Amnesty India’s Executive Director Aakar Patel in a statement on Friday accused the government authorities of increasingly treating human rights organisations like “criminal enterprises”.
Patel’s statement comes following Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids at the Amnesty International’s office in Bengaluru yesterday.
“We could not agree more with the Prime Minister when he says that periods of repression, like during the Emergency, have left a stain on India’s history. Sadly, those dark days are now casting a shadow over India again. Instead of protecting human rights, as it vowed to do, the government is now targeting the people who fight for them,” read his statement.
“Our work in India, as elsewhere, is to uphold and fight for universal human rights. These are the same values that are enshrined in the Indian Constitution and flow from a long and rich Indian tradition of pluralism, tolerance and dissent,” Patel added.
Venting anger over the government for its move, Patel said: “Amnesty India is thus the latest target of the government’s assault on civil society in the country. Amnesty India’s bank accounts have been frozen by the Enforcement Directorate, effectively stopping our work.”
Giving out clarification on the ED raids, he stated, “Most of the documents asked for during the search were available in the public domain or were already filed with the relevant authorities. Details of our current structure, which was the focus of much of the questioning, have been available on our website since 2014. However, ahead of the raids, the Indian authorities leaked a cache of their internal documents marked secret that appear to cast Amnesty India’s operations as a dark web of intrigue.”
In his concluding remarks, the Executive Director of Amnesty India said, “Over 40 lakh Indians have supported Amnesty India’s work over the last six years and around 1 lakh Indians have made financial contribution.”
Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers, who will be returning to the field for the upcoming edition of the Mzansi Super League, has expressed excitement over his comeback.
The 34-year-old, while admitting that he is still in the process of getting back into the swing of things, said that he is looking forward to the challenges that cricket brings along.
“I am extremely excited. I haven’t played cricket for a while, but I am getting back into the swing of things. I have had these kinds of breaks before and it is always a challenge to get fit and hit balls again. I am really looking forward to that, and what will be a really good challenge in the Mzansi Super League,” Sport24 quoted De Villiers, as saying.
Expressing his view on the Mzansi Super League, the right-hand batsman termed it a “huge step” in the development of South African cricket.
He further stated that all the players would give their best to make the league a big success.
“It is a huge step in the right direction for Cricket South Africa, and South African cricket,” he said.
“As a unit, we’ll be looking to not just pull this tournament off, but make it a great spectacle for fans around the world to enjoy,” he added.
In May, De Villiers had announced his retirement from the international cricket. He is considered to be the greatest batsman of his time, having appeared in 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20I for the national side.
He finished his career with an incredible 20,014 international runs, including 8,765 in Tests, 9,577 in ODIs and 1,672 in T20Is.
Mzansi Super League is slated to be held from November 16 to December 16.
The world’s largest steel maker ArcelorMittal Friday said it has been chosen by the lenders to takeover debt-laden Essar Steel India Ltd for about Rs 42,000 crore.
In a statement, ArcelorMittal said its resolution plan for Essar Steel, which the lenders auctioned to recover over Rs 49,000 crore of unpaid loans, includes “an upfront payment of Rs 42,000 crore” to settle debt and “a further Rs 8,000 crore of capital injection into the company to support operational improvement, increase production levels and deliver enhanced levels of profitability”.
The Committee of Creditors have issued ArcelorMittal and its partner Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp a Letter of Intent (LoI) declaring them as the “successful applicant”.
The development comes a day after promoters of Essar Steel offered to pay lenders Rs 54,389 crore, including Rs 47,507 crore upfront cash payment to clear all dues of lenders, and pull out the firm from insolvency proceedings.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) has decided to suspend publication of its Bengali mouthpiece ‘Kalantar’ from next month due to financial constraints, a senior party leader said.
‘Kalantar’, first published as a daily newspaper in 1966, played a vital role in helping the CPI to expand its political base post the party’s split which led to the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) in 1964.
“Due to financial constraints, we have decided to suspend publication of ‘Kalantar’ from November one. It is not possible for us to run the newspaper by providing a heavy subsidy,” CPI state secretary Swapan Banerjee told agencies.
“Earlier we used to get both state and central government advertisements. But for the last few years, advertisements have stopped coming from both the governments. It has only augmented our financial problems,” he said.
Banerjee said that during its 52-year-old journey, the party was twice forced to suspend the publication of its mouthpiece due to financial issues.
