[Reader-list] Reg: The truth about Digvijay Singh (and the Madhya Pradesh BJP government also)

[Lalit Ambardar]

Diggi baba is a multi 'tasking'/ 'talking' wizard.....RgdsLA---------------------------------------------------------------

> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2011 20:29:10 +0530
> From: rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> Subject: [Reader-list] Reg: The truth about Digvijay Singh (and the Madhya Pradesh BJP government also)
> 
> Hi
> 
> Please do read this article. This is a good description of what Mr. Digvijay
> Singh (along with BJP government in Madhya Pradesh) have been doing in
> Madhya Pradesh itself to ruin it. It can be a good understanding of what Mr.
> Singh actually has stood for, since the beginning itself when he was the
> Chief Minister.
> 
> Link: http://www.indiatogether.org/2011/jun/gov-maheshwar.htm
> 
> Article: HYDEL AT ANY COST
> *What Digvijay Singh forgot to tell the Prime Minister *
> Beneath Jairam Ramesh's recent turnaround on a 400 MW MP hydel project, was
> a series of interventions by Digivijay Singh with Prime Minister Manmohan
> Singh.Himanshu Upadhyaya digs deeper.
> 
> *6 June 2011* - On March 16th this year, Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister
> of Environment and Forests released a report on water conflicts and
> underlined three incidents in his speech. One of the three confict
> situations was a controversial hydropower dam whose construction was stayed
> when his ministry issued stop work orders last year.
> 
> The minister reiterated that he was compelled to stay the construction since
> the pari passu rehabilitation, which was one of the conditions attached to
> clearance, had not taken place and construction outpaced rehabilitation by
> leaps and bounds.
> 
> Less than two months later, he reversed his earlier decision by lifting the
> stop work order. He posted the decision bearing his signature promptly on
> the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF)
> website<http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/maheshwar.pdf>).
> It mentioned a series of review meetings convened by Prime Minister's office
> and the correspondence from the ex-chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay
> Singh.
> 
> What happened?
> 
> *Unconstitutional mediation*
> 
> Welcome to the wonderland Manmohan Singh, the PM who is allowing the PMO to
> become an office of mediation that entertains the grievances of corporate
> which cite personal hurt more than any legally and constitutionally valid
> arguments.
> 
> In early nineties, quizmasters often asked students to 'name the hydropower
> project which was scrapped when Prime Minister of India decided that the
> biodiversity rich rainforests of Kerala cannot be sacrificed at the altar of
> development'. In doing so they hoped that the environmental consciousness of
> a Prime Minister would register in young minds and stay there for a long
> time to come.
> 
> However, quizmasters today have more reasons to ask this: name the unviable
> hydropower project which was allowed to go on despite complete failure of
> rehabilitation and resettlement and a maze of financial irregularities,
> because the Prime Minister decided to play a role of an office of mediation.
> 
> Answer: The 400 MW Maheshwar Hydro-electric Project in Madhya Pradesh.
> Consider the plain facts.
> 
> By the end of 2009, the S Kumars' company Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power
> Corporation Limited (SMHPCL) which owns the private sector Maheshwar Project
> in the Narmada valley had completed over 80% of the project work. However,
> not even 3% of the affected people had been rehabilitated and resettled by
> that date. No one had been provided agricultural land at all. The oustees
> were repeatedly questioning the governments on the continuing construction
> of the dam without rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R). Yet, there was a
> total silence about violations.
> 
> In October 2009, Jairam Ramesh wrote a letter to the Chief Minister, Madhya
> Pradesh expressing his grave apprehension that oustees of the Maheshwar
> project would be left in the lurch without R&R. In November 2009, the Madhya
> Pradesh CM replied confirming that not more than 3% of the R&R measures had
> been completed. In this light, on the 17th February 2010, the MOEF issued a
> show cause notice under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act to the
> company. After receiving their reply, on 23rd April 2010, the MoEF issued a
> direction to stop the ongoing construction.
> 
> As soon as the process for enforcing rules regarding protection of the
> oustees began, political lobbyists became busy on behalf of the company. In
> March 2010, Congress leader Digvijay Singh met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
> and briefed him about the project. He wrote to the PM to �kindly intervene
> in the matter and prevail upon the Environment Ministry to withdraw their
> order of work suspension order, and allow the project to be completed at the
> earliest.�
> 
> On December 9th 2010, the S Kumars represented by their head Mukul Kasliwal
> had written an urgent letter to Digvijay Singh. Digvijay Singh readily wrote
> a letter on the lines suggested by Kasliwal to the PM within just four days.
> Singh also reminded the PM in his letter that the project had been
> re-started in 2005 and the public financing of the project had been achieved
> in 2007, on the intervention of the PM.
> 
> It must also be remembered that exactly a year before this, Shivraj Singh
> Chauhan had written to Jairam Ramesh promising: �In any case submergence
> would not take place and gates would not be lowered without prior consent of
> MoEF�.
> 
> *What the Prime Minister 'did not know'*
> 
> However, what Digvijay forgot to tell the Prime Minister is that it was
> during his regime as Madhya Pradesh CM, that the Madhya Pradesh State
> Industrial Development Corporation (MPSIDC) gave Rs.44.75 crores to the S
> Kumars companies, in excess of the legally allowable limit of Rs.3 crores,
> and without proper securities. However, after having obtained the loan, the
> S Kumars defaulted on the repayment, or even to reply to the notices of the
> MPSIDC, despite being in profits.
