Nangal: Shedding Tears On Its Plight

Situated amidst the animal fossil rich Shivalik hills,the Nangal town bordering Himachal's Una district is in a state of neglect. The town was once pride of India, It is still, primarily, best known for human wonder and Asia oldest Bhakra dam and chemical fertilizer plant.  Interestingly, the power-intensive fertiliser plant was set up at Nangal to use the surplus electricity rom the Bhakra. Its a different matter that this plant later became a liability for power-starved North India.

The town is  spread over both sides of river Sutlej which forms a lake behind the Nangal Dam. The serene surrounding natural environment is big attraction for tourists, But, alas this tourism potntial town is shedding tears on its pllght. Its progress graph is going down gradually and the town cries for immediate govt attention. 

Its almost more than two years that construction and widening of main highway leading to Himachal, J&K and north-west Punjap are underway in  Nangal town. However. not much progress has bee there. The tourists and people going to  and

coming from to Himachal by road have to suffer. It remains water-logged most of the time and situation was grim during ths rainy season. Worst, the narrow single-lane bridge on the Nangal-Una-Dharamsala highway hasn't been even double-laned despite heavy rush of traffic. At many points, highway passing through the town is littered with waste and kabaar. As this road is the shortest road link between Delhi-Chandigarh and Dharamasala, visitors  are disappointed to see the poor condition of the road in Nangal town
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But more than the locals of Nangal town, its people od Himachal and Jammu they get affected by poor road conditions in Punjab, particularly the bordering town. The concerned states take little interest in their development. Nangal is  living example. State govt is building expressways but it can't expand the old bridge in Nangal, simply because, it may not bring votes to the ruling party. Isn't it  unfortunate?  

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Dynastic Rule In Indian Sports

Bad luck for Indian sport and its ever-growing talent ? Despite judiciary best efforts, India sports bodies continue to be ridden by dynastic rule.

In the latest scenario, ex-ICC and BCCI president, N Srinivasan's daughter and Ex-BCCI and HPCC president, Anurag Thakur's brother have been elected unopposed as president of Tamil Nadu And Himachal Cricket bodies respectively. Both were been handed over the reigns of state cricket bodies not because they are leading sport persons but because they happen to be ex-office bearers close relatives.

N Srinivasan's daughter Rupa Gurunath was elected unopposed presidet of Tamil Nadu state cricket body despite officials, coaches and players repeatedly complaining that the it did not comply with the new BCCI rules. However, the elections will be subject to the Supreme Court decision where the matter has been dragged.

And in Himachal, Arun Dhumal, younger brother of Anurag Thakur, union minister of state was elected unopposed as state cricket body head on Friday. Like Rupa Gurunath, he was the only nomination for state president post. Earlier, Anurag Thakur headed the state cricket association for long since 2000 till 2017 when he had to step down as BCCI president. Anurag Thakur was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from May 2016 to February 2017. However, it goes to the credit of Anurag Thakur that he was the first cricketer to have made his first-class debut after taking over as the president of the state cricket association in July 2000.

Honestly speaking, dynasties rule Indian sports since long time. The sons, relatives and friends of ruling politicians and ex-office-bearers continue to hold on to the position. Nepotism is the rule of law. The election of Srinivasan’s daughter and Anurag Thahur's brother as TN and HPCC body president post respectively clear shows that there is no clause in the BCCI constitution which stops relatives from contesting elections or holding positions of power and influence.

Unfortunately, most sport bodies in India are headed by politicians and ex-bureaucrats who have been holding positions for several decades. Interestingly, most of them have no knowledge about the sport. More often, the top of the hierarchy of sport bodies are passed down as inheritance within families.

According to a report 47% presidents of Indian Sports Federations were politicians before Loda Committee recommendations . As a head of a sports body, the gentleman gets so may privileges like foreign trips and unlimited powers. And the only qualification or requirement to head a sports body in India was a stint in any ministry.

Despite more than seven decades of independence India, in may areas, is still living in colonial mindset. Like "phirangis". all His Majesties (law makers and ruling class) are sacrosanct. They are out and out to destroy the spirit of the law and honor it more in breach.

