Augusta Westland: Another Scam; Another Timepass

India has been witnessing innumerable scams everyday. Most of these scams are true; some are political accusations. But the cost of these scams and fake accusations are enormous on the development of the nation. In the interests of the true national growth, all three pillars of the country - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary must do a quick post mortem of these scams and bring out the truth immediately. The latest scam in the Indian circuit is Augusta Westland the chopper purchase for VVIPS from Italy.

Times  of India writes on 28 April 2016

The latest faceoff between government and Congress over the Agusta Westland chopper deal portends another round of fireworks in Parliament. The air is thick with accusations and insinuations. This time, however, it is necessary to transcend the customary trading of charges between political adversaries to let a free and fair investigation take precedence.

As political parties revert to their default tu tu main main instincts, there are several inconsistencies on both sides of the argument. Congress argues in its defence that it blacklisted the company, but is being accused of going slow on the probe to shield the guilty. The NDA government claims it is pursuing the case with gusto, yet it rehabilitated the Anglo-Italian firm to become a part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative. This made Agusta Westland eligible to participate in defence deals worth Rs 25,000 crore.

The Rs 3,600 crore AW101 helicopter deal for VVIP choppers was cancelled by UPA in 2014 and the guarantee money confiscated after allegations of payoffs running into hundreds of crores. UPA claimed the Italian company had breached an integrity pact, as commissions were paid to modify altitude specifications for the lucrative contract in which 12 VVIP transport helicopters were to be supplied to India. The tragedy is that if Courts of Appeal in Milan had not taken up the matter, it could easily have been swept under the carpet. The Italian court has sentenced Giuseppe Orsi, chief of Agusta Westland’s parent company Finmeccanica, to a four-and-a-half year jail term. In stark contrast, the NDA government claims that investigations are now at an advanced stage, but it doesn’t appear close to finding the guilty even after two years in office.

The country’s security apparatus needs urgent upgrades but dark clouds of corruption have always loomed over defence acquisitions. The legacy of Bofors means that even the slightest hint of impropriety is enough to jeopardise deals. But holdups in defence acquisitions also lead to high cost escalations. French Rafale fighter planes, for example, were selected in 2012, but the deal is yet to see the light of day. The veil of secrecy on defence deals must be lifted and we must evolve norms for the highest standards of transparency and probity, incorporating best practices from advanced western democracies.

Scams & Shames of Medical Education in India

(Representative image)EEducation in India

Education in India is going from bad to worse. Large-scale commercialisation is leading to the erosion of standards and ethics in education. Vice in higher educational institutions are bought and sold. How will they maintain the sanctity of the insitutions if they come after heavy bribing and palm greasing the politicians? Times of India reports that" you would never find advertisements for "confirmed admission" to any IIT or AIIMS or one asking you to book a seat in advance in any of these premier institutes. Neither are there advertisements promising you selection for the civil services or placement in an all-India service of your choice. Yet, the media is full of ads for MBBS seats in colleges across the country.

How, if the system is merit-based, can anyone promise "direct admission"?

Behind this promise is a black market in medical seats in private colleges. With agents and college managements colluding to sell many of the 30,000-plus MBBS and over 9,600 postgraduation seats in private medical colleges, back-of-the-envelope calculations by TOI suggests that about Rs 12,000 crore in hard cash changes hands in this black market every year.

HIGHLIGHTS

Of the 422 medical colleges in India, 224 are private, accounting for 53% of MBBS seats. Many of these colleges are running with little or no facilities, no patients and fake faculty. The going price for an MBBS seat could range from Rs 1 crore in colleges in Bangalore to Rs 25-35 lakh in some in UP. Seats in MD in radiology and dermatology cost up to Rs 3 crore.

 Seats in MD in radiology and dermatology cost up to Rs 3 crore.book a seat in advance in any of these premier institutes. Neither are there advertisements promising you selection for the civil services or placement in an all-India service of your choice. Yet, the media is full of ads for MBBS seats in colleges across the country.