> 
> Cases were filed by the Economic Offences Wing of the State government
> against Mukul Kasliwal, under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and
> fraud under Sections 420, 467, 120B of the IPC. The Comptroller and Auditor
> General severely censured this in 1999 report. When the S Kumars refused to
> pay back, in September 2001, the MPSIDC declared the S Kumars company -
> Induj Enertech alias Entegra as a willful defaulter, and took over the
> Maheshwar dam site lands and properties belonging to the S Kumars, thus
> bringing the work on the project to a complete halt for five years from 2001
> up to November 2005.
> 
> In July 2004, in order to take back their dam properties, the S Kumars
> agreed to a settlement with the MPSIDC. However, a few months and a few
> payments later, they reneged on the settlement. Again, in its 2005 report,
> the CAG pointed out that the MPSIDC sacrificed Rs.26 crores of public money
> in making the settlement with the S Kumars, and withdrew their revenue
> recovery proceedings. However, after the obtaining the settlement, the S
> Kumars did not honor it.
> 
> *Digvijay Singh's letter to the Prime Minister dated May 03, 2010* (accessed
> from the PMO under RTI by the Narmada Bachao Andolan)
> 
> "Prior to meeting with you in March, I had been speaking to Shri Jairam
> Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests. I first spoke to him
> over the phone on the late evening on 16th February 2010, when I learnt that
> he is issuing a show cause notice for stopping the work. Despite assuring me
> that he will not do such a thing, he went ahead and issued a notice on 17th
> February 2010. The notice was replied to by the Project Company on 9th April
> 2010 and the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh took a meeting in Bhopal on
> 20th April 2010 to expedite the R&R works.
> 
> As this had been brought to my knowledge, I mentioned this to Shri Jairam
> Ramesh on Thursday, 22nd April 2010 at 10.30 am when he came to see me at
> the AICC office. At that time he assured me that he would call all the
> parties concerned for a meeting on Wednesday, 28th April 2010 to resolve the
> matter. Surprisingly and contrary to the same, he issued a direction on the
> very next day, i.e. Friday 23rd April, 2010 evening to suspend the work
> immediately and circulated it to the media through the NBA activists� I
> would have spoken to Shri Jairam Ramesh and requested reversal of the order
> but he is neither returning my calls nor answering my e-mails."
> 
> It was despite this track record, that in 2005, the public sector Power
> Finance Corporation was pressured to inject public funds into the project.
> That S Kumars was MPSIDC's single largest defaulter did not matter. The
> state government agreed to give a counter-guarantee to a guarantee to be
> issued by the Power Finance Corporation subject to the condition that the S
> Kumar�s would enter into a one-time settlement of its outstanding dues
> towards the MPSIDC.
> 
> On 16th September 2005, the S Kumars signed a settlement with the MPSIDC by
> issuing post dated cheques amounting to Rs.55 crores, collected the
> settlement certificate from the MPSIDC, and the counter-guarantee from the
> GoMP. However, when the cheques were presented at the bank by the MPSIDC,
> they bounced and the bank wrote back saying that the company�s account had
> been closed. The MPSIDC has filed 20 cases against the bouncing of cheques,
> under Section 420, as well as under Sections 138 and 141 of the Negotiable
> Instruments Act. A few weeks back Madhya Pradesh assembly saw uproar when
> Congress MLAs asked questions on the MPSIDC scam and the state government�s
> decision to grant counter guarantee to the Maheshwar Project.
> 
> What Digvijay Singh also forgot to tell the Prime Minister was that the
> Comptroller and Auditor General of India CAG had already indicted the PFC
> for having irregularly disbursed Rs.99.32 crores to the Maheshwar Project
> despite the non-fulfillment of pre-disbursement conditions. Yet, it is the
> PFC once again, which was bled, even after 2005, in order to benefit the S
> Kumars, despite the fact that it was the PFC�s largest defaulter.
> 
> What Digvijay Singh also forgot to tell the Prime Minister was that at the
> same time the public financial institutions had placed an embargo on public
> lending to the Maheshwar project because the S.Kumars had diverted Rs.106.4
> crores of project funds to its group companies and other persons who had no
> contracts for the project. In March 2000, the lead institution for Maheshwar
> Project � the IFCI stipulated that no further monies would be disbursed to
> the Maheshwar project until the entire Rs.106.4 crores was brought back with
> interest.
> 
> Placing of public funds from public financial institutions into this project
> whose promoters are willful defaulters, and have charges of fraud, cheating
> and other serious financial charges against them is prohibited by the RBI.
> 
> There's more. The project lands and properties purchased by the S Kumars
> from the state government and its agencies in 1992, are yet to be paid for.
> And despite repeated censure by the CAG, in 2007, without any payment, the
> state government mutated the dam site lands in the name of the S Kumars,
> which were then mortgaged by the S Kumars to third parties. In the backdrop
> admitted failture to resettle project oustees and massive financial
> irregularities, a stop order issued by the environment minister should have
> stayed on. Instead, "a series of review meetings convened by Prime
> Minister's office" ended it. *⊕*
> 
> *Himanshu Upadhyaya*
> <h_upadhyaya at hotmail.com,%20editors at indiatogether.org?subject=Feedback:%20What%20Digvijay%20Singh%20forgot%20to%20tell%20the%20Prime%20Minister>
> 6 Jun 2011
> 
> *Himanshu Upadhyaya is an independent researcher working on Public Finance
> and Accountability issues.*
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Rakesh Krishnamoorthy Iyer
> MM06B019
> Final Year, Dual Degree Student
> Dept. of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
> IIT Madras, Chennai - 600036
> Phone no: +91-9444073884
> E-mail ID: rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com
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