smelt a personal censure,
particularly because the letter had been endorsed by the
party secretaries. He wrote out his resignation from the
government. When his followers heard of it, they rushed to
him. If you resign, the Janata Government will collapse,
they argued. Chandra Shekhar, too, was persuaded to
write another letter to Charan Singh, saying it had never
been his intention to cast any aspersions on him. Charan
Singh withdrew his resignation.
The version he gave to the press was different. The
political responsibility is mine. That is why I wanted to
resign. According to the British tradition, I should have
resigned. And my resignation is still written out. But my
friends said if the British traditions are followed in other
matters then I should resign, but if not, I should not
42

resign. How long will the Janata Party last if you resign,
my friends said...
From an untouchable of Indian politics, Charan Singh
had turned Mrs Gandhi into a kingmaker. In less than a
fortnight her fortunes changed beyond her wildest dreams.
Until July 8, she had been in the trough of despair. She was
almost certain that she would be prosecuted. Her erstwhile
henchman, Devaraj Urs of Karnataka, had virtually driven
her into a corner. At one go her party had not only lost
Karnataka, but also the leadership of the Opposition in
the Lok Sabha. That had seemed a blow from which it was
hard for her to recover. And yet, she was suddenly holding
the countrys political balance. Such a swift change it was
that every politician, every party,
was dazed. Even Devaraj Urs. All
the calculations of this smart pipesmoking politician had been based
on two premises: that the Janata
Government would somehow
drag on for another year or so;
and that Mrs G. would be in jail
by October. Urs had gone wrong
on both counts. On the contrary,
he himself had receded into the
shadows, almost as fast as he had
got into the national focus. When
Yashwant Rao Chavan decided to
move a censure motion against
Morarji Desai in the Lok Sabha,
Urs had made a frantic telephone
call to him asking him to stop it.
Please dont upset all my plans, he
had told Chavan. Urs was already a
little apprehensive about what might happen. Raj Narain
had met him in Bangalore and Urs had got an inkling of
what Narain could be up to. Was he thinking of joining
hands with Sanjay Gandhi to upset the Janata applecart?
That surely would upset all his plans, he thought. But in
any case, it seemed too late; events were moving fast; they
had taken a life of their own.
After Morarjis resignation, President Sanjeeva Reddy
had invited YB Chavan, the 66-year-old leader from
Satara, to try his hand at forming a government. Had it
been some days earlier, the Presidents invitation would
certainly have gone to Indira Gandhis trusted lieutenant,
CM Stephen, but Urs had deprived him of that opportunity.
Stephen had suddenly ceased to be the Opposition leader.
Yashwantrao tried hard for a couple of days, and all the
time that he was at it, Charan Singh was chafing in his lair,
www.gfilesindia.com
angry why Sanjeeva Reddy had to do this useless exercise.

It had indeed looked futile, but Chavan would not give up
before the time given to him by the President: four days.
Charan Singhs men were warning that if the stalemate
continued for too long there could be re-defections from
the Janata (S) to the Janata. The leftist leaders started
urging Chavan to give up. Finally, on July 22, Chavan
went to Reddy and told him he had failed in his effort.
Even so, he refused to write a letter to the President
saying that Charan Singh should be called to form an
alternative government.
N the meantime, Madhu Limaye had put together a

new political combine: the Janata(S), the Congress, the
CFD group led by HN Bahuguna, Socialists and George
Fernandes. He also claimed the support of the left combine
and some regional parties. But it turned out that even this
alliance could not reach the 270 mark required to form a
government. Charan Singh then began talking to Congress
(I). This time, Sanjay Gandhi told him that he would have
to formally approach them, and so Raj Narain and some
of his friends went to see Kamalapati Tripathi and C.M.
Stephen. They told Narain that apart from other things,
Charan Singh would also have to write a personal letter
to Mrs Indira Gandhi. This meant trouble for the Charan
Singh group. The left parties did not like this formal
surrender to Mrs G. The Janata Party had also activated
itself. After prolonged negotiations, Morarji and Jagjivan
Ram agreed that Desai would make the first attempt to
form a new government. But within 24 hours, it was clear
to Morarji Desai and Charan Singh that they could not
form a government on their own. Neither could tot up 270.
Then suddenly came the startling announcement from
Rashtrapati Bhawan: President Reddy had asked both
Morarji Desai and Charan Singh to submit their lists of
supporting MPs simultaneously. A full-blooded rat race
resulted, with both sides trying all possible alliances.
Morarji pleaded with Jagjivan Ram to mobilise his Harijan
supporters within the Congress (I), in other words to buy
them off. But Ram failed, giving Desai at least a sense of
deja vu. He had maintained all along that even if Jagjivan
Ram was made the Janata leader, he would not have been
able to wean away a single Harijan MP from any other
party. It was a tremendous discomfiture for Ram. His
actual influence on Harijans stood exposed.
By July 25, the rats gave up the race.
But just when Charan Singh had given up hope, he
got a call from Rashtrapati Bhawan. Sanjeeva Reddy was
himself on the telephone, informing Charan Singh that he
www.indianbuzz.com
had decided to invite him to form the government. Could

you see me in the morning?
Could he see him! The 77 -year-old man could have gone
running to him right then. It had been a big surprise. Just
an hour earlier he had been telling his Jat mehfil. This
Sanjeeva will never invite me. He still remembers that
I voted against him (in the presidential election which
Reddy fought against VV Gin and lost) in 1969. He has not
forgotten it...
The tide had suddenly turned. He announced to his
court: My lifes ambition is fulfilled.
The Congress (I) tirade began even before the Charan
1978-01-02 Prime Minister Morarji Desai flanked by Jagjivan

Ram, Ch Charan Singh and Atal B Vajpayee meeting President
of United States of America Jimmy Carter in Delhi
Singh government was installed. Do you think we can

tolerate a man who called Indiraji a liar? Sanjay Gandhi
had asked one of his cronies. Just you wait and see what
we will do to him. Make mincemeat out of the man.
Within a couple of days everybody got a foretaste of
things to come. Indira Gandhi lost no time in giving
support to the crumbling ministry of Ram Sunder Das in
Bihar, which was a signal to Charan Singh that he better
behave. Sanjay had already told Raj Narain that as a first
step toward retaining the support of the Congress (I),
the Government would have to withdraw the notification
under the Special Courts Act filed in the Supreme Court on
July 19. They would not only have to withdraw the Kissa
Kursi Ka case, but also remove Ram Jethmalani from the

43
BOOK EXTRACT
post of special counsel in the case immediately.

But having achieved his lifes ambition, Charan Singhs
natural self reasserted itself. He began showing his Jat
guts. He announced the appointment of HR Khanna as
the Law Minister, which amounted to showing a red rag
to a bull. Khanna himself resigned a few days later, but
even his successor, SN Kacker, promptly came out with
a defiant statement: No withdrawal of Special Courts, no
withdrawal of the KKK case.
Charan Singh seemed to be in a state of beatific bliss. It
was almost as though he didnt know what was happening
around him, and if he knew he did not seem to bother.
He thought now that he had reached his ultimate goal, it
was a state forever. Nobody else, however, gave him more
than a few months at the outside. Not even the newly
sworn ministers. So utterly lacking in confidence were
they that many of them would not even move to the bigger
houses meant for ministers, which is considered the most
attractive part of a ministers post. Whats the point, one
of the ministers told his friend. It will be worse getting out
of it after a month or two.
So fragile was the government that many a foreign
diplomat based in Delhi was in a quandary. One of them
had asked me, rather hesitantly: Do you think it would
be impolitic to send our greetings to the new government
at this stage? It was only after both President Carter and
President Brezhnev had sent their good wishes to the
new government that most of the Delhi-based diplomats
followed suit.
The trump card, everyone knew, was with the lady
1979-28-07 President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy swearing in

