Two-G (2G) Spectrum Scam Tapes and follow-up

Atri · Post by **Atri** » 25 Aug 2012 12:14

Some people are too big to fail. They should be allowed to retreat, in time. I think chiddu will, after this term.

Katare · Post by **Katare** » 25 Aug 2012 22:07

Could he be an innocent man?

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 25 Aug 2012 22:37

Well,then you would have to change the meaning of 'innocent' in the dictionary.

But this mega corruption is way beyond him.The three main players are Sonia Gandhi,Karunanidhi(his support was critical to finish off LTTE) and the systemic problems of doing business in India which has civilisational issues.

India is a democracy ostensibily committed to 'socialism' whatever it means.It has lots of poor,lots of castes,lots of languages,lot of confusion about poverty,equality.The modern world creates a lot of wealth and thats distributed unequally because of the production,distrubution,innovation,control,advertising,marketing,image building of multiple resources,raw materials,goods,services and images.This creates its own problem independent of the party in power.Even if there is zero casteism,still the relationship between executive and the political arm and businesses will be a huge issue in democracy.

This recurs in US(as the media-MIC) or in China(party corruption).When you add Indian diversity,it becomes more confusing with the real issues obscured.Also we carry the burden of history.We cant shake it off like others as it carries into our present and has much thats valuable and vital and much that has been discarded and quite rightly too.

I think Sri PChidambaram as a sophisticated nattukottai chettiar has played his part in the making of modern India.

Much of the anger is really targeted at DMK which is rebounding at PC.

Shankk · Post by **Shankk** » 26 Aug 2012 06:47

Thanks Venkat for clarification. I was going to ask why you made last post.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 27 Aug 2012 02:45

And now "Snake-Oil" Singh & Co. have ditched "crony-capitalism" we are told today in the media for Leftist "Land Reform" in order to win the next election! The Kerala and Bengal style Commie land reform poliicies are being dusted off the shelf and to be the new mantra for the next hustings.What an about turn,the worm has really turned.No FDI in retail,bum-sucking the west to invest..... blah! blah! It is also interesting to see the Quislings emerging out of the closet of the Anna H movement,showing them up to be mere gold-diggers politically speaking!

Chopping up the land into smaller fragments will be an unmitigated disaster ,if the Sri Lankan Land Reforms of the past initiated by Mrs.Bandaranaike are to go by.Valuable tea estates became unmanageable when fragmented and succeeding govts. have tried to reverse the same.Moreover,in india,the fat cat politicos hold thousands of acres of valuable farm land under benami names and the same will continue.One late Congress-wallah in TN and his family are allegedly the holders of vast areas off land in the Cauvery belt.

With the tsunami of corruption scams perpetrated by the Congress-led UPA overwhelming Indian politics today ,no gimmicks like land reform are going to be able to prevent a disaster at the polls for the Congress.It has lost the Middle Class lock,stock and barrel and rural folk who are "suiciding" themselves daily across the country,will not be fooled by dubious promises given the UPA/Cong's crony-capitalist past record.

http://newindianexpress.com/nation/article596006.ece

UPA turns 'left' with land reforms

By Cithara Paul | ENS - NEW DELHI

26th August 2012 08:40 AM

UPA marketers have decided to don Marxist robes to stay in power beyond the 2014 general elections.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh - all known for their support of American-inspired economic models - are exchanging the ideology for populism by turning ‘left’, with land reforms as the new election plank.

Helping them is former bureaucrat Aruna Roy, a member of the Sonia Gandhi headed National Advisory Council.

The UPA is desperately seeking an NREGA-type winning formula ahead of the 2014 elections, with Jairam, Montek and Roy being charged by Manmohan Singh himself with the task of enacting land reforms across the country based on the Kerala-West Bengal model.

“If the NREGA helped the UPA come back in 2009 by winning the rural votes, something as dramatic as land reform is needed to save it this time,” said a source. The government feels this will help wash away its ‘crony capitalist tag’.

Jairam, playing the ‘activist’ minister’s role, has been a strong advocate of land reforms though he supports government role in land acquisition for industry.

Montek had been resisting the idea by stating that “policy to distribute land in small units has to be discouraged as it will increase subdivision and fragmentation of holdings which has an adverse impact on productivity.” To settle the tussle, the government had set up a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) last year.

On August 16, Manmohan Singh gave directions to Montek and Jairam to convene a meeting of land reform activists.

The Prime Minister had personally written to activists such as Manjunath and P V Rajagopal of Ekta Parishad, who is currently organising a peoples’ march from Kanyakumari to Delhi to press for land reform.

“The fact that the PM was personally monitoring the developments made everything work smoother. Otherwise the meeting would have got derailed,” said a Planning Commission official alluding to the earlier fights between Jairam and Montek.

According to the official, Aruna Roy is acting as the interface between the duo and NGOs.

“Madam can connect with both the government and the activists,” said the official who has previously worked with Aruna Roy.

