Pinarayi Vijayan is guilty

The CBI report submitted to the Kerala High Court and seen by HT has provided specific instances of Vijayan’s complete involvement, something which his party bosses have denied so far.

The detailed  CBI report says

“Though the total contract amount for renovation and modernisation of Pallivasal, Sengulam and Panniar hydroelectric projects was Rs 243 crore, a total amount of Rs 333 crore was spent,”

It also says that a committee headed by senior CPM leader E. Balanandan had submitted a report to Vijayan in 1997. Balanandan’s report was based on the recommendations of experts. It estimated the total cost of repair and modernisation as just Rs 100 crore. CBI report says

“Without considering the recommendations of the Balandan committee, supply contracts were signed with SNC Lavalin immediately. Even a naïve or unsophisticated person will not believe the offer of Rs 100 crore of grant-in-aid for a project initially estimated at Rs 159 crore. Obviously, Lavalin wanted to bag the contract at an exorbitant rate and accused officials along with the minister wanted the cancer centre,”

Pinarayi visited Canada in 1996, shortly after taking over as the power minister and finalised the contract in the absence of then Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar, the agency alleged. 

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Pinarayi Vijayan's Rs 85-crore cancer hospital that was to be.

The CPM party constitution says.

“Party members found to be strike-breakers, drunkards, moral degenerates, betrayers of party confidence, guilty of grave financial corruption can be summarily suspended from the party membership and removed from all responsible positions by the party unit to which they belongs or by a higher party body pending the issue of the chargesheet to them and getting their explanation. This summary suspension and removal from all responsible positions in the party cannot be extended for a period of more than three months,”

of course this is not applicable for people who are "more" equal

CPM honcho leases land at Re 1/acre

The current price of land in the heart of the industrial town of Haldia is Rs 20 crore an acre. But for someone as powerful as Lakshman Seth - the chairman of the Haldia Development Authority (HDA) and CPM member of the Lok Sabha from Tamluk - the same land can be as cheap as Re 1 per acre.

The HDA donated nearly 37 acres to Indian Centre for Advancement of Research and Education (ICARE), an NGO run by Seth, for just Rs 37.

This is the second case in which a CPM leader has used his political clout to promote an NGO run by him. Central committee member Nilotpal Basu had taken bank loans for his NGO, GRASSO, but had failed to pay up.

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CBI to prosecute CPM kerala state secretary

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought the Kerala Governor’s sanction to prosecute CPM state general secretary and Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC Lavalin corruption case. Vijayan was the power minister when the state electricity board signed a deal with SNC Lavalin Inc, a Canadian firm, for renovating three hydel projects.
This is the first time that a member of the party’s highest decision-making body is being chargesheeted in a corruption case.
The investigating agency has sought the Governor’s permission as Vijayan is a former minister. The agency has also sought the Chief Secretary’s permission to prosecute top bureaucrats who are among the list of the dozen accused.
The CPM-led Government had tried hard to avert a CBI probe. When the High Court took up two PILs seeking a CBI probe, the Government brought senior Supreme Court lawyers R K Anand and C S Vaidyanathan to appear for it and argued that the case was politically motivated. The court, however, found merit in the petitioners’ claim.
The High Court division bench, at one point of hearing, asked why the government was worried about a CBI probe. The government did not appeal in the Supreme Court as the CPM central leadership was opposed to such a move

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Kerala Court speeds up probe against CPM government

A special court here Monday asked the state vigilance department to submit within a week the findings of last year's probe into two corruption scandals worth Rs. 30 million involving Deshabhimani, the official newspaper owned by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The fresh directions came following a request by petitioner P. Rahim to the court alleging that the CPI-M-led government was stalling the investigations.

The court had ordered an enquiry July 13 last year.

The cases pertain to Deshabhimani collecting Rs. 20 million by way of a bond from lottery kingpin S. Martin and allegations against its general manager K. Venugopal (since expelled from the CPI-M and dismissed by the newspaper), charging him with accepting a bribe of Rs.10 million from a controversial private financial institution that closed down in 2006.

 

Technorati Tags: CPM,Corruption,Martin

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CPM and "Money"Chan Connection

Meet Manichan, the abkari contractor who was awarded life imprisonment along with his two brothers, vendor Hayarunnisa in the sensational serial hooch tragedies in the state which killed 36 persons and disabled nearly 100 others in October, 2000.

Newspapers has alleged that almost a dozen prominent CPI(M) leaders had reportedly received lakhs of rupees from Manichan during the last LDF rule under E.K. Nayanar. That the reports had some   substance is proven from the fact that CPI(M) had then to expel Mr. Sathyanesan, their Trivandrum District Secretary from the party on this charge . Also, former CPI(M) MLA Kadakampally Surendran was accused of accepting a bribe of Rs.50,000 from the contractor.  But all the other important leaders of the CPI(M) were absolved by the party with the same explanation that “receipts were issued” and hence no corruption was involved.