Ch. Charan SIngh as PM
44

1978-23-12 Boat Club Delhi Kisan Rally
at 12 Wellingdon Crescent, or more precisely, with her

son, who had taken charge of political manoeuvres long
back. Nobody could say for sure how Sanjay Gandhi
would play the card. The courtiers of the Gandhis only
made the confusion worse confounded. Some said she
would let Charan Singh go on till November, others
said she would pull it down the very day the Lok Sabha
opened August 20.
NTIl that time Ram enjoyed only a marginal

support of the Harijans, but Mrs G. and her men
were not at all sure that the situation would remain
the same if Jagjivan Ram became the Prime Minister.
What if he consolidated the Harijan votes in the country?
And in any case, his political savvy was much greater
than Charan Singhs. And so it had to be Charan Singh.
What led to the withdrawal of support so soon was his
refusal to bail out Sanjay Gandhi from his immediate legal
problems. A couple of days before Singh was to seek a
vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha, Sanjay warned Raj
Narain that if he wanted the government to continue, he
must get his demands accepted. The two had met at their
usual rendezvous the guest house of Mohan Meakin.
Their cover was a religious ceremony. Raj Narain had
rushed back to Charan Singh and explained the situation
to him. Charan Singh called his Law Minister, SN Kacker,
and asked him to see if something could be done about the
Kissa Kursi Ka case. After consultations with legal experts,
Kacker gave a note to Prime Minister Charan Singh. The
bottomline was: The withdrawal of the KKK notification at
this stage would expose us to ridicule.
Charan Singhs state of mind at that point is best reflected
in the diary jottings of Kamal Nath, a close friend of Sanjay
Gandhi who was also close to Charan Singh. Kamal Nath
had a long conversation with Prime Minister Charan Singh
on August 8:
www.gfilesindia.com
Kamal Nath: I do not know how the present problem

between Congress (I) and yourself can be resolved. The
issues are being enlarged day by day and I feel...
Charan Singh: What are the issues? Indirajis offer for
support was unconditional and now I am told this is to be
done and that is to be done.
KN: There appears to be a big gap between what was
said prior to your becoming the Prime Minister and what
you are saying now.
CS: I do not understand all this. I have spent more
than 50 years in public life and have far more experience
than you. You must know what has happened since 1966
the period when both you and Sanjay were young boys.
Every understanding arrived at between me and Indiraji
was broken by her. When I became the chief minister, she
toppled me...She created a situation whereby I had to leave
the Congress and form my own party...She has all along
done everything to finish me. Now there are suggestions
to me that I should write and thank her and also go and
meet her. This is impossible. I will only meet her at some
social function like birthday, for example. Otherwise I will
not. Did Indiraji ever write and thank me for all what I did
for her between 1966 and 69? Did she ever come to me to
thank me? If she has not, why should I?
KN: I think you are making this an emotional issue...I
am sure there must have been a communication gap. I
believe the problem can be...
CS: No. I do not agree. If Indiraji wants to support me
there can be no bargain. How can I withdraw the Special
Courts? When I die, I do not want people to say that
1979-08-02 Prime Minister Ch. Charan Singh meeting with

Union Home Minister YB Chavan, Jagjivan Ram, CM Stephen
on Vice President election
www.indianbuzz.com
Chaudhary Charan Singh became Prime Minister because

he made a bargain with Indiraji and withdrew the Special
Courts. Politically and publicly this is a wrong thing to do...
KN: Nobody has asked you to withdraw the Special
Courts. They will be struck down by the High Court itself...
The question is whether in your heart you want to do
anything or not. If you really want to do something, but are
finding difficulties, it is a separate thing; but the question
is whether you want to or not.
CS: I am not even willing to say that I would like to help.
There can be no promises from me. I am not willing to even
express my intentions to help in any matter. Indiraji has
no choice but to support me and if she has to support me
out of necessity, where is the question of my promising
anything? I do not see how she can support Jagjivan
Ram...Let me make one thing clear I am not afraid of a
mid-term poll and convey this to Indiraji that Chaudhary
Charan Singh is not afraid of facing the elections even if
very few people of his party are elected. Doesnt Indiraji
realize that most of the MPs do not want a mid-term poll?
Doesnt she know that her own MPs do not want an election
now? Voting against me will mean a mid-term poll.
KN: ...Something has to be done by you to publicly
show that you want our support. the spirit of coalition has
to be evident to everyone.
CS: What can I do? Like what?
KN: I do not know, but personally I would have thought
of some methods. Now it may be too late. We have agreed
and stated that we do not want to participate in the
ministry; but that does not mean that our suggestions
regarding certain critical appointments should be rejected
for instance, the Attorney General could have been a
nominee of ours; but he has been already appointed.
CS: The new Attorney General is your man. This is on
record. He assisted Indiraji in the Shah Commission. In
fact, this was pointed out to me by various people before
his appointment, yet I appointed him....No. I am not
willing to have any conditions. Indiraji has to support me
of her own accord. I do not want to make any bargains.
It is against my grain. I have a public image which I have
to maintain...
Did Charan Singh sacrifice his crown at the altar of his
public image or was he really convinced that Indira Gandhi
had no choice but to go on supporting him?
He was obviously taking a gamble, but in doing so
he seemed to forget that Mrs G. herself was a great
political gambler. g
Excerpted from Prime Ministers: Nehru to Vajpayee by
Janardan Thakur, Eeshwar Prakashan, New Delhi

45
SPOTLIGHT
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairing a

high-level meeting on the drought
situation with Karnataka Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah in New Delhi.
Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, in a group

photograph, during the WAC Commanders Conference: 2016,
in New Delhi.
Director General of Railway Protection Force SK Bhagat

calling on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi.
Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region

(I/C), Youth Affairs and Sports (I/C), Prime Ministers Office,
Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and
Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh, and Minister of State for Textiles
(I/C)Santosh Kumar Gangwar launching the coffee table book
Celebrating Cottage - A Tribute to Indian Crafts &
Craftpersons at an exhibition of Handicraft & Handloom
Products from North Eastern States in New Delhi. The
Secretary, Ministry of Development of N-E Region, Naveen
Verma and Textiles Secretary, Rashmi Verma are also seen.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju with the Mount
Mukut Mountaineering Expedition team of Indo-Tibetan
Border Police (ITBP) at the flag-off ceremony in New Delhi.
ITBP Director-General Krishna Chaudhary is also seen.
46

www.gfilesindia.com
PHOTOS: PIB
Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha releasing

the Functional Manual For Training
Managers at the Open House session of
National Symposium on Excellence in
Training, New Delhi. DoPT Secretary
Sanjay Kothari and other dignitaries are
also seen.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

addressing at the National
Conference on Good Practices in the
Social Sector Service Delivery in
New Delhi.
Secretary, Department of Financial

Services, Anjuly Chib Duggal being
welcomed at the inauguration of
the Blood Donation Camp,
organised by the Department of
Financial Services in association
with Lions Club in New Delhi.
UPSC Chairman Deepak Gupta

administering the oath of the office and
secrecy to Bhim Sain Bassi as Member,
Union Public Service Commission, in
New Delhi.
Tina Dabi, Civil Services Topper 2015,

calling on Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra
Mahajan in New Delhi.
Secretary, Ministry of Health and

Family Welfare, BP Sharma offering
Shramdaan, during his visit to RML
Hospital in New Delhi.
www.indianbuzz.com
Minister of State for Information &

Broadcasting, Col. Rajyavardhan Singh
Rathore, greets Ajay Mittal after taking
charge as the Secretary, Ministry of
Information & Broadcasting in New Delhi.