The government hopes that the proposed land reforms will also finish off the ailing Team Anna.

“P V Rajagopal was an active part of Team Anna. By engaging him actively along with Aruna Roy, the government is aiming at a vertical split of the civil society movement,” said the source.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 27 Aug 2012 10:38

Looks like New Delhi wants to strengthen the Center, by having states mooch off other's efforts like Kerala and West Bengal.

Sadly, BJP doesn't seem to have its act together. They can counter this by promising to abolish the individual income tax and reduce corporate income tax.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 27 Aug 2012 10:48

^ vera_k garu

BJP already have the urban votes. INC is aiming the rural votes and you are giving a wrong advise.

BJP should keep quite as INC is building its own pire.

pentaiah · Post by **pentaiah** » 27 Aug 2012 11:32

PC is perfect crook well trained by Moopnar who introduced the art of looting public money by bankrupting Indian Bank, which was owned by Chettiars before nationalization in 1969.
Moopnar and PC targeted Indian Bank in late 1980s and early 1990s and transferred the looted money to Singapore all of this is in public domain. Like a tiger once tastes the blood of humans never goes back to its natural prey so is PC once tasting the loot of public money never turned back. He has gone from strength to strength throwing pieces of corpse to ruling mata.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 29 Aug 2012 11:03

Smaller than 2G scam, but has a lot more adverse consequences. The sad part is that the descendants of the crook will continue to enjoy the spoils of this loot, as he passed on. IMO, given the slow pace of investigations, laws need to be amended to enable clawing back stolen gains from up to 42 generations of descendants.

India's poor starve as politicians steal $14.5 billion of food

sooraj · Post by **sooraj** » 29 Aug 2012 13:45

http://www.firstpost.com/economy/land-b ... 34896.html

Land Bill will kill growth: Govt knows this, but does Sonia?

by R Jagannathan

Consider this incongruity: the UPA government, which has been squeamish about auctioning natural resources like spectrum and coal on the ground that this would make telephony or power more expensive for the people, is taking the exact opposite stand on another natural resource: land for industrialisation, infrastructure and urbanisation, three important pillars of development.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal was found moping and moaning the other day over the fact that putting up coal blocks for competitive bidding may raise power costs, but yesterday Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh was busy trying to push through cabinet the Land Acquisition Bill as though this is what is going to take development to the next level.

Everyone knows that the Bill—being championed by Sonia Gandhi‘s National Advisory Council and Rahul Gandhi—will push urban and rural land prices through the roof and retard development. But nobody has, till now, had the courage to put it that way.

Luckily for India, many cabinet ministers—including several from the Congress itself—opposed the Bill on Tuesday and consigned it to further vetting by another Group of Ministers (GoM) before it comes back to cabinet. This means not in this session, says Business Standard.

Among other things, the draft Bill calls for paying two times the market rate for land near urban areas, and four times the market price for rural areas. This is over and above the costs to be incurred in rehabilitation and resettlement of the people selling or dependent on the land being acquired.

If implemented in the current form, India can kiss goodbye to faster growth for decades. Throughout UPA-1, spectrum and coal blocks were given out without any reference to market prices (which is what the auction route is all about), but in the case of land, the UPA is planning to adopt a “market-plus” route, where the idea is to impose costs on industry and infrastructure builders that will be multiple times the market.

However, there is one strand that links the opposing decisions on spectrum and coal blocks, and the one on land: corruption and vested political interest.

By not opting for market-based pricing in spectrum and coal (till the Supreme Court and CAG shoved it down the government’s throat), the UPA could favour private parties. Conversely, by interfering with market pricing of land meant for industrialisation and infrastructure, the government is trying to buy the votes of the landed peasantry. However, even this is likely to result in big-ticket corruption.

If land is going to be made horrendously expensive and difficult to acquire (like the need for 80 percent consent of landowners) for industry, residential housing and infrastructure, private parties involved in these activities will use bribery to achieve these ends. They will use criminals to manufacture rural consent, and employ corrupt practices to get their prices accepted and validated if the Land Bill becomes law.

These factors should have been obvious to anyone with a modicum of commonsense, but the matter is now to be referred to another GoM, this time headed by Defence Minister AK Antony.

However, there is a strong possibility that the GoM will also buckle under political pressure, and the only way sanity will prevail is if Sonia Gandhi herself sees the light – of which there is little sign so far.

At the cabinet meeting, the array of ministers opposed to the Bill included heavyweights like Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma (who sent a stiff note, but wasn’t present), former rural development minister CP Joshi, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily.

For once, the objections display some spine – no doubt because this group realises the real damage that could be done through this mindless piece of political legislation whose basic intent is to protect and engender a rural vote bank at the cost of real progress.

According to The Economic Times, strong words were used. Kamal Nath opposed the Bill saying it would “destroy urbanisation and industrialisation.” Wonder what Soniaji would say to that?