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the Home Minister and Central Committee member of CPI(M), issued statement in the State Assembly that there were no evidences other than newspaper reports before the government to charge sheet K. Venugopal or anybody else involved in the scam.

Technorati Tags: CPM,Corruption,Manichan

CPM and the "only" one crore Bribe

Meet Ex- Deputy General Manager (Marketing) of the Deshabhimani Mr. K.Venugopal, a  close confidant of both CPM Party Secretary Pinarai Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the Home Minister.

He helped himself with rupees of 1 crore to get a government (i.e. LDF )decision in favour of the some prominent Business persons. Now lets see who are these prominent Business Persons.

The amount was given by LiS, a fraudulent money chain firm. LiS is charged with the criminal offence of cheating the public with money doubling offers and of flouting Reserve Bank regulations. The Kerala police raided office of LiS then sealed its offices. Prosecution procedures were also started. In a span of 3 years before its closure, this  firm had amassed a fabulous sum of 600 crore from the public. However, Surprisingly the case against LiS, investigations and litigation proceedings, all proceeded sluggishly. In a few months of LDF rule, the investigation officer was changed more than once, each time the charge being passed over to lower ranked officers. Even the investigating officer was attacked in the court premises reportedly by the juniors of the advocate of the defendant, when the former was going to the court to hand over the case file, asked by the latter. The advocate of LiS was M. K. Damodaran, who had been the Advocate General during the former LDF ministry, under E.K.Nayanar and thus, obviously a  close associate of CPI(M) leaders and the party. While the case with Damodaran acting as defence counsel was heading towards a standstill, things took a different turn. Not long after LiS had been closed and sealed, another firm by name ‘Jyothis’ came into existence almost  under the  same proprietorship and started operations in the same line as that of LiS. Within the last 4 months, ‘Jyothis’ has accumulated deposits worth Rs 10 crore and has made its mark as having put an insertion on the front cover of the DYFI’s organ in Malayalam.

It is so palpably clear that a firm could not have come to these points without high-level administrative and party support, that the government is compelled to close down ‘Jyothis’ too.

So this was the episode of LiS, the firm from which the CPI(M)’s party daily functionary,  venugopal, took a bribe of only rupees one crore.

Technorati Tags: CPM,Corruption,Lis

Communist Party of Martin

I am not sure how many people have heard about Santiago Martin. He is 55-year-old Coimbatore-based lottery agent earning  more money every day than new economy czar N R Narayana Murthy or old economy titan Dhirubhai Ambani.

Every day, Martin sells -- through his Martin Lottery Agencies -- some 12 million lottery tickets across the country. He is the sole distributor for 28 Sikkim government lottery schemes, 17 Tamil Nadu schemes and six Arunachal Pradesh schemes.

He is the sub-distributor for the Bhutan government lotteries as also for many state governments like Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and West Bengal.

So far, so good. The only worm in the apple is an on-going investigation of Martin and his company by the income tax department.

The charges listed against Martin include:

• His company bribed officials of state governments like Sikkim to ensure that prizes are announced on unsold tickets. Rules stipulate that the unsold tickets should be returned to state government lottery departments. But agencies like the MLA do not return tickets. The result: millions of rupees are won by the agent himself.

• In June 1997, Martin's son Charles won Rs 5 million on the Azad Hind Bumper Lottery run by the Nagaland government. Martin claims his son had bought that particular ticket. But IT officials allege the draw was cleverly fixed with the connivance of officials.

• In April 2000, the 10 fourth prize winning digits of the Sikkim Yellow Weekly and the Bhutan Kalpataru Lottery -- the two most popular lotteries distributed by MLA -- were identical. Officials say it is a clear example of how lottery draws are regularly rigged.

• The home ministry has obtained a number of documents that detail the business links between Martin and Moni Kumar Subha, the Congress member of Parliament from Tezpur in Assam. Subha is Nagaland's lottery king. Officials allege the duo have joined hands to fix all the lotteries in the northeastern states.

Last heard,Santiago Martin was  in the hiding for several months and the police are in search of him nationwide.

With all these allegations, you would expect "self righteous" parties like CPM to keep away from them especially since V S Achuthanandan had waged many a war against the lottery mafia when he was Opposition leader. V.S.Achuthanandan had  alleged collusion between the online lottery tycoons including Santiago Martin during the last UDF ministry, on the ground that apart from doing fraud and snatching off an amount at the rate of Rs 30 crores per day on account of the outside lotteries, they were evading tax to the tune of Rs 9,000 crores in tacit understanding with the UDF government. He promised that once LDF government came to power, this money would be recovered and all the foul plays stopped.  Moreover, LDF State finance minister TM Thomas Isaac disclosed in the Assembly that Rs 8760 crores lottery tax dues were yet to be recovered and 80 percent of that amount was from Santiago Martin!