47
PERSPECTIVE
intellect sadhguru
N modern times, the human

mind is increasingly seen as a
source of torment rather than
wonder. Unfortunately, a source
of magic has turned into a mess, a
miraculous instrument into a miserymanufacturing machine.
How did the mind become a circus?
Given that gnana yogathe path of
knowingis considered to be a timehonoured path to the divine, what
went wrong? Is the mind no longer
capable of leading us to our ultimate
destination? The problem is simple.
All human beings are capable of
becoming the sole architects of their
inner lives, if they knew how to use
the mind. The problem is just that
their mind is not taking instructions
from them.
Now a gnana yogi begins by using
his intellect, but soon realises the limitations of this faculty. The function
of the intellect is essentially to recycle
data gathered from the outside world
via the sense organs. In short, the
intellect is pure information technology. It is a wonderful instrument,
and absolutely vital for our survival.
On more sophisticated levels, it has
contributed immeasurably towards
human culture and civilisation.
However, the problem today is
that the intellect has assumed a disproportionately important role. The
essence of the intellect is to divide. So
humanity has embarked on a journey
of wholesale dissection. We have split
everything, including the invisible
atom. We have forgotten that human
logic is necessarily limited because it is
based on fragmentary and inaccurate
information from our sense organs. It
is said that when the first European
ships went to North America, the
native tribes could see people coming towards them, but they could not
see the ship. This was simply because
they had never seen a ship before. If
48

Life is a dance
there is no past information about an
object in your mind, you cannot even
perceive it.
The gnana yogi begins to realise
that when it comes to the mystical
dimension, the intellect is of no consequence. He sees that however great
the volume, the data gathered by the
intellect will always remain finite. It
is impossible to approach the infinite
through the finite. And so, the gnana
yogi learns to use the intellect the
way a drunkard uses a lamp post
for support rather than illumination.
He understands that the intellect is
an instrument of analysis, not perception. To perceive, another faculty
is required.
At the same time, probably
nowhere else in the world has intellect
been used with the same devastating
precision as it has in this land. This
subcontinent has seen metaphysical
logic at its ultimate. The sophisticated
levels of Vedantin philosophising
can leave you dizzy and intoxicated.
But gradually, true sadhakas realise
all the heady excitement isnt really
getting them anywhere.
Gradually, those on the gnana
yoga path learn to access the deepest
dimension of human intelligence,

which connects them with the very
basis of creation. This realm is
known as chitta. They realise that
if you soak your intellect in chitta
consciousness unsullied by memory
it can grow razor-sharp, turn into
a miraculous tool of bliss and
liberation, and deliver you effortlessly
to the ultimate.
If you look at your body, you realise
what an incredibly complex chemical
factory it is. The phenomenal dance
of chemistry and neurons within the
human system is conducted by none
other than chitta or pure intelligence.
And this pure intelligence is not different from what we refer to as God or
the Creator. If you operate out of the
straitjacket of logic, you just remain a
clown in the circus of life. But when
you operate from the unbounded
dimension of chitta, you become a
blissful participant in the life process. The mind is no more a circus.
Now, life is nothing short of a dance
a superbly choreographed dance
between you and the entire cosmos. g
Sadhguru, a yogi, is a visionary,
humanitarian and a prominent spiritual
leader (www.ishafoundation.org)
www.gfilesindia.com
STOCK DOCTOR
dr gs sood
Positive signals
TRONG macro fundamentals

with the March quarter GDP
at 7.9 per cent giving a full year
GDP of 7.6 per cent has bolstered
the confidence in the market to
such a level that most experts are of
the considered view that the Indian
market has de-risked itself from most
of the global headwinds, be it the Fed
rate hike, the Chinese turbulence,
strengthening Dollar, Brexit or
whatever. Most of the macro signals
are also positive for the market,
including the improving corporate
profitability that was probably
highest since June 2014, better auto
sales numbers, increased cement
dispatches, increased bank lending
to customers, improving savings data
and so on.
Government investment is picking
up and will soon be followed by pick
up in private sector capex that may
get re-confirmed with the monsoon
predictions of above normal rainfall
as predicted by most of the latest
met forecasts. Economic recovery is
likely to continue with urban demand
picking up and good monsoon soon
going to improve agriculture income
that will go on to reduce rural distress
and perk up rural demand.
Implementation of the Seventh
Pay Commission will further boost
demand for consumer goods and
consumer discretionaries. A new
thrust to the reform agenda by the
government with the possibility
of some big ticket reforms such as
Bankruptcy Code and GST getting
clinched may further improve the
prospects of the market. Clarity on the
Mauritius Treaty has also sent very
bold signals to the market that the

government can bite the bullet even
on very contentious issues and may
not follow the please-all approach.
Valuations of the Indian market
appear steep, as MSCI India Index at
around 22 times earnings is at a huge
premium, compared to 13.5 times
for the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan
benchmark. However, the premium
valuations are to an extent justified
looking at the superior returns on
equity that Indian corporates are
likely to demonstrate in the days
to come.
The fact is that for a brief period
of inflows in March-April, emerging
markets have all witnessed outflows
with India fairing comparatively
better by witnessing the least
amount of outflows. The same is
likely to hold for future as well.
In fact, the increasing number of
quality institutional investors are
getting engaged with fast emerging
opportunities in India. Investors like
CPPIB, GIC, ADIA and Blackstone
are putting large amounts of money
in India. They are representatives of

the positive sentiment towards India
and are playing on its long-term story.
The recent state election results
have further improved the footprint of
the ruling alliance giving it the much
needed booster dose to go whole hog
on its development and reforms agenda. However, the domestic headwinds
such as the lack of boost the economy
has been getting due to the falling oil
prices, constrained bank lending due
to rising bad loans, very high leverage in some sectors, the ongoing
fiscal compression and bottoming
out of inflation may play spoil sports.
Even the issue of the extension of the
RBI Governors term may play on
the market.
The market may witness a
correction in the near term due to
too much uncertainty on the
global front. Investors will do well
to take it as an opportunity to pick
up stocks that are likely to gain the
most from the India growth story
since the medium to long-term story
looks excellent. g
Stock Shop
BY
RAKESH BHARDWAJ
MM Forgings
(CMP `439)
HE company is in the castings and

forgings sector and reported slightly
below expectation numbers for the March
quarter of FY 2016. Net sales for March
quarter were at around `123 crore with
net profit of `11 crore showing a slight
decline in EBIDTA margins. However,
the EPS for TTM is more than `41. Cash

earning is around `70. The stock is a
good proxy to the boom in the auto sector and the company is positioning itself
for wider applications of its products. The
fundamentals also suggest that the stock
is a good bonus candidate besides being
available cheap at a PE of less than eleven
as against the industry PE of more than 30.
The stock is set to give decent returns over
a period of 2-3 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 Bhardwajs name in the subject line.
www.indianbuzz.com