Anand Sharma, whose National Manufacturing Policy will be dead-on-arrival if the Land Bill goes through, sent in a note which was partially read out by the PM himself, reports The Indian Express. Among other things, Sharma wants land for special economic zones and manufacturing investment zones to be deemed as public purposes for which the Bill’s rigorous provision would not apply.

Sharma is also reported to have emphasised that the draft legislation was industry-unfriendly and would “scare away investment if carried out in its current form”. Since the themesong of the UPA after the exit of Pranab Mukherjee is to improve business sentiment, the Land Bill is clearly a no-no since it would achieve the exact opposite of that.

CP Joshi, now transport minister, wants the Bill to exclude projects like national highways – which is already grinding to a crawl due to land acquisition issues. And Ajit Singh said the Bill would hamper airport development.

The sub-text of these objections can be summed up in one word: Nimby – Not In My Backyard. If the Land Bill is to be passed, it must exclude my backyard, my ministry is what is being said.

That begs the question: if all the key ministers holding portfolios crucial to national development (highways, urbanisation, airports, power, corporate affairs, etc) are opposed to the Bill, how can the Bill be justified at all in its present form?

Manmohan Singh, perhaps secretly pleased that all these objections are coming from other ministers, was happy to accept Veerappa Moily’s proposal to shift the decision to another GoM.

But that’s where the damage could be done. Jairam Ramesh brought the Bill to cabinet in the secure knowledge that Sonia Gandhi is all for it. The GoM is headed by another Sonia loyalist, AK Antony, also not known for displaying political spine.

The ball will really be in Sonia’s court. As things stand, the Land Bill is less about preventing the exploitation of rural peasants and more about erecting a serious speedbreaker to development and urbanisation.

Ideally, the Land Bill should be killed and the focus should be on creating a foolproof system of ensuring fair prices and just rehabilitation for those who give up their land for national projects. Instead, it has become a plan to shift resources to the rural landed and landless for political benefit.

It is now Sonia’s political instincts versus national interest. Several ministers have already indicated where national interest lies.

Pranav · Post by **Pranav** » 29 Aug 2012 23:32

Real scam: We pay Rs 4,00,000 cr in ‘bribe taxes’ a year - http://www.firstpost.com/economy/real-s ... 656.html/2

Pranav · Post by **Pranav** » 29 Aug 2012 23:35

sooraj wrote:http://www.firstpost.com/economy/land-b ... 34896.html
Land Bill will kill growth: Govt knows this, but does Sonia?

R Jagannathan is batting for scamsters.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 30 Aug 2012 00:10

^^

These are hypothetical scams. The paid media is muddying the waters so the scamsters can escape public scrutiny.

Just because I pay Rs 20 every month to the municipal waste collector, it is not OK for 2G group to steal Rs 50,000 crore every 3 months.

pentaiah · Post by **pentaiah** » 30 Aug 2012 00:54

Pranav wrote:Real scam: We pay Rs 4,00,000 cr in ‘bribe taxes’ a year - http://www.firstpost.com/economy/real-s ... 656.html/2

That's not much per capita 40,000 INR that's only $ 800

When SRT Dhoni are pulling 39 million USD and 42 million USD respectively our country can afford these scams I only hope they don't adjust for inflation the scam money and keep it under control this is biggest responsibility of RBI Subba Row

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 30 Aug 2012 01:32

All in the Family

All in the family
Undemocratic Congress has brought India to ruin, says N.V.Subramanian.

29 August 2012: Those that support Congress and insist BJP is undemocratic for obstructing Parliament need political reeducation. A dynastic party is inherently despotic and totalitarian in style, substance and functioning, and it is such a party that stymies democracy. India is a lesser democracy because of the iron grip of the Nehru-Gandhis on Indian politics, and it is all coming to a head now.

Nearly all the non-Congress leading lights of Indian politics, dead or alive, owe their origins, directly or tenuously, to the Congress party, before and after independence. For example, K.B.Hedgewar, a Congressman, started RSS as a reaction to the Malabar riots and M.K.Gandhi's regressive support of the Khilafat Movement. Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan also went their independent ways revolted by the single-party dominance of Congress after 1947.

Later-day politicians such as Morarji Desai, Chandrasekhar and I.K.Gujral all came out of Congress, unable to stomach the intensifying dynastic and authoritarian strains of the party. Jawaharlal Nehru out of a sense of political correctness did not formalize Indira Gandhi's succession but knew in his bones that she would follow him. Such artfulness, however, was beyond Indira Gandhi who anointed Sanjay and then Rajiv Gandhi as her successor without a care for the feelings, ambitions and aspirations of senior leaders in Congress. Insofar as she was concerned, Congress was her party, and she would do as she pleased.

{Well here party minons had cried "India is Indira and Indira is India!"}

It is this psyche that led to the promulgation of Emergency, and it is this that, under the present dynasty, infects and makes infirm Indian democracy.