See what happened to the recommendations of Supreme Court appointed the Lodha Committee. Most of its recommendations are being openly flouted if not in letter but in spirit. The committee has barred politicians and ex-office bearers's relatives from contesting elections. But who cares for rules and regulations. They are just arms-twosted. "Long live dynastic rule"

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Indian Banks Haven For Fraudsters

Here is the latest take on how fraudsters flourish and then run away to foreign countries with the connivance of corrupt officials and greedy "netas". Fugitive billionaire Mehul Choksi, who is hiding in West Indies' island Antigua was given clearance by Indian officials to run away from India.

Wanted in Rs. 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank scam, Choksi was granted citizenship in the Caribbean nation in January 2018 on the basis of the 'good character certificate' given by India. Indian officials, Choksy along with Nirav Modi has fled India much before both were booked for fraud in PNB scam. Antigua is among many tax havens countries in the Caribbean. Now Antigua has called Choksi a "crook"

Antiqua Antigua and Barbuda blamed India for misleading his country on a "crook". "Our officials acted based on the information from India and made him a citizen... the Indian officials have to take the responsibility for that situation," said Antigua Prime Minister. Choksi and Nirav Modi are relative.

Modi govt had cancelled the passports of both Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi in February, after investigators uncovered the huge loan fraud at PNB. Nirav Modi was arrested on March 20 in UK and has been in a prison in the UK, one of the largest prisons in Western Europe.

As many as 36 big ‘economic offenders’ including Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have fled from India,according to infi given in Lok Sabha. Together, they are responsible for defrauding the public exchequer of to the extent of more than Rs.40,000 crore.The names of these offenders were revealed by the external affairs minister of state in Lok Sabha on 14 March 2018. The names of these offenders were revealed by the MoS, external affairs minister of state in Lok Sabha on 14 Marc

Most of these billionaire fugitives fled the country in the past few years, the most recent being Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and company who are accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of over Rs.13,700 crores.

Apart from Nirav Modi ad Mehul Choksi,the amounts embezzled by some of those in the red list of fugitives are: Vijay Mallya (Rs.9,000 crore); Jatin Mehta (Rs.7,000 crore); Lalit Modi (Rs.125 crore); Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara and Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara (Rs.5,000 crore); Ashish and Priti Jobanputra (Rs.770 crore); Ritesh Jain (Rs.1,500 crore); Sabhya Seth (Rs.390 crore); and Sanjay Bhandari (Rs.150 crore), according to a report.

To bring these fugitive offenders to home. Modi govt has enacted Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. It is an Act that seeks to confiscate properties and assets of economic offenders that evade prosecution by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts. Economic offences with a value of more than Rs 100 crores, come under the purview of this law. The bill was passed on 12 March 2018. On 25 July 2018, the Parliament passed the bill.

Despite stringent laws, there is no end to economic offences because of widespread "corruption" from top to bottom.. Infact, the situation is so grim that every day there is rumor of closure of one bank after another. Just two days back, RBI had to limit the daily withdrawal to Rs. 1000 in scam hit Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Ltd. Customers of the Bank are just crying and protesting at various branches of the bank. There are many more such banks hit by scams and on the verge of collapse. With scam after scam and closure or merger after merger, people have lost the faith in banking system. Banks have become haven for fraudsters. How long will citizens suffer?

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Thomas Cook Collapse: Big Setback For Tourism Industry

The failure of world’s oldest travel company- Thomas Cook- has left travel industry in shock. There were reports that 186-year-old company was struggling but, its fall would come so soon, nobody has foreseen it. Its sudden collapse is baffling and raises many tough questions including the role of regulators and auditors.

As many as 600,00 holidaymakers were left in lurch in the collapse of this 178-year-old British company. As the Thomas Cook's empire stretches across Europe, tens of thousands of tourists were travelling with its subsidiaries.

Fortunately for holidaymakers, unlike India in Europe, holidaymakers are protected financially from a company's insolvency as well as having the right to repatriation under EU package holiday rules.

Accordingly, Britain Civil Aviation Authority has had the task of bringing back more than 150,000 holidaymakers. It repatriated more than 14,000 passengers on Tuesday and another 16,500 on Wednesday.As per reports the biggest group affected outside the UK is from Germany. A spokeswoman said on Wednesday that 97,000 people were currently travelling with the company.