And what was happening  under LDF ministry? As always  CPM actions didnot match Words. The CPM organ Deshabhimani collected Rs 2 crore worth of bonds from Santiago Martin. The expose was made by the leading Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi with copies of the bond certificates issued in the names of Martin’s two sons. The advocate who used to appear on behalf of the lottery mafia in chains of cases, suddenly became the Government Pleader under LDF and started representing prosecution.

The newspaper’s general manager E PJayarajan(of Pinarayi Vijayan Faction) claimed in a clarification that there was nothing new in newspapers issuing bonds for collecting funds. Like others, Deshabhimani used to collect development funds through deposits and bonds from regular advertisers during funds crunch.

However, in a u-turn next day, Mr Jayarajan swallowed what he said and stated that Deshabhimani had taken no funds as bonds and that “funds used to be collected as advances from advertisers and adjusted later in advertisements’’.

CPM hit back by launching a blistering attack on Mathrubhumi both inside the assembly when the Opposition raised the scandal and also outside. Party MLA P Jayarajan said in the assembly

“Mathrubhumi is a yellow paper since it publishes baseless charges without sense or direction,’’ .

Technorati Tags: Kerala,CPM,Corruption,Hypocrisy

Community policing from March: Kodiyeri

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said that the community policing system, being introduced at 14 centres in the State in the first phase.

The beat officer would be assisted by people selected for community policing, he said adding that additional officers required in a police station to serve as beat officers would be sent from the Armed Reserve Police.

This is a Dangerous move especially coming from a Communist Government. People of Kerala should be very skeptical of this move . There is a very good possibility that this may be move to empower Grassroot level Comrades with Police Powers. If we learn from history, communists are very bad in sharing power.

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Its time Pinarayi Vijayan take some moral lessons from Advani

It is foolhardy to compare a leader of Advani's stature to Kerala CPM Party Secretary. But it is worthwhile how two leaders behaved in similar situations.

In Jain Hawala Case, Advani voluntarily relinquished public office when he was charged about corruption based entirely on a diary entry till he was cleared of the charge by the courts.

Now CBI has decided to interrogate state CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala’s biggest financial scam, the Rs 98 crore SNC Lavalin case. However, in Pinarayi Vijayan case CPM who behaves "holier than thou" has just made him Kerala Party Secretary third time!.

In 1996 Congress-led UDF Government got the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) to sign an agreement with a Canadian power consulting company, SNC Lavalin, for replacing and modernising the obsolete generators in three hydroelectric projects at Pallivasal, Sengulam and Panniar. Later when CPM led LDF came to power Vijayan, as the Power Minister personally lead led the renegotiation of the contract with the Canadian company. The new deal had the state Government agreeing to an additional Rs 149.15 crore for Lavalin to buy the needed equipment from suppliers—Lavalin itself manufactured no such equipment.

In the process, Pinarayi Vijayan ignored recommendations of its own power reforms expert panel headed by senior CPI(M) leader and former CITU national president E Balanandan. The Balanandan panel had underlined that Lavalin’s costs were excessive and suggested far more effective and cheaper alternatives. One was that the public sector BHEL was equipped and could take up the job at far lesser cost. (yes you heard it right CPM who swears by Public sector, Ignored the cheaper BHEL to give order to MNC SNC Lavanil) 

The crux of the scandal is, Vijayan, who renegotiated the arrangement with Lavalin got Lavalin to dole out a Rs 98 crore grant to set up a cancer hospital at Thalassery, home constituency of Chief Minister Nayanar, in return for firming the contract. This, however, was no legally enforceable deal, and the hospital project eventually got barely Rs 9 crore from Lavalin, which went to a private firm in Chennai, given the job of setting up the hospital building. There is still no track of where the remaining money went, if at all it did come, and if it did not, why not.

The ultimate Irony is the  power generation had actually fallen afterwards, compared to pre-project output.

New Wine in Old Bottle

We had great expectations from the current CPM Govt. led by V.S. since he came to power riding on the crest of the wave of promising to hand-cuff the ice-cream parlour and other sex-scandal perpetrators and parade them in public.

However, it seems there is a big gap between promise and Practice. One such example is appointment of T.P. Dasan, former Mayor of Kozhikode, a Pinarayi man as President of the Kerala Sport’s Council. TP Dasan was the 11th accused in the infamous ice-cream parlour sex scandal. CPM suspended Dasan for the sake of records and after a decent interval his suspension was revoked with an obliging media keeping mum on it.

Then came the appointment of A. Akbar as Managing Directorship of Kerala State Financial Enterprises. A. Akbar is a former top official of the Bank of Kabul in Afghanistan. There are allegation of his connections with Taliban and Al-Qaeda during his CEOship with Bank of Kabul.

It seems now we have a DUMMY PM AND A DUMMY CM!!