Chandrasekhar, Morarji Desai, etc, however, were not the last leaders to leave Congress. Post-Emergency and post-Bofors, there was an exodus. Congress was further depleted of talented politicians at the end of P.V.Narasimha Rao's government. Those like Mamata Bannerjee who felt choked cut away, whilst some like Madhavrao Scindia suffered in silence. Two days before he died in a plane crash, Scindia lamented to this writer that it wasn't easy to build a political party from scratch. And the late Arjun Singh told one of his close aides that the Nehru-Gandhis wanted "ghulami".

{He was a perfect ghulam! or golem!]

It was this side of Congress, so unknown to the outside world, which probably repulsed Pranab Mukherjee, who saw his prime-ministerial ambitions first scuttled by Rajiv Gandhi and then his widow. He knew for all his talent he wouldn't become anything bigger than a trouble-shooter, begged Sonia Gandhi for the presidency, and got out.

Who's left in Congress today? Hardly any top-level politicians. Pranab Mukherjee was perhaps the last of them. Politicians are compromisers, strange bedfellows, give-and-take people, consensus-builders. This makes them (not unless they are demagogues) perforce democratic. On the other hand, which are (to use a Nietzschean meter) the dominating types in Congress presently? Lawyers, technocrats and managers. The Nehru-Gandhis don't do any politics that wins elections.

So how do you expect a non-political Congress, powered by dynasty and run amok by lawyers, technocrats and managers, to bother about a nicety such as democracy? Congress started the game of parliamentary obstructionism, and to check its totalitarian instinct -- which includes the instinct for rabid aggrandizement -- others have had to mirror its tactics. Surely in opposition, Congress will return to obstructionism, unless it breaks free of dynastic control and becomes democratic and wholesome.

Congress was undemocratic before independence (radicalizing Subhash Bose, so to speak, by promoting Nehru's ambitions) and after. There was nothing very democratic about deposing the first elected Communist government in Kerala. It toppled state governments at will till the Supreme Court put a stop. Its own chief ministers were nobodies. And as head of a coalition government, it remains undemocratic as ever. Troublesome allies are kept in line by CBI. Allies get no ownership stake in government but are free to loot you and me. And behind a shield of phoney liberalism and fraudulent piety, a corrupt and totalitarian Congress hardsells democracy and constitutionality and demands a polite society.

How long can the con go on?

India has been notorious for fat cats who enriched themselves at the cost of their companies and shareholders.

Similarly, family-run Congress has brought India to ruin.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 30 Aug 2012 08:22