49
birthdays
IAS officers birthdays June 16, 2016 July 15, 2016
IAS officers birthdays June 16, 2016 July 15, 2016
A Jayathilak
Mohan Jeet Singh
Teliashutosha
Amjad Tak
CADRE: KERALA
CADRE: UNION TERRITORY
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
jayathil@ias.nic.in
singhmj@ias.nic.in
teliahut@ias.nic.in
amjad@ias.nic.in
V Iraianbu
Om Prakash Bakoria
Roshni Sen
B Kalyan Chakravarthy
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA
iraianbu@ias.nic.in
opbakoria.ias@ias.nic.in
senr@ias.nic.in
chakrabk@ias.nic.in
P Dayanand
Kiran Soni Gupta
Santhanagopalan R
Rohit Yadav
CADRE: CHHATTISGARH
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
CADRE: ODISHA
CADRE: CHHATTISGARH
dayanand.ias@ias.nic.in
guptaks@ias.nic.in
rsanthan@ias.nic.in
yadavr@ias.nic.in
Anbukkumar V
ELSN Bala Prasad
S Krishnan
Sanjeev Kaushal
CADRE: KARNATAKA
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
CADRE: HARYANA
anbukkumar@ias.nic.in
prasadbe@ias.nic.in
krishs@ias.nic.in
kaushals@ias.nic.in
K Damayanthi
Sumer Singh Gurjar
Amit Jha
Tuhin Kant Pandey
CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH
CADRE: PUNJAB
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: ODISHA
damayant@ias.nic.in
gurjarss@ias.nic.in
jhaa3@ias.nic.in
pandeytk@ias.nic.in
Alok Goyal
Nidhi Chhiber
Anup Wadhawan
Upma Srivastava
CADRE: JHARKHAND
CADRE: CHHATTISGARH
CADRE: UTTARAKHAND
CADRE: SIKKIM
goyala2@ias.nic.in
chhibern@ias.nic.in
wadhawan85@ias.nic.in
sriupma@ias.nic.in
Pradip Kumar Tripathi
Avinash Singh Chhatwal
Vatsala Vasudeva
Manish Ranjan
CADRE: JAMMU & KASHMIR
CADRE: PUNJAB
CADRE: GUJARAT
CADRE: JHARKHAND
tpradipk@ias.nic.in
cavinash@ias.nic.in
vatsalav@ias.nic.in
ranjanm2@ias.nic.in
Sujata Chaturvedi
B Rajender
R Selvam
Narendra Kumar
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: HIMACHAL PARDESH
csujata@ias.nic.in
rajender@ias.nic.in
selvamr@ias.nic.in
kumarn6@ias.nic.in
Amarendra Sinha
Anand Kumar
Prabhudayal Meena
Arvind Kumar Sharma
CADRE: UTTARAKHAND
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
CADRE: MADHYA PARDESH
CADRE: GUJARAT
sinhaa3@ias.nic.in
kranand2@ias.nic.in
meenapd@ias.nic.in
sarvindk@ias.nic.in
Prashant Kumar Singh
Dinesh Tarachand Waghmare
Daya Nidhan Pandey
Shaleen Kabra
CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: BIHAR
singhpk@ias.nic.in
waghmare@ias.nic.in
dnpandey.ias@ias.nic.in
kabras@ias.nic.in
Prashanta Kumar Nayak
Mukesh Kumar Meshram
D Randeep
Kamini Chauhan Ratan
CADRE: ODISHA
CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH
CADRE: KARNATAKA
nayakpk@ias.nic.in
meshramm@ias.nic.in
randeepd.ias@ias.nic.in
ratankc@ias.nic.in
Hari Krishna Dwivedi
Rajan Namdeo Khobragade
Pankaj Kumar Pal
Hemant Kumar Sinha
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
CADRE: KERALA
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
dwivedih@ias.nic.in
khobrarn@ias.nic.in
palpk@ias.nic.in
sinhahk@ias.nic.in
Anurag Rastogi
Brijesh Panday
Rahul Kumar Purwar
MGVK Bhanu
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: JHARKHAND
rastogi4@ias.nic.in
brijeshpanday@ias.nic.in
purwarrk@ias.nic.in
bhanumv@ias.nic.in
16-06-1966
16-06-1963
17-06-1976
17-06-1974
18-06-1960
18-06-1965
18-06-1964
19-06-1965
19-06-1957
20-06-1970
20-06-1958
20-06-1963
21-06-1965
21-06-1959
22-06-1973
22-06-1960
23-06-1961
23-06-1973
24-06-1969
24-06-1960
25-06-1967
25-06-1967
26-06-1965
26-06-1967
27-06-1966
27-06-1977
28-06-1977
28-06-1966
29-06-1968
29-06-1967
30-06-1962
30-06-1961
01-07-1970
01-07-1971
02-07-1957
03-07-1976
03-07-1979
04-07-1972
05-07-1974
05-07-1978
06-07-1967
07-07-1976
07-07-1964
08-07-1965
09-07-1963
10-07-1975
10-07-1957
11-07-1962
12-07-1968
13-07-1971
14-07-1956
15-07-1958
For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com
50
www.gfilesindia.com
IPS officers birthdays June 16, 2016 July 15, 2016
IPS officers birthdays June 16, 2016 July 15, 2016
Amitabh Thakur
B Malla Reddy
Ashutosh K Dumbre
P Mallana Goud
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
amitabh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
bmallareddy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
akdumbre@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
pmgoud@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Manmeet Singh Narang
Ashok Kumar Verma
Mandeep Singh Tuli
Surya Pratap Gupta
CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: SIKKIM
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
msnarang@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
ashok_verma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
mstuli@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
spgupta@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Lokanath Behera
Rajeev Krishna
VH Rao Deshmukh
A Sunil Acharya
CADRE: KERALA
CADRE: JHARKHAND
CADRE: NAGALAND
loknath@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
rajeevkrishna@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
vhraodeshmukh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
asunilachaya@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Sunil Kumar Bansal
Anurag Agrawal
B Radhika
Prithvi Raj
CADRE: ODISHA
CADRE: ODISHA
CADRE: HIMACHAL PRADESH
skumarbansal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
anuragagarwal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
bradhika@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
prithvi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Sumedh Singh Saini
Vijay Kumar
RA Chandra Sekhar
Nina Singh
CADRE: PUNJAB
CADRE: KERALA
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
sumedh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
vijaykumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
racsekhar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
ninasingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Umesh Sharaf
Sanjeev Kumar
Rithwik Rudra
Malini Krishnamoorthy
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
CADRE: KARNATAKA
umeshsharraf@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
sanjeevkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
rithwik@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
mkrishnamoorthy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Alok Kumar Mittal
AK Digambar Fulzele
PS Salunkhe
Devesh Chandra Srivastava
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: AGMUT
akmittal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
atulkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
pssalunkhe@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
dcsrivastva@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Vinayak Vineet
Hitesh Chandra Awasthi
PH Rane
Sudhansu Sarangi
CADRE: SIKKIM
CADRE: KARNATAKA
CADRE: ODISHA
vinayak@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
hcawasthi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
phrane@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
sudhansusarangi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Ashok Awasthi
Himanshu Gupta
Ashok Kumar Singh
Kala Ramachandran
CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH
CADRE: CHHATTISGARH
CADRE: AGMUT
CADRE: HARYANA
ashokawasthi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
himanshu@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
aksingh_93@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
kala@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Surinder Singh
Kapil Garg
Garib Dass
Alok Kumar Verma
CADRE: PUNJAB
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
CADRE: AGMUT
surinder@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
kapilgarg@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
garibdass@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
akverma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Himanshu Roy Dasondi
Kushal Pal Singh
Santosh Rastogi
Man Mohan Singh
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: BIHAR
hrdasondi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
kushalpalsingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
srastogi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
manmohansingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Hasmukh N Patel
Kishan Singh Meena
Vipul Aggarwal
B Naga Ramesh
CADRE: GUJARAT
CADRE: JHARKHAND
CADRE: GUJARAT
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
hnpatel@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
ksmeena@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
vipul@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
bnramesh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Rajkumar Maruti Vhatkar
Arundeo Gautam
Anand Kumar Tewari
RB Brahmbhat
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: CHHATTISGARH
CADRE: GUJARAT
rmvhatkar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
arundeogautam@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
anandktiwari@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
brahmbhat@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
16-06-1968
16-06-1970
17-06-1961
17-06-1962
18-06-1958
18-06-1963
19-06-1969
20-06-1970
21-06-1964
22-06-1957
23-06-1963
23-06-1965
24-06-1972
24-06-1960
25-06-1960
26-06-1969
27-06-1975
28-06-1970
29-06-1962
29-06-1973
30-06-1961
30-06-1969
01-07-1959
01-07-1960
02-07-1958
02-07-1967
03-07-1968
03-07-1974
04-07-1960
04-07-1964
05-07-1966
05-07-1969
06-07-1970
06-07-1957
07-07-1957
07-07-1970
08-07-1973
08-07-1976
09-07-1970
10-07-1958
10-07-1956
10-07-1967
11-07-1957
11-07-1964
12-07-1965
12-07-1971
13-07-1968
13-07-1969
14-07-1957
14-07-1963
15-07-1962
15-07-1964
www.indianbuzz.com