How, if the system is merit-based, can anyone promise "direct admission"? Behind this promise is a black market in medical seats in private colleges. With agents and college managements colluding to sell many of the 30,000-plus MBBS and over 9,600 postgraduation seats in private medical colleges, back-of-the-envelope calculations by TOI suggests that about Rs 12,000 crore in hard cash changes hands in this black market every year.

The prices could escalate or drop depending on how early you approach a college for a seat. If you book in advance, you could get a discount! However, once the medical entrance results have been announced, the same seats at the private colleges will be sold for almost double the advance booking price. The sale of MBBS seats alone is worth almost Rs 9,000 crore annually.

Consortia of privately managed colleges and deemed universities that run medical colleges claim to conduct their own entrance examinations to take in students strictly on merit. However, in state after state, the exams have been exposed as a farce with students who pay money to buy seats being accommodated whether they appear for the exam or not and no matter what they score, while the so-called merit students are bumped off the list on various pretexts; with many even threatened and bullied into vacating seats.

While the 15% NRI quota seats are allowed to be allotted at the management's discretion in most states, in reality, even the management quota and a chunk of the so-called merit seats are sold off, bringing the proportion of seats sold to over 50%, the proportion rising to 80% or even 100% in some cases depending on how strict the regulation is in each state. The quota set aside for management varies from state to state. For instance, in MP and Maharashtra, the management quota is about 43%. This, plus the NRI quota brings the seats set aside to almost 60%.

With just 23,600 seats available for post graduate medical education, the demand for the same is very high. Thus, there is great demand for the 9,400-plus seats in the private sector, including over 1,300 diploma seats. By a conservative estimate, about 40% of these seats also get sold. All told, the sale of post-graduate seats alone is estimated to be worth about Rs 2,900 crore. Add the highly valued seats for super-specialisation, about 370 in the private sector, of which again at least 40% is sold, and the post-MBBS education black market figure crosses Rs 3,000 crore. Thus, along with the MBBS seat sale, the total amount comes to about Rs 12,000 crore.

The bulk of the money is paid in cash, leaving no trace of the transaction. And despite the advertisements giving the game away, the government has not cracked down on this black market or taken steps to arrest the rot in the medical education system.

Corrupt & bankrupt Tamil Nadu?

Tamil Nadu was in the forefront of clean politics and development once upon a time. Now the situation is topsy-turvy. Neither politics nor development is clean. Both have become notorious and denting the image of Tamil society. Corruption every where and development losing sight in the industrial sector are the twin assaults on Tamil Nadu.

Nevertheless Tamil Nadu is better in urbanisation and per capita increase in the country. Its health indicators are showing a good progress. Although government hospitals and schools are spruced up there are very few visitors to it. Agony is more in the schools.

Corruption is dancing happily from hospital to the very top of the administration. The worst scenario is the fixed bribe rate for each posting and transfers. Almighty Amma must crack the whip and eradicate the corrupt party men, women and officers. Unless this is done, the state will lose in the national race. If it is done, Almighty Amma will be revered forever.

Times of India writes on 10 March 2015

Rumblings against corruption in the state administration are getting louder after former agriculture minister SS Krishnamurthy's unceremonious exit from the cabinet over the suicide of an agriculture department executive engineer S Muthukumarasamy in Tirunelveli last month. Krishnamurthy's office had allegedly harassed the official to manipulate the selection process for recruitment of drivers in the department. Not able to bear the ordeal, the official jumped before a running train.

Muthukumarasamy's suicide was not a one-off case, said CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan. "There is corruption in appointments, promotions and transfers, largely at officers' level, in every department. Straightforward officials suffer because of this," said Ramakrishnan. Both AIADMK and DMK governments have nurtured corrupt practices and it has gained alarming proportions in the last 10 years, he said.

Every department has shocking tales to narrate about corruption. A powerful VIP convened regional meetings of aided college principals and secretaries about two years ago to raise money from appointments of assistant professors. One of the college secretaries, who attended one such meeting at Tirunelveli circuit house, said, "The VIP's PA had summoned both principals and secretaries. The meeting started in the night and the VIP called us one by one into his room and said unless we paid money to him, appointments of new assistant professors would not be approved. He demanded Rs 5 lakh per post from minority institutions and Rs 7 lakh per post from non-minority institutions. If we could not collect money from the candidates, he said he himself would identify suitable candidates". Since then, most college managements have been collecting extra money, over and above Rs 5-10 lakh they collect from candidates, for appointing assistant professors.