wrong thread---

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 31 Aug 2012 02:05

wrong thread----

RoyG · Post by **RoyG** » 03 Sep 2012 10:35

The Great Thorium Robbery

sam rajappa

Since the UPA government assumed office in 2004 with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, 2.1 million tones of monazite, equivalent to 195,300 tonnes of thorium at 9.3 per cent recovery, has disappeared from the shores of India. Thorium is a clean nuclear fuel of strategic importance for both nuclear energy generation and nuclear-tipped missiles. The beaches of Orissa Sand Complex, Manavalakurichi in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and the Aluva-Chavara belt on the Kerala coast have been identified under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, as the main monazite bearing areas in the country. In most other countries, thorium reserves are embedded in rocks which require elaborate processing to extract. Public sector Indian Rare Earths Limited having divisions at Chatrapur in Orissa, Manavalakurichi in Tamil Nadu, Chavara and Aluva, and its own research centre in Kollam in Kerala, is the only institution authorised to extract thorium from monazite sands. If the Comptroller and Auditor-General were to audit the accounts of the IREL and the Department of Atomic Energy, custodians of fissile minerals, the coalgate scam would look like small change. The missing thorium, conservatively estimated at $100 a tonne, works out to about Rs 48 lakh crore, putting all other UPA scams in the shade.
To a question by Kodikunnel Suresh addressed to the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha on 30 November 2011, about the quantum of monazite being exported to other countries and whether the companies mining beach sand have violated the norms of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, V Narayanaswamy, Minister of State in the PMO, said that beach sands containing heavy minerals barring monazite were being exported. However, he said that licence under the Atomic Energy Act was required for the export of monazite and thorium which were prescribed substances, and that no licence was given for the export of these items. The Department of Atomic Energy, directly under Manmohan Singh, delisted heavy minerals like monazite and ilmenite from the prescribed substances list vide SO 61 (E) dated 20 January, 2006, to facilitate their export by private companies. Licences have been issued with the proviso that “having undertaken to comply with the conditions prescribed in the Atomic Energy (Working of mines, minerals hand handling of prescribed substances) Rules, 1984, licence is issued with the approval of the Licensing Authority.”
The Licencing Authority is the Nagpur-based Chief Controller of Mines, under the Union Ministry of Mines. Ever since CP Ambrose, Chief Controller of Mines, an upright officer, retired on 30 June 2008, the post has been deliberately kept open and Ranjan Sahai, Controller of Mines, Central Zone, alleged to be close to private placer mineral industrialists, has been allowed to officiate in place of the Chief Controller. Four years is a long time to keep a key post of crucial, strategic and vital importance vacant. Sahai is said to be the most favoured public functionary of the Union Ministry of Mines working in the field, enjoying dictatorial clout with all officials in the ministry. Several written public complaints against Sahai are pending with the Central Vigilance Commissioner, New Delhi. It is reliably learnt that the Departmental Promotion Committee has already selected an officer working in Nagpur to fill the post of Chief Controller of Mines but his appointment is being prevented by Sahai. Such is his clout in the Ministry of Mines.
According to K Balachandran of the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, DAE, commercial exploitation of beach sand in India dates back to 1909 when Schomberg, a German chemist, was exploring for monazite occurrences in search of thorium for the gas mantles industry. After the German, the French, who understood the value of thorium, began buying beach sand from Kerala and exporting it to their country. From this starting point many milestones have been crossed with the discovery of ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon and sillimanite in our beach sands. When the Department of Atomic Energy was established in the early days of independence, one of the first decisions Prime Minister Nehru took was to ban the export of thorium. India is reputed to have the largest mineral sands resources in the world. These are also among the least exploited resources having a high potential to meet the country’s energy needs. Seventy per cent of India energy is met by import of oil and gas. The beach placer mining sector was opened to private entrepreneurs in 1998. Export of beach sands registered a quantum jump after 2005. As if to promote exports, even radioactive minerals, much needed for our nuclear energy programme, are allowed to be taken out of the country unchecked. To add insult to injury, private exporters of prohibited minerals are presented with Special Awards and Certificates of Merit by the Chemicals and Allied Products Export Promotion Council of the Government of India. Indiscriminate mining, if not monitored and regulated, can cause severe erosion in the coastal areas.
At least now the government should exclude thorium producing placer minerals like monazite, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and mineral complexes together with uranium minerals from the purview of privatisation under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, and the Indian Atomic Energy Act, 1948. These resources should be specified in the Central List of Part XI of the Constitution. The Mines Act should be amended with a mandate for the setting up of a Mines Regulatory Authority on the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority or the Insurance Regulatory Authority in order to ensure that any complex minerals which have the potential to produce thorium is not allowed to be mined and conserved with provisos for extraction and delivery of processed thorium to the agencies of the Atomic Energy Commission. Considering the strategic importance, select thorium bearing areas should be declared as exclusive zones and brought under the security cover of the Army, Navy and the Air Force. The civil administration has proved incapable of handling this responsibility. All private trade, both internal and external, in thorium producing placer mineral complexes should be banned and the entire thorium extracted so far should be brought under the control of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency. The CBI should investigate illegal mining of thorium resources and bring the culprits to book expeditiously. Since local communities constitute the first line of defence to ensure protection and conservation of the strategic reserves; they should be given a substantial share of the mining profits. To ensure that the distribution of such share reaches the beneficiaries, the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency should pass on the amount to the Panchayati Raj institutions in the mining areas.
As Shashi Tharoor, former Minister of State for External Affairs, said at a recent book release function: “Good governance transcends all administrative frontiers. It requires politicians to recognise the importance of working together for a common goal.” The UPA government has been squandering Bharat Mata’s gift of nature for private greed and proved in the last eight years that it is incapable of providing good governance. The greatest service Manmohan Singh could do to the nation before another scam even bigger than the great thorium robbery surfaces is to resign and go. Surely we have had enough of his leadership.
(Concluded)

http://thestatesman.net/index.php?optio ... 7&catid=38

#ThoriumScam top trend on twitter.

http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23ThoriumScam

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 03 Sep 2012 13:40

Wil the litany of UPA scams never end? It appears that everything of value in the country,or what can be turned into filthy lucre is being handed over to firang and desi brigands.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 05 Sep 2012 10:01

CBI probe only scratches the surface of mega-scam in coal

Curiously, Vijay Darda had been caught up in a controversy not long ago for having praised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a “political saint” and a “tiger”. That statement had embarrassed the Congress, and central party leaders had indicated that Darda, a media baron, would face punitive action. Darda subsequently retracted his remarks about Modi, but evidently it has not been enough to secure him immunity from punishment.

So long as he was a faithful soldier of the party, Darda was able to get away with appears to have been blatant influence peddling on behalf of a business empire with whom his family had organic links. But once you’ve embarrassed the party – by praising its bete noire, in the way that he did – you run the risk of being thrown under the bus when the party has to be seen to be doing something.

Once again proven Congress Bureau of Investigation is a royal pet.