51
birthdays
Lok Sabha Members June 16, 2016 July 15, 2016
Lok Sabha Members June 16, 2016 July 15, 2016
Lakhan Lal Sahu
Murali Mohan Maganti
Ganesh Singh
Narasimham Thota
BJP (Chhattisgarh)
TDP (Andhra Pradesh)
BJP (Madhya Pradesh)
lakhanl.sahu@sansad.nic.in
muralimohan.maganti@sansad.nic.in
sganesh@sansad.nic.in
narasimham@sansad.nic.in
Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Prabhas Kumar Singh
Bhagirath Prasad
Ladu Kishore Swain
BJP (Uttarakhand)
BJD (Odisha)
BJD (Odisha)
bhagat.koshyari@sansad.nic.in
parbhas.singh@sansad.nic.in,
dr.bhagirathprasad@sansad.nic.in
ladukishore.swain@sansad.nic.in
Kirit Premjibhai Solanki
AP Jithender Reddy
SS Ahluwalia
Sriram Malyadri
BJP (Gujarat)
TRS (Telangana)
BJP (Darjeeling)
kirit.solanki@sansad.nic.in
jreddy@sansad.nic.in
ssa@sansad.nic.in
malyadri.sriram@sansad.nic.in
Santokh Singh Chaudhary
Sushil Kumar Singh
Santosh Ahlawat
Pashupati Nath Singh
INC (Punjab)
BJP (Bihar)
BJP (Rajasthan)
BJP (Jharkhand)
ss.chaudhary@sansad.nic.in
sushilkumar.singh19@sansad.nic.in
ahlawat.santosh@sansad.nic.in
pashupati.ns@sansad.nic.in
Dileep Singh Bhuria
Tariq Hameed Karra
Vijay Sampla
PP Chaudhary
PDP (Jammu & Kashmir)
BJP (Punjab)
BJP (Rajasthan)
dileepsingh.bhuria@sansad.nic.in
tariz.karra@sansad.nic.in
vijay.sampla@sansad.nic.in
pp.chaudhary@sansad.nic.in
Sunil Baliram Gaikwad
Prahlad Singh Patel
BJP (Maharashtra)
sbgbjp@gmail.com
prahladp@sansad.nic.in
Rahul Gandhi
Supriya Sadanand Sule
16-06-1971
17-06-1942
17-06-1950
18-06-1946
19-06-1944
19-06-1970
19-06-1970
24-06-1940
25-06-1964
26-06-1954
27-06-1963
28-06-1955
28-06-1960
30-06-1969
INC (Uttar Pradesh)
NCP (Maharashtra)
office@rahulgandhi.in
supriyasule@yahoo.co.in
Bishnu Pada Ray
Kalraj Mishra
BJP (Andaman and Nicobar)
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
andamanmp@gmail.com
kalraj.mishra@sansad.nic.in
PR Senthilnathan
Satish Kumar Gautam
19-06-1950
20-06-1967
01-07-1941
01-07-1972
AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
senthilnathan.pr@sansad.nic.in
satish.gautam@sansad.nic.in
Renuka Butta
ET Mohammed Basheer
21-06-1971
01-07-1946
YSR Congress Party (Andhra Pradesh)
IUML (Kerala)
butta.renuka@sansad.nic.in
basheer.et@sansad.nic.in
Chand Nath
Nandi Yellaiah
21-06-1956
01-07-1942
BJP (Rajasthan)
INC (Telangana)
chand.nath@sansad.nic.in
yellaih.nandi@sansad.nic.in
Jayshreeben Patel
Manoj Kumar Sinha
BJP (Gujarat)
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
jkpatelgujarat@gmail.com
manojsinha.mp@sansad.nic.in
Satya Pal Singh
Babulal Chaudhary
22-06-1959
23-06-1955
01-07-1959
02-07-1948
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
dr.satyapalsingh@sansad.nic.in
babulal.mp@sansad.nic.in
02-07-1962
03-07-1947
04-07-1951
06-07-1963
06-07-1961
06-07-1962
08-07-1947
10-07-1954
11-07-1949
12-07-1953
Rajya Sabha Members June 16, 2016 July 15, 2016

V Hanumantha Rao
Sharad Yadav
INC (Telangana)
JD-U (Bihar)
raovh@sansad.nic.in
syadav@sansad.nic.in
Kunal Kumar Ghosh
Anil Kumar Sahani
AITC (West Bengal)
JD-U (Bihar)
kunal.ghosh@sansad.nic.in
akumar.sahani@sansad.nic.in
Brajesh Pathak
Narendra Budania
BSP (Uttar Pradesh)
INC (Rajasthan)
brajesh.pathak@sansad.nic.in
n.budania@sansad.nic.in
Ram Gopal Yadav
Arvind Kumar Singh
SP (Uttar Pradesh)
SP (Uttar Pradesh)
ramgopal.yadav@sansad.nic.in
arvindkumar.mp@sansad.nic.in
Bhupender Yadav
Anil Madhav Dave
BJP (Rajasthan)
bhupender.yadav@sansad.nic.in
anil.dave@sansad.nic.in
M Venkaiah Naidu
Ramchandra Prasad Singh
BJP (Karnataka)
JD-U (Bihar)
mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in
ram.chandra@sansad.nic.in
Rajaram
Chaudhary Munavver Saleem
BSP (Uttar Pradesh)
SP (Uttar Pradesh)
rajaram.mp@sansad.nic.in
cmsaleem786@gmail.com
16-06-1948
20-06-1968
25-06-1964
29-06-1946
30-06-1969
01-07-1949
01-07-1968
02-07-1947
04-07-1963
05-07-1956
05-07-1968
06-07-1956
06-07-1958
10-07-1959
52
www.gfilesindia.com
Tracking
For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com
ASHOK LAVASA
The 1980-batch IAS officer of the Haryana
cadre has been designated as Finance
Secretary.
TG NEGI
The 1980-batch IAS officer of the Himachal
Pradesh cadre has been appointed as PS to
Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh.
MADHUSUDAN PRASAD
The 1981-batch IAS of the Haryana cadre,
outgoing Secretary, Urban Development,
has been appointed new Member of the
Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB).
NEW ADDITIONAL SECRETARIES IN GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

1. UP Singh, the 1985-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre has been appointed
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources.
2. Ms Shalini Prasad, the 1985-batch IAS officer of the UP cadre has been appointed
Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Power.
3. Ms Madhulika P Sukul, the 1982-batch IDAS officer has been appointed Additional
Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs.
4. Girish Chandra Murmu, the 1985-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been
appointed Additional Secretary, Expenditure.
5. Ms Amita Prasad, the 1985-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been
appointed Additional Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
6. Nikhilesh Jha, the 1984-batch IAS officer of the Manipur cadre has been appointed
Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser, Food and Public Distribution.
PRABHAS JHA
SHOBHANA JOSHI
NISHI SINGH
The 1982-batch IAS officer of the UP cadre

has been appointed Secretary, Ministry of
Parliamentary Affairs.
The 1979-batch IDAS officer, the Controller