“Earlier also we had to close down the newspaper but we had, later on, bounced back and had reopened it. We hope this time too we would be able to reopen it,” he said.
Earlier ‘Kalantar’ was a weekly newspaper since 1965.
A senior official of information and cultural affairs department said government advertisements were being given after careful consideration of various parameters including the budget of the government.
“The claim that just because they are not getting government advertisements they can’t run a newspaper is ridiculous. How can a newspaper which is run by a private entity claim that government has to give them advertisements. It is the prerogative of the government to decide on it,” he said.
Several calls and messages to the Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs Indranil Sen went unanswered. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee holds the cabinet portfolio of the department.
Fuel prices witnessed further reduction on Friday, providing some relief to consumers from relentless rate hikes.
The petrol price in Delhi was revised to Rs 80.85 per litre, while that in Mumbai was Rs 86.33 per litre after a reduction of 25 paise.
Diesel, on the other hand, is being sold seven paise lower at Rs 74.73 per litre in Delhi, while the price of diesel in Mumbai has been reduced by eight paise to retail at Rs 78.33 per litre.
The fuel prices had been witnessing a relentless hike since the past few months in the country, burning a hole in the common commuter’s pocket.
On October 4, in a bid to ease the crunch caused by soaring fuel prices, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, announced a reduction of Rs 2.50 per litre on both petrol and diesel prices after curbing excise duty on the commodity by Rs 1.50 per litre.
National Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar cornered Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “Nehru-Gandhi family” jibe at the Congress party and said that the family has sacrificed a lot for the country.
Urging Prime Minister Modi to remember the sacrifices made by the Congress party since the Independence, Pawar said, “In every public rally, Modi ji says that one family ruled this country, I would like to say that, that family has sacrificed a lot for this country. Jawaharlal Nehru went to jail so many times. Everyone knows how Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated.”
“You had promised the citizens the dreams of development. You have nothing to say as to what extent these dreams have been realized, so you only talk about the one family,” he added.
Pawar had earlier attacked Prime Minister Modi over the controversial Rafale jets deal between India and France and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe into the contract.
Chandigarh: Police use water cannon at Congress workers who are protesting against the removal of CBI Director Alok Verma (ANI)
Stepping up their attack against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, the Congress party has started their protest outside Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) offices across India demanding the reinstatement of the premier investigative agency’s director Alok Verma.
The party is also demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly destroying the image of the investigative agency.
The Congress has termed the Centre’s move to send Verma on leave as a disgraceful attempt to prevent an investigation into the alleged Rafale scam.
In Delhi, Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Anand Sharma, Selja Kumari, former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat among others took part in the protest which is being led by party president Rahul Gandhi.
Scores of protestors raised slogans against the Centre’s decision and displayed placards reading, ” CBI has stopped all investigation since BJP came to power”, “CBI: Closed Bureau Investigation.”
The Congress leaders, along with their party workers, are marching from Dayal Singh College on Lodhi Road to the CBI headquarters at JLN marg here.
Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill, who was present at the demonstration, said, “Rafale ke khel se ghabraayi Modi-Shah ki jodi isliye raaton-raat CBI todi. Satyamav Jayate! Loktantra Moditantra ko harayega (Prime Minister Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah were scared of investigation in Rafale deal, so they sent the CBI director on leave. Satyamav Jayate! Democracy will defeat the government of Prime Minister Modi)”
Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, Congress workers wearing masks of Prime Minister Modi hit the streets and raised slogan against the Central Government.
In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief Raj Babbar led a protest against the Centre. Similarly, in Bihar the Congress workers took to streets expressing angst over the decision to send Verma on leave.
Earlier in the day, Rahul had tweeted, “Join us today at 11 AM as we march from Dayal Singh College on Lodhi Road to the CBI HQ, to protest the PM’s disgraceful & unconstitutional attempt to block an investigation into the Rafale scam by removing the CBI Chief. Similar protests are being held today, across India.”
Gandhi on Thursday linked Centre’s action against Alok Verma with a probe into the alleged Rafale scam, which, he claimed, was about to be conducted by the Verma. He said that the Prime Minister panicked anticipating an investigation.