Moderators, is it possible to rename this thread or create a new thread for Coalgate scam, because the effects of it will have far reaching consequences than any other scam till date.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 05 Sep 2012 16:13

This chart shows why Coalgate is more UPA scam than NDA

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 06 Sep 2012 14:00

The old India is dead. Wake up, netas and business babus - Firstpost

Worth reading in its totality.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 06 Sep 2012 14:07

RoyG wrote:
The Great Thorium Robbery

sam rajappa

Since the UPA government assumed office in 2004 with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, 2.1 million tones of monazite, equivalent to 195,300 tonnes of thorium at 9.3 per cent recovery, has disappeared from the shores of India. Thorium is a clean nuclear fuel of strategic importance for both nuclear energy generation and nuclear-tipped missiles. The beaches of Orissa Sand Complex, Manavalakurichi in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and the Aluva-Chavara belt on the Kerala coast have been identified under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, as the main monazite bearing areas in the country. In most other countries, thorium reserves are embedded in rocks which require elaborate processing to extract. Public sector Indian Rare Earths Limited having divisions at Chatrapur in Orissa, Manavalakurichi in Tamil Nadu, Chavara and Aluva, and its own research centre in Kollam in Kerala, is the only institution authorised to extract thorium from monazite sands. If the Comptroller and Auditor-General were to audit the accounts of the IREL and the Department of Atomic Energy, custodians of fissile minerals, the coalgate scam would look like small change. The missing thorium, conservatively estimated at $100 a tonne, works out to about Rs 48 lakh crore, putting all other UPA scams in the shade.
To a question by Kodikunnel Suresh addressed to the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha on 30 November 2011, about the quantum of monazite being exported to other countries and whether the companies mining beach sand have violated the norms of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, V Narayanaswamy, Minister of State in the PMO, said that beach sands containing heavy minerals barring monazite were being exported. However, he said that licence under the Atomic Energy Act was required for the export of monazite and thorium which were prescribed substances, and that no licence was given for the export of these items. The Department of Atomic Energy, directly under Manmohan Singh, delisted heavy minerals like monazite and ilmenite from the prescribed substances list vide SO 61 (E) dated 20 January, 2006, to facilitate their export by private companies. Licences have been issued with the proviso that “having undertaken to comply with the conditions prescribed in the Atomic Energy (Working of mines, minerals hand handling of prescribed substances) Rules, 1984, licence is issued with the approval of the Licensing Authority.”
The Licencing Authority is the Nagpur-based Chief Controller of Mines, under the Union Ministry of Mines. Ever since CP Ambrose, Chief Controller of Mines, an upright officer, retired on 30 June 2008, the post has been deliberately kept open and Ranjan Sahai, Controller of Mines, Central Zone, alleged to be close to private placer mineral industrialists, has been allowed to officiate in place of the Chief Controller. Four years is a long time to keep a key post of crucial, strategic and vital importance vacant. Sahai is said to be the most favoured public functionary of the Union Ministry of Mines working in the field, enjoying dictatorial clout with all officials in the ministry. Several written public complaints against Sahai are pending with the Central Vigilance Commissioner, New Delhi. It is reliably learnt that the Departmental Promotion Committee has already selected an officer working in Nagpur to fill the post of Chief Controller of Mines but his appointment is being prevented by Sahai. Such is his clout in the Ministry of Mines.
According to K Balachandran of the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, DAE, commercial exploitation of beach sand in India dates back to 1909 when Schomberg, a German chemist, was exploring for monazite occurrences in search of thorium for the gas mantles industry. After the German, the French, who understood the value of thorium, began buying beach sand from Kerala and exporting it to their country. From this starting point many milestones have been crossed with the discovery of ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon and sillimanite in our beach sands. When the Department of Atomic Energy was established in the early days of independence, one of the first decisions Prime Minister Nehru took was to ban the export of thorium. India is reputed to have the largest mineral sands resources in the world. These are also among the least exploited resources having a high potential to meet the country’s energy needs. Seventy per cent of India energy is met by import of oil and gas. The beach placer mining sector was opened to private entrepreneurs in 1998. Export of beach sands registered a quantum jump after 2005. As if to promote exports, even radioactive minerals, much needed for our nuclear energy programme, are allowed to be taken out of the country unchecked. To add insult to injury, private exporters of prohibited minerals are presented with Special Awards and Certificates of Merit by the Chemicals and Allied Products Export Promotion Council of the Government of India. Indiscriminate mining, if not monitored and regulated, can cause severe erosion in the coastal areas.
At least now the government should exclude thorium producing placer minerals like monazite, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and mineral complexes together with uranium minerals from the purview of privatisation under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, and the Indian Atomic Energy Act, 1948. These resources should be specified in the Central List of Part XI of the Constitution. The Mines Act should be amended with a mandate for the setting up of a Mines Regulatory Authority on the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority or the Insurance Regulatory Authority in order to ensure that any complex minerals which have the potential to produce thorium is not allowed to be mined and conserved with provisos for extraction and delivery of processed thorium to the agencies of the Atomic Energy Commission. Considering the strategic importance, select thorium bearing areas should be declared as exclusive zones and brought under the security cover of the Army, Navy and the Air Force. The civil administration has proved incapable of handling this responsibility. All private trade, both internal and external, in thorium producing placer mineral complexes should be banned and the entire thorium extracted so far should be brought under the control of the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency. The CBI should investigate illegal mining of thorium resources and bring the culprits to book expeditiously. Since local communities constitute the first line of defence to ensure protection and conservation of the strategic reserves; they should be given a substantial share of the mining profits. To ensure that the distribution of such share reaches the beneficiaries, the Joint Nuclear Fuel Control Agency should pass on the amount to the Panchayati Raj institutions in the mining areas.
As Shashi Tharoor, former Minister of State for External Affairs, said at a recent book release function: “Good governance transcends all administrative frontiers. It requires politicians to recognise the importance of working together for a common goal.” The UPA government has been squandering Bharat Mata’s gift of nature for private greed and proved in the last eight years that it is incapable of providing good governance. The greatest service Manmohan Singh could do to the nation before another scam even bigger than the great thorium robbery surfaces is to resign and go. Surely we have had enough of his leadership.
(Concluded)