General of Defence Accounts, has been
appointed Secretary, Defence Finance.
The 1979-batch IRS officer has been

appointed Member, Central Board of
Direct Taxes (CBDT).
PC PHARKA
HN BHAGWAT
GOPAL MUKHERJEE
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Himachal

Pradesh cadre has been appointed Chief
Secretary of Himachal Pradesh.
The Air Vice Marshal has been appointed

Air Marshal in the Indian Air Force.
The 1980-batch IRS officer has been

appointed Member, Central Board of
Direct Taxes (CBDT).
TK ANIL KUMAR
The Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief

(FOC-in-C), Western Naval Command, has
been appointed Chief of Naval Staff.
The 1995-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka

cadre has been appointed Secretary,
Department of Personnel & Administrative
Reforms.
LK ATHEEQ
cadre has been appointed Principal
Secretary to the Chief Minister in Karnataka.
SUNIL LANBA
MUKTESH KUMAR PARDESHI

The 1991-batch IFS officer, currently
Ambassador of India to Mexico, has
been concurrently accredited as the High
Commissioner of India to Belize with
residence in Mexico City.
Moving On: IAS officers retiring in June 2016

ASSAM
Dilip Borthakur (1999)
BIHAR
Prabhat Shankar (1999)

Binod Chandra Jha (2002)
GUJARAT
HS Patel (1999)
HARYANA
Sanjay Kothari (1978)
JHARKHAND
Kamal Shankar Srivastav

(2002)
KARNATAKA
Arvind Jadhav (1978)
www.indianbuzz.com
MADHYA PRADESH
Rakesh Agrawal (1982)

Arun Tiwari (1991)
Santosh Kumar Mishra
(1999)
Surendra Pal Singh Saluja
(2000)
Nisar Ahmed (2003)
ODISHA
Taradatt (1983)
Dilip Kumar Mohanty
(2001)
RAJASTHAN
Umrao Salodia (1978)

Lalit Mehra (1984)
Ajay Singh
TAMIL NADU
NS Palaniappan (1983)
M Veerashanmugha Moni
(1995)
UTTAR PRADESH
Praveen Kumar Singh

(1999)
Bharat Lal Rai (2000)
Satya Narayan Srivastava
(2002)
Jai Prakash Singh (2002)
UNION TERRITORY
Rajesh Kumar Srivastava

(1984)
Ramesh Tewari (1999)
Cholleti Prabhakar (2000)
DAVENDRA KUMAR DHODAWAT

The 1993-batch IAS officer of the Kerala
cadre has been appointed Secretary to
the Governor of Kerala.
BN REDDY
The 1983-batch IFS officer has been
appointed the next High Commissioner
of India to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
DHARMENDRA SINGH YADAV

The 2006-batch IPS officer of the UP
cadre has been posted as SSP, NOIDA
in UP.
RAMA SHANKAR SINHA

The 1995-batch IFS officer of the
AGMUT cadre has been appointed as
Additional Commissioner (Forestry),
Department of Agriculture & Cooperation,
New Delhi.
ANIL KUMAR
The 1995-batch IRSME officer has been
appointed Chief Vigilance Officer in
Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), Goa under
the Ministry of Shipping.
SK SRIVASTAVA
The IRSE cadre officer has been
appointed Executive Director, Mobility
(Civil Engg), Railway Board.

53
RP THAKUR
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PRAGYA S SAKSENA
The IRTS cadre officer has been appointed

Executive Director, Non-Fare Revenue
Directorate (Traffic Commercial), Railway
Board.
The officer of the Bihar State Civil Service

has been awarded Indian Administrative
Service (IAS) cadre.
The officer of IRS-IT cadre has been

appointed Joint Secretary (FT&TR-I),
CBDT.
BHUPENDRA KAINTHOLA
DINESH MALHOTRA:
SOMNATH GHOSH
The IIS officer has been appointed Director

of the Pune-based Film and Television
Institute.
The Managing Director, Himachal Pradesh

Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC),
has been appointed Director, Information
and Public Relations (I&PR).
The 1997-batch IFS officer presently

Ambassador of India to Mongolia, has
been appointed the next Ambassador of
India to the Republic of Tajikistan.
PP KHANDEKAR
SUDHIR YADAV
ANITA KAPUR
The Air Marshal has been appointed Air

Officer-in-Charge Maintenance at Air
Headquarters, New Delhi.
The 1985-batch IPS officer of the UT cadre

has been appointed Director General (DG)
of Tihar Jail.
Former Chairperson of the CBDT has

been appointed Member, Competition
Appellate Tribunal (CAT).
NEW JOINT SECRETARIES

The government undertook another major administrative
reshuffle at the joint secretary level, the key highlight being
the appointment of an IRS-IT officer in the Ministry of Finance
and an IRAS (Indian Railway Accounts Service) officer in the
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The IRS-IT officer
Pankaj Kumar Mishra has been appointed as Director, Financial
Intelligence Unit (FIU-Ind), a post often occupied by IAS officers.
The appointments also cover other key ministries/departments
like petroleum and expenditure. Here are the details of the
latest round of JS reshuffle at the Centre involving 26 officers:
1. Alok Tondon, the 1986-batch IAS officer of the UP cadre
officer has been appointed Joint Secretary, Cabinet
Secretariat.
2. Rajiv Ranjan, the 1989-batch IAS officer of the Madhya
Pradesh cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary,
Department of Expenditure.
3. Amar Nath, the 1994-batch IAS officer of the UT cadre has
been appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum.
4. Anandarajan V, the 1988-batch IRS-IT officer has been
appointed Joint Secretary, Department of Defence.
5. Dakshita Das, the 1986-batch IRAS officer has been
appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and
Highways.
6. AV Patil, the 1998-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre,
the director in Department of Financial Services, has been
elevated as Joint Secretary in the same department.
7. Pankaj Kumar Mishra, the 1989-batch IRS-IT officer has been
appointed Director, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-Ind).
8. Ram Subhag Singh, the 1987-batch IAS officer of the
Himachal Pradesh cadre, currently MD in NAFED, has been
appointed as DDG in UIDAI, Chandigarh.
9. Sanjay Ambadas Chahande, the 1988-batch IAs officer of the
Maharashtra cadre, has been appointed Deputy DG in UIDAI,
Mumbai.
10. Vandana Gupta, the 1990-batch IP&TA&PS officer, has been
appointed as Joint Secretary in the National Commission for
Women (NCW).
11. Sonia Sethi, the 1994-batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra
cadre, the JS in the Ministry of Culture, has been shifted to
Additional DGFT, Mumbai.
54