Terming the temporary removal of CBI director from his official post as illegal, he said, “Appointment and removal of CBI director are done by a committee of three people — the Prime Minister, Chief Judge of India and the Leader of Opposition. The Prime Minister removed CBI Director at 2 am in the night. This is illegal and criminal. This is an insult to the Constitution, an insult to the CJI, an insult to the Leader of Opposition and insult to people of India.”
However, the CBI on Thursday informed that Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana, who were sent on leave, will continue to remain the CBI Director and Special Director, respectively.
M Nageshwar Rao, who was appointed as the interim director of the CBI will look after duties and functions of the CBI Director in the interim period till the time Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) looks into the allegations.
Verma and Asthana were sent on leave by the government on Tuesday midnight after they charged each other of accepting bribes.
Asthana has been charged with extortion and forgery in addition to the bribery and corruption charges. It has been alleged that he received a bribe from an accused to give him a clean chit in Moin Qureshi case. He was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing Qureshi’s case.
The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the CBI, the CVC and the Centre on agency Director Alok Kumar Verma’s plea challenging the government’s decision to divest him of his duties and send him on leave.
The apex court directed that interim CBI chief M Nageshwara Rao shall not take any major policy decisions. Decisions taken by him since October 23 till date shall not be implemented, it said.
All decisions taken by Rao shall be placed before the apex court in a sealed cover.
The top court said former Supreme Court judge A K Patnaik will oversee a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) inquiry into the allegations and counter allegations and the report has to be placed before it within two weeks.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi posted the next date of hearing on November 12.
The bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, issued notices on the petition filed by an NGO, Common Cause, which has sought a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe against the CBI officers.
CBI’s Special Director Rakesh Asthana has also been named as one of the respondents in the NGO’s petition.
Verma and Asthana have made allegations of corruption against each other.
During the brief hearing Friday, senior advocate F S Nariman advanced arguments on behalf of the CBI chief.
He submitted that the CBI director was appointed with the approval of a selection panel having the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.
Nariman referred to the CVC and Centre’s orders divesting Verma of his duty. He also cited the Vineet Narain judgment to support Verma’s pleas.
In the beginning, the apex court said the CVC inquiry on allegations and counter-allegations should be completed in 10 days under the supervision of this court.
CVC submitted that 10 days for inquiry was not sufficient as it has to look into several documents. It said for the time being, no monitoring by anyone else should be allowed.
The bench granted the CVC two weeks to conclude its probe.
Verma has also sought a stay of the Centre’s order asking him to proceed on leave and giving the interim charge of his post to Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer.
It is quite known that Maharashtra has become a home to the highest number of farmers’ suicide due to crop failure. Now, this year Maharashtra has witnessed a subdued monsoon with observing scanty rains during October in a few parts of the state. These inadequate rains have resulted in arid conditions across the state which have further worsened the conditions of already grieving farmers with a dry spell after two years.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had declared a few days prior that 180 out of 353 talukas are drought-affected in the state due to irregular monsoon. The declaration came a day after a farmer and his wife were suspected to have committed suicide after killing their two-year-old daughter in a village in Ahmednagar district.
According to Fadnavis, more than 20,000 villages in the state are facing drought-like conditions. Marathwada region seems worst affected. He also assured that the state government has already started field-based drought assessments and calculations of crop yield losses in affected talukas. However, the reason mentioned by CM was that this year the state received only 77 per cent of the average rainfall.
Amid this water crisis situation, oppositions are leaving no stones unturned to slam the state government and hit out for its delay in announcing drought in the state. “I wonder whether Fadnavis will declare drought only after consulting the ‘Panchang’ (the astrological almanac referred to by Brahmins),” Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said at a rally. While the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar also demanded that the Central Government should step in and provide relief to Maharashtra. He also said, “Whenever there is a drought in Maharashtra, the Central government used to come to its aid. But it is not happening now.”
Nationalist Congress Party state unit chief Jayant Patil shows the party’s concern saying, “Since the last one and a half month, NCP is raising concerns over the issue, party workers even protested in every district, but the government denied. We request the government to not politicise this matter and take immediate steps.”
He further commented, “Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan of Maharashtra has seen a large scale of fraud and the government has failed to create enough water reservoirs. The drought situation at present is very serious in the state. If the scale would’ve been successful, the state wouldn’t have been facing drought situation soon after the monsoon. The dams in the Marathwada region are running dry and the government has neglected the situation. Shiv Sena criticising the government for its delaying in declaring a drought and failing to take preventive steps looks hilarious as they must learn to take the equal blame being in the coalition government.”