In the police department, deputy superintendents of police and inspectors pay money to middlemen to secure transfers to preferred locations. "While DSPs pay Rs 4-10 lakh depending on the district and city, inspectors pay Rs 2-3 lakh for transfers," said an official. "A relative of a senior official in Chennai is a prominent collection agent. Anybody who gives money to that agent gets the posting of his choice," the official said.

Corruption has pervaded all levels of the state administration that people now take it for granted, said MG Devasahayam, a retired bureaucrat. "It has destroyed the basic fabric of the administration, because people get into a position by bribing and also stay there by bribing. There is money in appointments, postings, transfers and stopping transfers. Only the level varies depending on the capacity of politicians to demand and officials to pay. When an official pays money to get a post, his or her effort is focused only on collecting several times more of that from the public," said Devasahayam.

Everyone seems to be benefitting from corruption in Tamil Nadu, said a retired director general of police. "Since those sitting at the top take money, people below also have a field day," he said. Ramakrishnan said CPM would hold a series of agitations to put an end to corruption in government administration.

Clean Mr.P.M!

Being loyal is different from being a Prime Minister of a billion plus population. Dr. Manmohan Singh has got unfortunately the dummy P.M tag from every corner of the society. On the one hand, powerful leader starved world looks Indian P.M as the powerful among the powerless alot on the other hand, Indian public feels betrayed by his experience and eminence. Running a puppet government for the past 7 years, Manmohan has alot of clean up job. First is to clean up his polluted image as the puppet prime minister. Second to get his act together and reform the economy. Third walk away from the sycophants and lead an independent decision maker life. Unless and untill these are done, India will continue to watch helplessly the helpless P.M.