http://thestatesman.net/index.php?optio ... 7&catid=38
#ThoriumScam top trend on twitter.

http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23ThoriumScam

THis is really sad, they have sold our future???

RoyG · Post by **RoyG** » 10 Sep 2012 09:11

“After the Coalgate, the Thorium scam amounting to around 38-lakh crore will be out shortly,” : Dr. Subramanian Swamy

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 10 Sep 2012 21:41

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 10 Sep 2012 23:00

RoyG wrote:“After the Coalgate, the Thorium scam amounting to around 38-lakh crore will be out shortly,” : Dr. Subramanian Swamy

I do not know if this is a good strategy... as the numbers increase public's mind goes numb. At one point they stop caring.

If these scams are real, they should come out at once...

nakul · Post by **nakul** » 10 Sep 2012 23:11

They are unlikely to go for polls now. It would be more helpful to reveal these scams before people enter the polling booth. Perhaps someone is choosing the right time before opening their mouth.

Dipanker · Post by **Dipanker** » 11 Sep 2012 06:33

Does UPA have any shame?

Ex-coal minister Bagrodia’s brother got hefty mining contract

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 11 Sep 2012 09:44

For it is written-CAG is accountable to the Constitution

A nice write up defending & defining the role of the CAG.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 11 Sep 2012 09:56

Best way to avoid scams: Use one-step e-auctions

The TOI it seems is going in direction that is different from the stated line of the GOI. Is it just for show?

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 14 Sep 2012 22:09

http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=775178
Coalgate: SC Notice to Centre on Alleged Irregularities

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a government's plea not not to hear a PIL on alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks and sought an explanation whether guidelines were flouted in allotments.

The apex court, which turned down the Centre's contention that the petition based on the CAG report which is under the scrutiny of Parliament's PAC cannot be considered, said "the petitioner has sought to point out illegality and there is nothing wrong in it."

A bench comprising justices R M Lodha and A R Dave said the prayer seeking a direction for alleged "unconstitutional" and "arbitrary" allocation of coal blocks "requires explanation from you (centre) because it is not the distribution of state's property in small scale but it talks about tons of largesse."

Further, the bench questioned as why the names of politicians and their relatives have cropped up among the alleged illegal allottees of coal blocks in which the policy of "competitive bidding" formulated by the government in 2004 was not followed.

The bench rejected Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman's contention that the petition based on the CAG report was "premature" as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi was slated to examine it from September 20 about the correctness of allocation.

sum · Post by **sum** » 16 Sep 2012 14:06

And now you know why INC will continue to plunder everything in its sight:

Like Bofors, coal issue will soon be forgotten: Shinde

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Sep 2012 03:20

Looks like M Karunanidhi was doing his own mining scam in granite

Karuna on radar

Ignore the first part of silly patter by the reporter.

....
The Government of Tamil Nadu has deployed a Dhaksha UAV — an MIT drone scanning illegal granite quarries — in the district of Madurai. According to an initial report submitted by former district collector U Sagayam to the Government, illegal quarrying in the district has cost the State more than Rs16,000 crore. The companies involved in the quarrying included Olympus Granites, allegedly owned by Durai Dayanidhi. The alleged quarrying took place during 2006 to 2011 when the State was ruled by Karunanidhi. Union Minister Alagiri, his elder son by his second wife Dayalu Ammal, was a law unto himself in Madurai during 2006 to 2011.

The probe by the teams constituted by the district collector has found that out of 175 granite quarries in the district, 94 had violated various norms by destroying waterbodies, encroaching on private and Government lands and illicit mining from Government as well as private lands.

The Dhaksha flew over areas which were inaccessible under normal circumstances. The high-tech camera onboard the UAV sent high resolution pictures of the landscape to the MIT team which deciphered details about granites hoarded and illegal quarries.