Congress also grabbed the opportunity as the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Ashok Chavan announced to commence the third phase of the Jan Sangarsh Yatra that will be dedicated to raise the demands of drought-affected farmers in the most scarcity affected region Marathwada which started on October 24.
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe asserted, “Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan is one faulty plan that fooled people. The scheme failed to take note of soil conservation. Excess use of machinery for the scheme has led to erratic digging that has made the situation worse. Water conservationist Rajendra Singh has also accepted this.”
“We have many times tried to bring this into the notice of the government but it went unheard. When the Prime Minister had announced that the government has managed to save a good quantity of water, he must answer why did the water level go down then? He must also answer where and how the entire allocated fund was used? What happened to the loan-waiver even? The present government is unaware of how to properly govern a state and they do nothing except bluffing,” Londhe casted his doubt.
According to the reports in July, the Maharashtra government’s flagship water conservation scheme called as ‘Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan’ that was launched in 2016 claims to have rejuvenated water bodies and created an additional storage potential, in a state where some parts perennially face a drought-like situation. The official figures released by the government states that under the scheme, a water storage capacity of 17,27,229 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) has been created across 16,521 villages in 34 districts of the state since 2015. The data mentions that in 2015-2016, 100 per cent work under the scheme was completed in 6,202 villages.
Later in 2016-17, out of the total 5,288 villages where the project was taken up, 100 per cent work was completed in 5,114 villages and 80 per cent in 174 villages. In 2017-18, out of 5,031 villages selected for the scheme, 100 per cent work was completed in 396 villages, 80 per cent in 1,247 villages, while work was on in the remaining 3,418 villages. Thus, out of the total 16,521 villages, 100 per cent work has been completed in 11,712 villages and 80 per cent in 1,421 villages. An irrigation potential of 22,74,744 hectares has thereby been created in these villages, according to the data.
The micro-irrigation project involves deepening and widening of streams, construction of cement and earthen stop dams, and digging of farm ponds, and gave a word to make the state free of drought by 2019. Nonetheless, analysts believe that the figures claimed by the government is contradicting totally with the reality as with the nearing of 2019 and the state is catching a sight of becoming parched. Here the question arises that is the state government not prepared enough in terms of financial resources, water management strategies etc.?
Denying the failure of Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, BJP state spokesperson Madhav Bhandari stated that if Jalyukt Shivar is a failure, the drought would’ve hit us in July itself. Jalyukt Shivar is supposed to store the water received from rainfall. If the rainfall is poor, how will sufficient water storage be possible?
He further explained, “One has to understand the nature of water scarcity in Maharashtra and this is in connection with monsoon rainfall quality since ages. This year we have seen a very irregular monsoon i.e. only 60-701 per cent of the state’s average rainfall. The incumbent Maharashtra government has accepted the seriousness of the situation, unlike the previous government who used to declare it enough late. Those who are accusing the government for the delay in declaring a drought, I must say they are only misleading the people.”
According to weather reports, monsoon in 2018 ended well below normal to the tune of 91 per cent, with Maharashtra ending at 92 per cent. The Maharashtra CM had affirmed that an official drought announcement will be expected by month-end and the state government may also approach the Centre for drought relief. However, looking at the current situation in the state, farmers are in a dilemma whether they will face even more distress than previous years?
In the previous part, we were talking about the corruption allegations on Nageshwara Rao and his involvement. In a note submitted to the Cabinet, the Finance Department of the TN government insisted that the portion of the premium price shall be shared with the state government, as the relaxation of this condition will fetch a higher price for the said land. The note stipulated that ‘therefore, as a pre-condition to the permission to grant of the NOC, the government may insist that out of the sale proceeds, an appropriate premium should be paid to the Government/SIDCO for lifting the rights to enable the deployment of the funds for the development of the MSME sector’.
But, the word “appropriate premium price” was mysteriously missing in the follow-up order issued granting the NOC. Sources say that the Finance Department raised a red flag about this omission but to no avail. In the secret note sent to the CM, it has been mentioned that Finance Department has specifically mentioned that an appropriate percentage of share on the premium price will be decided by the MS&ME department depending on the rights foregone. Hence the MS&ME department should be determined with the benchmark price to decide premium value to share it with the state government. But the Cabinet Note was prepared without indicating the benchmark price or percentage of share on the premium price shall be shared with the state government. In the Cabinet meeting, it was decided to fix this share as 10 per cent. There was no other modification suggested in the Cabinet meeting. However, in the Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting, this has been altered as 10 per cent of the share on the surplus of the land value after meeting the loan, instead of 10 per cent of the premium price fetched on such disposal.