Bharat Karnad writes in The Deccan Chronicle on 18 August 2011

It is curious that India and the United States — the two most important democracies in the world today, have in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama, chief executives who, it turns out, share traits that the Washington Post columnist, E.J. Dionne, Jr., identified as Mr Obama’s hallmark, namely, being at once risk-averse and competitive. In the three weeks this writer recently spent in America, it was impossible to escape the incessant drumbeat in the media about the economy on the skids, raising of the national debt ceiling amidst rancorous partisanship, the loss of “Triple A” credit rating, and an ascendant China, fearing its huge investment in some 13 per cent of the US Treasury bonds issued being reduced to waste paper, furiously wagging a finger at Washington, demanding Americans live within their means. (In all this gloom, amusement was afforded visiting Indians and NRIs, at least, by the website of a major Indian newspaper heralding an Indian as having “downgraded the United States”!) Meanwhile, at the centre of the hubbub, Mr Obama stayed on the sidelines, mostly disengaged, even as Republican Party Right-wingers called him names. It felt like home. With scams and scandals of all kinds coming home to roost within the Congress Party portals, bad economic news dogging his every step, Dr Singh, other than sleep-talking through much the same Red Fort speech he has made the last seven years on Independence Day, has stayed mum, barricading himself in 7 Race Course Road, a mute spectator to things going horribly wrong for his government and for him personally. Except, unlike Mr Obama, the Indian Prime Minister is no mass leader nor a political visionary; even less is he an orator able to turn around a disbelieving public. His public speeches actually set many a teeth on edge. Dr Singh hopes to keep warbling the same old song without taking any of the follow-up actions he has been promising these many years to implement the second-generation economic reforms desperately needed to shift the economy to a higher plane. But transforming India into a powerful growth engine, at a minimum, requires overhauling archaic labour laws and instituting new land acquisition norms in order to give fillip to industry, and boosting the rural economy by freeing the agricultural sector from export and other restrictions, none of which is being done because of fear of the faux socialists — Messrs Mulayam Singh, Amar Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Company, and the unpredictable politics of Mayawati. It is another matter that these worthies have, so far, been held in check by the ruling party manipulating the CBI corruption cases against them. But general economic up-gearing and CBI threats nevertheless entail risks because, overdone, these measures may persuade these leaders to join with the BJP-led Opposition to bring down the Congress-led coalition government. And risk-taking of any kind, especially with so much at stake, goes against Dr Singh’s over-cautious nature and party chief Sonia Gandhi’s plans. After all he is a career bureaucrat hoisted, for reasons of zero-threat to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and his personal malleability, to the top post in government, an arrangement that permits Mrs Gandhi to keep her hand on the steering wheel, a control now reinforced by her chosen civil servant, Pulok Chatterji, replacing T.K.A Nair as principal secretary to the Prime Minister. The corporate bosses’ understanding of the turgid pace of economic reforms is limited by the automotive metaphor they have used. Y.C. Deveshwar of Indian Tobacco Company in the August 2 meeting with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee reportedly ventured that the problem lay with two drivers — one pressing the accelerator, the other the brake. It’s a view similar to the Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy’s that the government’s “culture of taking slow decisions” is attributable to “two leaders in the set-up”. While such takes on reality seem reasonable at first glance, they are wrong in their essentials, in the main, because they assume that Dr Singh is driven by the desire for systemic change. The fact is he never had his foot on the accelerator, even as Mrs Gandhi never lifted hers from the brake pedal for fear that any forward movement would undermine the ruling party’s pseudo-Leftist moorings. Indira Gandhi’s Garibi Hatao-brand of crude populism masquerading as socialism is the true ideological lodestar of the Congress Party, not the quaint Fabian socialist tenets that animated Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies. Dr Singh, the ultimate apparatchik and beneficiary of the system, in the event, has a disincentive to burnish his reformist credentials, such as they are, if that involves crossing the party line. Mrs Gandhi, on her part, may understand little about socialism other than that it has kept her family in the clover for a very long time. But it is sufficient reason for her to stay with the socialist rhetoric, statist solutions, and a horrendous state apparatus, which together have turned corrupt practices and mis-governance into a thriving cottage industry. Where corruption is concerned, Dr Singh and Mr Obama are somewhat similarly placed. Personally clean, Mr Obama owes his meteoric rise from a grassroots organiser in Chicago to the corrupt Democratic Party political machine ruthlessly run, gangster style, first by mayor Richard J. Daley, who bequeathed the machine to his son, the even longer serving Richard Michael Daley, whose brother, William J. Daley, incidentally, is Mr Obama’s White House Chief of Staff. Dr Singh may not be corrupt himself, but that is small consolation considering he is presiding over a government that, going by the sheer extent, scale and magnitude of the loot indulged in by his party members and Cabinet colleagues, is patently the most corrupt in independent India’s history, and one that may be headed for a downfall. The muck has long ago stuck to the Prime Minister’s escutcheon. So, when he repeatedly declares that the corrupt will face punishment, who takes him seriously?

Weak government attracts strong troubles

A weak government with string of scandals attract strong troubles. this is clearly evident from the everyday happenings in the UPA government. Baba Ramdev who commands lakhs of followers through his yoga teachings and marketing strategies is the latest personality who challenged the weak kneed UPA. Coalition partners, opposition members, underworld dons, naxalities, external threats and other innumberable troubles keep attacking the government at the centre. Its inept handling is compounding the existing crisis. May be the UPA feels great after putting off Ramdev's fast at the Ramlila grounds at Delhi. But actually it is weakening its position day by day.

The Deccan Chronicle writes on 6th June 2011

After both sides struck an initial stance of reasonableness, the government reckoned that yoga guru Ramdev was probably disinclined to end his protest campaign at Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds, although he had agreed to do so in a letter submitted the previous day to the government ministers negotiating with him.

Sensing that the Ramdev movement had, in effect, been organised by the RSS, and then finding arch communal troublemaker Sadhvi Rithambara, known for spewing venom against the minorities, was sharing the Ramlila Ground stage with the yoga teacher, it was expected that concern and alarm would follow in official circles, not to say among a broad swathe of public opinion.