Enthused by the results, the district administration has imported three Laser Distance Surveying Meters (LDSM) from the UK to integrate with the UAV. The LDSM, a Third Eye prototype, will measure accurate mining level at the quarries. The laser beams emitted by the LDSM will assess the depth and width of all the pits in the quarried areas. One of the officials involved in the investigation told this newspaper that the magnitude of illegal quarrying could be more than Rs40,000 crore.

The Jayalalithaa Government has issued look-out notices for Dayanidhi and some of his business partners. Sources in the DMK said Dayanidhi has no connection with Olympus Granites since he quit the company in 2010 itself. But the police picked up PR Palanisamy, granite baron and owner of PRP Exports, in connection with illegal quarrying and it is reported that he has spilled a lot of beans. Dayanidhi has approached the Madras High Court for anticipatory bail which the Court will hear on September 21.

Shouldnt the report say Tamil Nadu govt instead of Jayalalitha govt?

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 19 Sep 2012 15:21

sum wrote:And now you know why INC will continue to plunder everything in its sight:

Like Bofors, coal issue will soon be forgotten: Shinde

Unlike Bofors, Coal issue like 2G has supplier side within India. Hardly the same except behavior of chamchas working for political interests.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 04 Oct 2012 12:57

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a-raja-kanimozhi-kalmadi-on-parliamentary-panels/article3962720.ece

The former Union Minister, A. Raja, Kanimozhi and Suresh Kalmadi have been made members of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Energy, Home Affairs and External Affairs respectively.

All's well-that ends well.Con-party has outdone itself.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 04 Oct 2012 13:41

That is the price of political support to the UPA 2. Don't they have any shame.

Vasu · Post by **Vasu** » 06 Oct 2012 10:03

After counter-attacking NaMo's charge on Sonia Gandhi's #1880, the CONgress minions had hardly got a breather when Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal held a press conference in New Delhi at 5 PM yesterday and began opening up the secrets of the Royal Son-in-Law's shady real estate dealings.

Heard on Twitter, that Vadra is currently out of the country, and Sonia Gandhi is saying her son-in-law is innocent. Khurshid, Shukla, Tiwari, Alvi (and many more are pressed into service) all running from one channel to other with their counter-allegations and counter-accusations.

Is samay Dilli mein kaafi garmi hai bhai.

Suppiah · Post by **Suppiah** » 06 Oct 2012 17:50

Expect some 'secularism and country's plurality is in danger' sort of propaganda by rapist goon yellows leased over to dynasty in exchange for surrender to Beijing and its tall friend....some minion will throw stone at some church and dynastic butt-hole licking scum will then declare on TV that Sangh parivar is waging war against minorities...yellows will fill their front pages with that news until heat is off the dynasty..

Arunkumar · Post by **Arunkumar** » 07 Oct 2012 09:47

Damadg reminds me of the nicholas cage starrer movie wicker man

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 08 Oct 2012 09:30

CAG finds flaws in loan waiver plan

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out serious flaws in the implementation of the over Rs 52,000 crore farm debt-waiver scheme in a finding that can annoy the UPA government besides raising doubts whether it can continue to reap political dividends from the populist programme which turned out to be the gamechanger for the ruling coalition in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

In a draft inspection report sent to the finance ministry seeking its comments, the federal auditor has pointed out that beneficiaries of the scheme were selected at random and were concentrated in certain pockets, while those who really deserved the relief were inexplicably left out.

Sources said the final report is likely to be completed by end-October, and the auditor has planned to table the final report in the winter session of Parliament.

The audit into the debt waiver has been a mega exercise, with the CAG taking RBI's help to look into the books of accounts of government banks, regional rural banks and the cooperative banks that had disbursed the relief. The auditor has carried out field visits to corroborate its findings with sample surveys.

Sources said the draft report has pointed out major deficiencies in identifying beneficiaries, expressing the fear that "undeserving farmers" may have cornered the bulk of the waiver at the cost of the deserving beneficiaries belonging to the "small and marginal" category.

The findings are contrary to the government's repeated claims in Parliament that benefits accrued only to the eligible.

Debts of more than 3.7 crore farmers were written off by the government under this scheme that brought windfall gains to the Congress. Andhra Pradesh, which accounted for around Rs 11,000 crore of the total disbursal, elected 33 Congress MPs to the Lok Sabha. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the scheme was also implemented, too, rewarded the party handsomely. The three states together elected 69 of the 207 MPs elected to Lok Sabha on Congress ticket.

Announced just ahead of the 2009 parliamentary polls, the scheme wrote off the loan liabilities of "eligible" farmers pending till then.

In response to a Parliament question earlier, the finance ministry had stated that Andhra extended the maximum waiver of more than Rs 11,000 crore with about 80 lakh farmers benefiting, followed by UP — Rs 10,000 crore to at least 54 lakh farmers — and Maharashtra disbursed Rs 9,000 crore to over 42 lakh farm hands.