12. Vasundhara Sinha, the 1988-batch IRS-IT officer, has been

appointed Additional DGFT, New Delhi.
13. Maushumi Rudra, the 1992 batch IDAS officer, has been
appointed financial adviser in National Intelligence Grid
(NATGRID).
14. PN Ranjit Kumar, the 1993 batch Indian Postal Service
officer, has been appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of
AYUSH.
15. Sanjiv Kumar Chadha, the Director in Defence Ministry and
the 1989-batch Indian Forest Service officer of the Odisha
cadre has been appointed MD in NAFED.
16. Subir Mallick, the 1989 batch Indian Audit and Accounts
Service officer, has been appointed additional FA and JS in
Ministry of Defence (Finance).
17. Anna Roy, the 1992-batch IES cadre officer, Joint Secretary
has been appointed Advisor, Knowledge and Innovation Hub
(KIH), Niti Aayog.
18. Jayant Sinha, the 1990-batch IA&AS officer, has been
appointed Joint Secretary, Department of Defence.
19. Anju Nigam, the 1988-batch IPOS officer has been appointed
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
20. Rajesh Aggarwal, the 1989-batch IAS officer of the
Maharashtra cadre, has been appointed Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
21. Suchindra Mishra, the 1992-batch IDAS officer has been
appointed Joint Secretary, Financial Services.
22. Madnesh Kumar Mishra, the 1990-batch IRS officer of the
Income Tax cadre, has been appointed Joint Secretary,
Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance.
23. Arun Baroka, the 1990-batch IAS officer of the UT cadre, has
been appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water &
Sanitation.
24. Sudhir Saxena, the 1987-batch IPS officer of the MP cadre
has been appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home
Affairs.
25. RK Mitra, the 1998-batch officer of the CSS cadre has been
appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs.
26. Sanjeeb Kumar Patjoshi, the 1991-batch IPS officer of the
Kerala cadre, has been appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Panchayati Raj.
www.gfilesindia.com
Tracking
For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com
President Pranab Mukherjee with the probationers of the Indian Defence Accounts Service, Indian Civil Accounts Service, Indian
Railway Accounts Service and Indian P&T Service from the National Institute of Financial Management, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in
New Delhi on May 14, 2016.
AK KHANDELWAL
JUSTICE MRS MANORAMA KUMARI
ATMA RAM NADKARNI
The officer of IRSE cadre has been

appointed Executive Director/NFR (Engg),
Railway Board.
The Justice has been appointed

Judicial Member in the National Company
Law Tribunal (NCLT) for a period of
five years.
The Senior Advocate, Bombay High Court

has been appointed Additional Solicitor
General of India in Supreme Court of India
for a period of three years.
The officer has been appointed Director

(Engineering) on the Board of National
Projects Construction Corporation Limited
(NPCC).
AMIT MOHAN PRASAD
PRASHANT KUMAR
The 1989-batch IPS officer of the Odisha

cadre has been appointed Joint Director
CBI (ACB) with additional charge of EOW.
The Judge of the Jharkhand High Court has

been moved to Allahabad High Court.
NT ABROO
ASHOK

cadre has been appointed Managing
Director, Karnataka Minorities Development
Corporation Limited in Karnataka.
The 1983-batch IFS officer of the

Uttarakhand cadre has been appointed
Joint Secretary, National Commission for
Scheduled Tribe (NCST).
The Judge of the Calcutta High Court has

been transferred to Punjab and Haryana
High Court.
SANJAY AWASTHI
KALPANA AWASTHI
The 1989 batch IRS officer of IT cadre has

been appointed Member-Secretary of
National Council for Teacher Education
(NCTE) under the Ministry of HRD.
The 1990-batch lAS officer of the UP

cadre, Joint Secretary, Department of
Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP),
Ministry of Commerce & Industry has
been appointed as Director General,
National Productivity Council (NPC).
MANOHAR KUMAR
HP SINGH
The officer has been elected President
of the Gujarat IPS Association.
AK SINGH will be Vice President and
VIKASH SAHAY Secretary. RB BRAHBHATT
is new Treasurer.
www.indianbuzz.com
SUDIP AHLUWALIA
NAVIN SINHA
The Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High
Court has been appointed Chief Justice of
the Rajasthan High Court.
DEEPAK GUPTA
The Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court,
has been appointed Chief Justice of the
Chhattisgarh High Court.
MEENAKSHI SHARMA
TINLIANTHANG VAIPHEI
The 1988-batch IA&AS officer has been

appointed Additional Director General,
Ministry of Tourism.
The Judge of the Gauhati High Court

has been appointed judge of the Tripura
High Court.

55
VED PRAKASH VAISH

The Judge of the Delhi High Court has
been appointed the Judge of the Meghalaya
High Court.
CHINMOY GANGOPADHYAY
The officer ED (EIG), PFC has been
appointed Director (Project), Power Finance
Corporation Limited (PFC).
SBS TYAGI
The 2000-batch IPS officer of the AGMUT
cadre has been appointed to the Deputy
Inspector General (DIG) level posts in the
Government of India.
President Pranab Mukherjee with the Probationers of the Indian Railway Service of
Engineers (IRSE) batch, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on May 17, 2016.
YASHWANT CHANDRACHUD
The Chief Justice of the Allahabad High
Court has been appointed to the Supreme
Court of India.
AJAY MANIKRAO KHANWILKAR

The Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh
High Court has been appointed Judge of the
Supreme Court of India.
ASHOK BHUSHAN
The Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court
has been appointed Judge of the Supreme
Court of India.
NAGESHWAR RAO
President Pranab Mukherjee with the Railway Protection Force-2013 batch, at

Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on May 17, 2016.
The eminent lawyer has been appointed

Judge of the Supreme Court of India.
VIVEK PANDEY
The 1998-batch IFS officer of the UT cadre
has been appointed Principal, CASFOS,
Dehradun.
MOHD SHARIEF TARIQ

He has been appointed Judicial Member in
the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)
for a period of five years.
K ANANTHA PADMANABHA SWAMY

He has been appointed Judicial Member in
the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)
for a period of five years.
JITENDRA NATH
The officer has been appointed Director
(Archaeology), Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI) Headquarters, New Delhi.
DK HOTA
The officers appointment as Chairmancum-Managing Director (CMD), BEML
56

President Pranab Mukherjee with Probationers of the Indian Railway Service of

Mechanical Engineer (IRSME), at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on May 17, 2016.
has been approved by the Appointments
Committee of Cabinet (ACC).
DHANPREET KAUR
The 2006-batch IPS officer of the
Punjab cadre has been appointed Private
Secretary to Vijay Sampla, Minister of
State for Social Justice & Empowerment,
Government of India.
PRACHISH KHANNA
The 1996-batch ITS officer has been
appointed Director in the Ministry of Defence.
VIJAY KUMAR BIDHURI

The 2005-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT
cadre has been deputed as Private Secretary
to Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Urban
Development.
www.gfilesindia.com
...by the way

Lavasa, the new Finance Secretary
Faceoff in Kerala
shok Lavasa, a 1980-batch IAS officer of the

Haryana cadre, is the new designated Finance
Secretary of the Government of India following the
convention of designating the senior-most of the five
secretaries in the Ministry of Finance as the Finance
Secretary. Lavasa, holding the post of Secretary,
Expenditure, is ranked higher than his batchmate of
Tamil Nadu cadre, Shaktikanta Das, who is the
Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs
(DEA). An MA in English
literature and then an
MBA, Lavasa originally
belongs to Rajasthan.
Lavasa has travelled a
long way in his career. He
has served as Joint
Secretary in the Ministry
of Home Affairs, Joint
Secretary, Additional
Secretary and Special
Secretary in the Ministry of
Power, and Secretary in the
Ministry of Civil
Aviation and then
Environment and
Forests. While he
was serving as
the Additional Secretary in the UPA government
and Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the Chief Minister
of Haryana, Lavasa was offered the post of Chief
Secretary of the State. When the NDA government
came to power, he was serving as Secretary, Civil
Aviation, and was offered the post of Chief Secretary
by the new Chief Minister Manohar Lal. Lavasa
politely turned down these offers. He was clear in
his mind of serving at the Centre. Lavasa was among
the few civil servants who visited the site of their
first posting (Mahendergarh) on the clarion call
given by the Prime Minister. Apart from being a
hardworking civil servant, Lavasa is a passionate
photographer and writer. His wife, Novel, worked
with the State Bank of India before turning into an
entrepreneur. She then began to grow exotic
vegetables and organise adventure camps for
women. Lavasa also wrote a book, An Uncivil
Servant, published in 2006. g
www.indianbuzz.com
acebook is becoming the battleground for officials