The eviction of the saffron-wrapped yoga teacher and his followers by the Delhi police from the Ramlila Grounds past midnight on Saturday thus occasions little surprise. It transpires that Baba Ramdev had sought official permission to hold a “yoga camp” there but instead he nourished a political jamboree seeking to instigate people against the government. This was unfortunate.

Baba Ramdev had told followers that 90 per cent of his demands had already been met. Some of the issues raised by the yoga guru are indeed reasonable. The corruption question finds an echo among all sections of citizens.

It is beyond considerations of party politics and ideology. The Centre, for instance, can without delay clear legislation — one of Ramdev’s key demands — intended to provide relief to ordinary people against petty harassment and bribe-extraction at service delivery points, for instance when picking up a ration card, a driving licence, a water connection or a death certificate.

When governments don’t take care of such basic needs of citizens, they lay themselves open to the charge of imperviousness, and typically fire middle and lower middle class angst, which generally drives protests in urban India.

Worse, in such situations, an absence of governmental initiative makes possible large-scale mobilisation of disgruntled elements — as we saw in the case of Ramdev and Anna Hazare. Such collectives can be exploited to irresponsible ends by demagogues of any hue — from Naxalites on the far left to the communal far right.

Popular concern and frustration with the official machinery has been exacerbated by instances of corruption in high places that have come to light in the last eight or nine months, detracting from the government’s moral authority. Even so, it would be foolish and dangerous if society permitted half-baked ideas of demagogues to take hold, and permit such elements an opportunity to overrun the system.

It cannot be overemphasised that, in particular, the issue of repatriation of black money in foreign tax havens is complex and not amenable to overnight solutions as it presupposes negotiations with foreign governments. The idea of declaring all Indian black money overseas a national asset is even more complicated.

After the police action at Ramlila Grounds, it is a pity that a national party like the BJP lost perspective and begun comparing it with the Emergency. It would be useful to remember that if it were indeed the Emergency once again, the party would not be free to belt out anti-government messages from the podium of its national executive in Lucknow.

Freedom from the dysfunctional Indian system

No field of public significance is free from corruption, chaos and dysfunction. Indian system is so systemically rotten beyond any repair. Who is responsible? How to be eradicated this menace? These searching questions may not produce any substantial change from the present mess. But one cannot allow the current rotten situation to continue. From entrepreneurship to education, from governance to gambling, every aspect of the Indian system is bought and sold for a price. Ironicialy those who were responsible to change the system for the past six decades are chest thumping this problem for the past six decades. When we are going to find some credible action?

Jayant writes in The Deccan Chronicle on 16 February 2011

The following story from a particular edition of the Ramayana sets the tone of this article. In the aftermath of the destruction of Ravan, Ram returned to Ayodhya to set up his rule. Ram Rajya, as his rule was called, became synonymous with good and just rule. Anyone demanding justice had full access to the king. So one day a dog with a ferocious appearance entered Ram’s court asking for justice. Ram asked him to state the details of his complaint. “Sire,” said the dog, “I was following a sanyasi as he went around begging for alms and with no provocation on my part, he kicked me. He is standing outside and I demand that he be suitably punished.” Ram called the sanyasi who readily admitted to the act. But he gave a reason. He said: “Sire, I was begging for food to eat and wherever I went, the housewife who opened the door immediately shut it on seeing this ferocious dog. As a result I went hungry. Since it was all because of this dog, I took my anger out on him by kicking him. I agree that it was an unjust act on my part and the dog cannot be held responsible for how he looks. So I am willing to accept any just punishment.” Then Ram turned to the dog and asked him what he thought would be a just punishment. The dog thought for a while and then said: “Sire, I suggest that you create a vidyapeeth, and make him its kulapati”. “But that is an honour, not a punishment!” said Ram. “I beg to differ, Sire!” said the dog. “The responsibility of running a vidyapeeth will cause him enough mental anguish which would be a good punishment for what he did to me.”