This secret Finance Department note wonders why a decision taken in the Cabinet meeting was specifically altered.
Highly placed sources revealed that the conspiracy to confer the prime land of 11.021 acres at Guindy was hatched by the former Chief Secretary R Rama Mohana Rao and executed by his lieutenants Niranjan Mardi IAS and Hans Raj Verma IAS. Hans Raj Verma IAS was the then Chairman, SIDCO and Niranjan Mardi IAS was the then MS&ME Secretary. It was Niranjan Mardi, who specifically changed the wording different from the one actually in the Cabinet decision and the subsequent NOC issued. On March 7, 2013, the consortium of the Banks headed by the State Bank of India, conducts a meeting along with other stakeholding banks. The meeting was presided over by Leon Therattil, Deputy General Manager and officials of SBI, Pegasus, HTL participated. N Ramadoss, Chief Manager of SBI, reported in the meeting that four prospective buyers are readily available and the sale can be closed quickly. It was also decided in the meeting not to go for open auction and close the sale as a private treaty. It was resolved in the meeting that all offers should be finalised by 2 pm on March 15, 2013. It was also resolved to accept offers that are more than Rs 250 crores. It is pertinent to note that the upset price of Rs 250 crores is being decided in 2013, whereas the price offered by RMZ Millenia in 2007 was Rs 298 crores. On March 15, 2013, the offers received in sealed cover were opened in the presence of the SBI officials. As per the minutes of this meeting, only one offer was received from M/s VGN Developers private limited for Rs 272 crores. There was no whisper about the four offers readily available as told by Ramadoss, Chief Manager. The meeting, in which VGN representatives also attended, unanimously resolved to accept the offer of VGN. Even after the government issued an NOC allowing the HTL Limited to convert the land proposed to be sold to residential purposes, no open auction was adopted and instead, the land was sold in a private treaty.
The land in question was a high-value property. The land has a permissible built-up space of 2.5 times of the land area. Since the land has been reclassified from ‘industrial’ to ‘residential’, the market value of the land would be more than the guideline value fixed by the government. Further, the land is situated in Guindy, which has locational advantages, nearby airport, metro connectivity, etc.
As per the advertisement placed in newspapers at that time for a realty project just near to the land of VGN in dispute, the asking price was Rs 12,000 per square feet. As per the government records, the guideline value of the land is as follows:
April 1, 2003, to July 31, 2007 — Rs 2,200
August 1, 2007, to April 31, 2012 — Rs 4,600
From April 1, 2012 — Rs 8,500
This guideline value is for a land, which is classified as ‘Industrial’ under SIDCO Industrial Estate, under Industries Special Type I. The conversion as ‘Residential’ should have shot up the guideline value too; however, the sale price was finalised far below the market/guideline value. The consortium of banks headed by the SBI had fixed the reserve price for the said land at Rs 250 crores and finalised the deal on June 19, 2013, for Rs 272 crores. But as per the registration department records, the guideline value of the said land comes to Rs 376.26 crores on the date the sale was finalised. The VGN Developers Private Limited paid stamp duty for Rs 376.26 crores and not for the actual sale price of Rs 272 crores.
On the same day the deal was finalised, the VGN Developers mortgaged the property to IL&FS Trust company for Rs 280 crores. While it is the normal banking standard to pay 80 per cent of the mortgaged property value as a loan, the VGN purchased a property for Rs 272 crores and mortgaged the same for Rs 280 crores. The entire transaction smelt of a huge scam and after a detailed investigation, a story was published in www.savukkuonline.com on November 17, 2014.
The connected documents were also passed on to the CBI officials for further action at their end. But after dragging its feet for more than 18 months, the CBI finally on December 28, 2016, registered an FIR against (1) Leon Therattil, DGM, SBI, (2) Ramadoss, Chief Manager, SBI, (3) D P Gupta, Chief Operating Officer HTL, (4) D Prathish, Managing Director, VGN Developers.
(This is the second part of the editorial and the third portion will continue tomorrow.)
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