to show their resentment, openly defying the All
India Service Rules. It has happened in MP and now it
is happening in Kerala. There is intense infighting
among top bureaucrats in Kerala. And, this seems to
have been one of the important factors for the downfall
of the UDF government. The infighting was so severe
that TP Senkumar was removed from the post of DGP
(Law and Order). Senkumar, who is due to retire only
in June 2017, has been sent to head the Kerala Police
Housing Construction Corporation, infamous as a doghouse posting in police circles. The story begins a little
earlier... When the UDF government sought opinion in
appointing a new Chief Secretary to fill PK Mohanthys
post on his retirement, Senkumar had recommended
the name of SM Vijayanand. The UDF government was
in favour of appointing Home Secretary Nalini Netto as
the Chief Secretary. However, the government considered the opinion of Senkumar along with other matters
and appointed Vijayanand. And the infighting broke
out. Senkumar felt insulted and showed his displeasure on Facebook. He used the State Police Chiefs official Facebook page, that has more than 97,000 likes,
to pat himself on the back, boasting of his credentials
as an officer with honesty and integrity and someone
who had never done anything wrong in his 35-yearlong career. In between, Senkumar let in a line, dripping with sarcasmI still have all my vertebra
intactan apparent reference to show he did not bend
before anyone to get a plum post. Many in Kerala infer
this as a nasty reference to his successor, Loknath
Behra, and a jibe that Behra lobbied to become the
Kerala DGP. Behra has been IG of Operations at the
NIA and had interrogated American terrorist David
Coleman Headley; he also investigated the Purulia
arms drop case while at the CBI. That Senkumar would
be a casualty was certain ever since it was clear that the
LDF will form the government. Senkumar had come in
for criticism by present Chief Minister Pinarayi
Vijayan for the shoddy handling of the Jisha rape and
murder case in Perambavoor. The appointment of
Additional DGP, B Sandhya, to head the probe team
soon after Vijayan took over was an indication to
Senkumar that his time was up. One suspects the stern
Vijayan isnt likely to tolerate officers overstepping
the line. g

57
...by the way

Who owns Prasar Bharati?
Waiting for a posting
elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is not able to

reconcile that he is ruling a Union Territory
which is completely controlled by the Central
Government. Sources said that while Delhi has a
sanctioned strength of 58 IAS officers, the Home
Ministry had provided 93 such officers to Delhi, out of
which many are still awaiting their posting orders.
The sources said many IAS officers, who had been
deputed to serve in the Delhi government, were still
awaiting their posting while Group A officers (Indian
Revenue Service) were holding secretary-level posts.
The best example is the PWD Department of the
Delhi Government where every administrative work is
being implemented by Chief Engineer who directly
reports to the Chief Minister. When Kejriwal raised
questions about sharing the information with the
Centre, official sources said the Home Ministry was
the cadre controlling authority for Delhi and
therefore, it was well within its right to seek this
information. Kejriwal alleges LG Najeeb Jung was
snooping on Delhi ministers and sending info back to
the PMO. Kejriwal had listed States like Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra
and asked whether the Home Ministry could seek
such information from them. Senior IAS officers
complained to gfiles that the Delhi government
cannot take people from outside while keeping the
IAS officers waiting endlessly. Kejriwal has,
meanwhile, openly reprimanded officers, do your
work honestly rather to do politics. Senior IAS officers
dont know what to do in this peculiar situation. g
he public broadcaster that sparked off the

television revolution and helped other channels
grow, today totters for lack of serious professionals in
its ranks. Just imagine: An organisation that runs over
25 channels in its ever expanding network does not
have a recruitment policy. Even the Supreme Court
at one stage issued contempt proceedings but the
pachydermic bureaucrats were impervious to anything
WKDWGLPLQLVKHGWKHLUDXWKRULW\DQGLQXHQFH)RU
over two decades, neither did it elevate the existing
strength nor did it provide updated trainings. The
ones given by FTII once were scrapped by the Babus
who did not want the professionals to outshine them.
Those recruited on casual terms over the years are
the most exploited and misused lot. The instances of
JLYLQJWKHPDQGDWRU\KHDOWKEHQHWVDQGSURYLGHQW
fund in the commercial wings in Doordarshan are an
open story now. It is heard that contractors are paying
less than government rates and harried temporary
employees have no voice or forum to speak from. No
wonder, one comes across people from ordinance
factories, railways, army, airforce, agricultural
institutes, civil servants from Delhi Government,
income-tax department, and so on, heading various
channels. Further, DD Kisan is learnt to be down in
the dumps due to insipid handling and the Chairman
is scurrying for cover. Has someone told Arun Jaitley
or Col Rathore that you need trained men in the forces
to deliver results? Can TV channels be run effectively
by those trained in railway catering, tax calculations,
and bomb-making techniques? Are we doing this to
kill Doordarshan and AIR? Is this not another form
of corruption when scarce resources are not used for
the good of the nation or public? It helps to know
WKDWDQLQVLGHUKDVUHFHQWO\EHHQFRQUPHGDV'*
AIR. And one expects a lot from him. But, there has
been no change in Doordarshan despite the alleged
illegality in appointment. The responsibility for the
dismal scenario in Prasar Bharati jointly falls on the
Chairman, CEO and the Ministry. They are failing the
assurance given to Parliament and denying the voice of
people a platform created for them Will
anyone listen to the woeful Mann ki Baat of
professionals there? g
ILLUSTRATIONS: ARUNA
58

www.gfilesindia.com
GOVERNANCE
AWARDS
2016
26-11-2016
AWARDS
GjLESIndIa.com
59
Regn.No.DL(C)-14/1161/2016-2018 Licence No. U(C)-03/2016-17,

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. 10, issue 3 | Date of Publication: 5/6/2016 | Pages 60
60

Gfiles JUNE 2016

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STATE SCAN NMDC UNDER VALUES KARNATAKA IRON ORE p18

June 5, 2016 `

Will Shivraj survive

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From the Editor

vol. 10, ISSUE 3 | JUNE 2016

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gfiles inside the government

priyankas rent woes, kuldeep steals

07 Eyes Wide Shut

are shivraj singh chouhans days

karnataka: undervaluing iron ore

issues in transport infrastructure

the man behind the lakhina pattern

what a democracy entails

the years of charan singh

power of the intellect

india continues to outperform

dd profile of lavasa, grumbling on

gfiles inside the government

Praise for performers

I recently came across an old issue of

RIYANKA Gandhi, the daughter of late Prime Minister Rajiv

DLF rules in Haryana

gfiles inside the government

Kalyan is the front runner

HO will be the chief ministerial candidate of the

gfiles inside the government

EYES WIDE SHUT

Stories that need to be told

gfiles inside the government

politics madhya pradesh

gfiles inside the government

vol. 10, issue 3 | June 2016

gfiles inside the government

politics madhya pradesh

ILL Madhya Pradesh Chief

gfiles inside the government

vol. 10, issue 3 | June 2016

A known Advani protg,

Pilgrims entering Ujjain could be

said that the total expenditure on the

Indore district to Ujjain to augment

Antony de Sa: Under a cloud

Prime Minister has remained far from

ORE significantly, the RSS

gfiles inside the government

politics madhya pradesh

transport constables. de Sa, who was

HE Chief Minister may not

gfiles inside the government

vol. 10, issue 3 | June 2016

BJP insiders say Shivraj

T is widely believed in the RSS

To ward off the

AUGHING off the Simhastha

under whose leadership the BJP has

gfiles inside the government

politics madhya pradesh

Even senior ministers, such as

forget important law and order related

gfiles inside the government

June 5, 2016 `