The situation prevailing today in the Indian universities is no different. The atmosphere in which a vice-chancellor (VC) has to function is volatile with pressures coming from students, faculty, the non-teaching staff, outside threats to him and to the security of the university et cetera. Although the university is autonomous, there is enough political interference from outside and the last word often rests not with the VC but with the babus in the secretariat. The days when VCs, like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan or Acharya Narendra Dev, were towering personalities commanding respect are long past. The post itself has been seriously devalued by the procedure of selection. Would you have expected the personalities just named applying for the post, being short-listed and interviewed?

It could be argued that this procedure followed in Maharashtra, a supposedly progressive state, is a necessity today because no other action involving selection for such an important post is credible enough. The procedure whereby the chancellor (or the appointing authority), after receiving expert advice, invites a distinguished academician to accept the post, would be viewed with suspicion. The fact that the system worked well in the old days of pre-Independence (and even for a few years post-Independence), speaks for the steep decline in moral values in our public life. For example, I was shocked to read about a VC of a very old university publicly thanking the state education minister for keeping his word by making him the VC.

The situation at the other end of the spectrum — in school education — is equally dismal. Government-aided schools are asked to admit more than 80 children per class because there is a shortage of schools. What can a teacher do with such a large number of pupils? Naturally, because of bad or no teaching in the school, students seek the help of coaching classes outside. In addition, there are government missives: fail no student until Class 8. If student is really weak in a particular subject, it is the responsibility of the teacher to stay after school hours and teach the student to the required level. Which teacher — who is already overworked and underpaid — is going to accept this extra responsibility? So all students are declared passed. The parents are blissful and satisfied that their wards are doing well, until they reach Class 8 when they discover with a shock that the kids cannot even add, subtract or read and write.

In 1980, when I was on a sabbatical visit to the University College, Cardiff, the headmaster of the primary school in our neighbourhood sent circulars to all the houses in the neighbourhood urging parents to send their children to his school stating that in order to increase the number of students the entry age had been reduced by six months to five years. He had done so because reduced birth rate had decreased the school student population and the government was threatening to close down schools with a low number of students. This example illustrates the economics of supply and demand for available schools versus students seeking admission.

Logic dictates that in India, where there is a grave shortage of schools, we reduce the number of students per class to half, and double the number of schools. The number of teachers needs to be increased even more since the present numbers are already inadequate and teachers are being hired on a contract basis at shamefully low “daily wages”, barely above the legal lower limits. This will require huge increases in the budgetary provisions of the ministry of human resource and development. But whichever political party is in power, this department is always kept on the backburner. There may be innumerable discussions and reports on education but when it comes to the implementation of any recommendation the result can be summarised by the four letter word, “zero”.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, himself a distinguished academic, and our Nobel laureate, Mr Amartya Sen, have stressed the need to empower our youth through education. If India aspires to be a developed nation by 2020, it needs to develop huge human resources and education is the most crucial qualification that adds value to the human being. Despite many declarations from the pulpit, politicians of all parties do not seem to appreciate the truth behind this dictum. Or, perhaps, they do, and see in the educated electorate a threat to their continuation in power!

Tax the people to hide government's faults

Our governments are extremely corrupt. That's what everyone knows and substantiated by the Transparency International indepth research. Despite large-scale corruption Indian economy is galloping. How can one explain this contradiction. Now the governments have learnt the tricks of taxing public endlessly to fund their corruption goals.

The Times of India writes on 21 November 2009

The total tax arrears have galloped to nearly Rs 2 lakh crore till September 30, 2009, an amount sufficient to fund at least half of the government's budget deficit for the current financial year.

But, surprisingly, the government has said that it can only recover Rs 13,000 crore, about 6.5% of the total outstanding , from corporates and individuals on whom the tax is pending. The amount difficult to recover is a staggering Rs 1.85 lakh crore.

Most of this outstanding amount is tied up in legal cases which are pending before courts and tribunals. Corporateincome tax arrears is Rs 1.33 lakh crore and personal I-T is 65,000 crore.

In response to a Parliament question, the finance ministry said these dues could not be collected because of various reasons like cases pending under special courts, companies under liquidation, no assets or inadequate assets for recovery or simply because a stay has been given in the matter by courts.

However, the government has taken measures to recover the outstanding amount and bring evaders to book like attachment of bank accounts and immovable property of such entities, auctioning such property and setting up a taskforce to monitor all such arrear cases.

The government has also identified cases involving large amounts pending before several tribunals and requested these officials to expedite such matter and dispose of appeals early so that arrears could be recovered.

There are at least 324 lakh assesses in the country — 3.35 lakh companies and 320 lakh non-companies . It has steadily grown over the years. There were 319 lakh assesses in 2006-07 which went up to 336 lakh assesses in 2007-08 , but came down to 324 lakh in 2008-09 .

The government has taken a host of measures to widen the tax base. It has been constantly using the annual information report and made quoting of PAN numbers mandatory to bring more entities under the tax net.

DDA's Innovative Scam

The Delhi Development Agency (DDA) was started to usher well planned development in the national capital city. From a callous organization in the past it has become highly corrupt body. From top to bottom the DDA is full of crooks. There is no space for honest officers and workers. Even if there are few the peers condemn and pull them also into the corruption ring. When most of the work force is interested in only making money there is little scope for implementation of the planned work.

Almost all the projects are executed in a hotch-potch manner. Result of the corrupt management is reflected in the extremely horrible infrastructure built by DDA. Most of the housing projects completed by the agency are considered fourth grade work. But only consolation people have with the DDA is security of the land they bought. Unlike private real estate builders, DDA flats are safe and secure. This makes people to go crazy in the capital whenever there is an announcement of DDA housing projects. In the latest DDA project, several corrupt elements have joined hands with insiders to corner flats meant for backward communities. This is one more instance of misused reservation for the backward communities.

In numbers
Total applications
5,66,906
General
5,09,337
SC
37,741
ST
9,147
Ex-servicemen
5,353
Physically Handicapped
5,163
War widows
165

There are 22 private banks and 3 nationalized banks which participated in the entire DDA process of offering loans to applicants on deposit of Rs.6000. These banks managed to corner nearly Rs.275 crore as interest on the loans given by them. (Times of India, 17.1.2009, P.3)

The Widening Gap
Total number of flats 5,238
Flats priced between Rs.7.95 lakh and Rs.77.80 lakh band
Type of flat Location Price fixed by DDA Market price
3-bedroom Vasant Kunj Rs.47.70 lakh Rs.60 lakh
2-bedroom Shalimar Bagh Rs.23-27 lakh Rs.38-45 lakh
2-bedroom Rohini Sec-28 Rs.13-14.60 lakh Rs.35-40 lakh
1-bedroom Dwarka sect-11 Rs.11.90 lakh Rs.23.5 lakh
Source; The Hindustan Times, 16.1.2009, P.3

Rogues Gallery
M.L.Gautam (64) The alleged mastermind. He submitted more than 1200 application forms & got allotted 38 flats. He claimed to have inveted Rs.25 lakh, which he said he had borrowed. Gautam worked for 28 years in DDA. He joined as an LDC and retired as a telephone assistant in 2004

Raju Ram (30) A distant relative of Gautam. He invested Rs.9 lakh in the scheme and gave this money to Deepak Kumar on October 15. He had also received two cheques of Rs.4.5 lakh each as security.

Deepak Kumar (30) A law graduate who first informed Uditraj about irregularities. Kumar helped the scamsters fill application forms and brought them together

Lakshmi Narayan Meena (54): A local Meena leader in Jhunjhunu. He introduced the scamsters to people of his community & helped them get their details & certificates. He did not invest any money but received cash from dealers to get the signature of successful allottes.

Suresh Kumar Meena and vijay Kumar are the two names that has cropped up during investigations. Both are absconding. Cops say they are the main investors.

Source: Times of India, 17.1.2009, p.3

Over the years almost all the welfare schemes of the Government are cornered by greedy people through their own methods. It is difficult to seal the leakages. DDA has become the navratna company in corruption and inefficiency. Although there is a huge board outside the government offices saying that bribe giving and taking is equal crime fulfledged corruption goes on inside the offices. There is no shyness among the government employees in asking bribe. In fact people are so accustomed to the bribery, they too keep ready the share meant for babu and chaprasis. Unless we weed out the consumer vis a vis corrupt culture no government scheme will give productive results.