Thomas Cook Germany employs some 2,000 people and has several national brands, including Neckermann, Öger Tours, Air Marin and Bucher Reisen. A thousand people are employed by the company near Frankfurt in Germany. The German government has already granted a €380m (£335m; $420m) bridging loan to the holiday airline Condor.

Condor is 49% owned by Thomas Cook. Condor on Wednesday filed for insolvency to save the company and to extricate itself from its parent company's "financial tie-ups and related liabilities". British government has already announced a fast-track inquiry into the collapse by the Insolvency Service, which is charged with closing down the 178-year-old holiday business.

Undoubtedly, the failure of Thomas Cook is a big setback to tourism and travel industry. Some countries such as Egypt and Greece have expressed concern that local businesses could be financially impacted by loss of tourism.

Goa's Travel and Tourism Association in India said that the loss of Thomas Cook is a "big, big, blow to the industry"

Spain's Balearic Islands faces losses running into millions of euros. Thomas Cook has a tax office in Palma with hundreds of employees, and also works with hotels in the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands

The Gambia's government has held an emergency meeting expressing concern over Thomas Cook's collapse. It will will hurt tourism, which provides about a third of the country's GDP.

The loss for hoteliers and the economy in Cyprus, is projected at about €50m, according to deputy tourism minister Savvas Perdios. Hotels are owed money for July, August and September, he added.

In Greece, hotels expect losses on payments from recent months. He said they would attempt to recover money from Thomas Cook in court.

Turkey's Hoteliers Federation (TUROFED) has warned that the country could miss out on up to 700,000 tourists a year due to the collapse.

One of the reasons for the collapse of the company has been attributed to exorbitant pay out to its directors. As mucn as £35m were paid out over the past 12 years some directors. The collapse of Thomas Cook is a warning to the tourism and travel industry. There has to some safeguards in India as well, Big companies can't have all the fun.

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Merely Signing MoUs Won't Work

Himachal government headed by Jai Ram Thakur seems to be fast tracking on investment runway. It is rushing to sign as many agreements (MoUs) before November Investment Summit. The other day , state govt signed 93 MoUs to attract more than Rs. 4700 crore investment. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and his team have signed over 400 MoUs till now during this year involving nearly 50,000 crore investment in the state. This could generate direct and indirect employment to more than 5 lakh people. Indeed, a massive initiative.

Not only present dispensation, earlier governments had made some efforts to map out the state on industrialization . And going by the initiatives as made from time to time, by now the entire Himachal should have been a leading manufacturing hub, However, harsh reality is that except BBN (Baddi-, Barotiwala and Nalagarh), there is a hardly any sustained industrialized area. Even Mehatpur. the bordering Punjab hasn't come up as good as Ludhiana or Jalandhar.

On the contrary, the slew of incentives including concessional industrial plots, capital and transport subsidies have gone down the drain and grossly misused. Industrial units came and subsequently disappeared as long capital subsidy was there. The concessional plots were usurped by political leaders, therir kins and babus. More than 80 percent of industrial plots in Parwanoo and BBN were owned by political leaders, babus and their clans. most of them were later sold at hefty premium. Its a big scam and loot of state precious resources. But as leaders of all hue and cry distributed the loot among-st themselves, there was hardly any voice against this loot. And most of those units who were left behind ran in losses. The end result was that state ended up as a cropper as far as industrialist was concerned. Except for few cement factories and pharma units, no other manufacturing segment could survive. Even the corrugated carton manufacturing industries run in losses.

The loot still continues. The state govt decided to tap its cast hydro-power potential by involving private equity participation. And micro and small hydro power projects were offered for private sector. Here also, most of these projects were distributed ( not allotted) to party workers, kith and kin of state political leaders, rather than allotted on commercial viability. And here also, end result was that most of micro and small hydro power units are being resold or running in losses. Almost. each sector has its own story mired in favoritism.

As a matter of fact, industrialization can only sustain on comparative advantages and commercial viability of the projects. Sadly, commercial viability is an anathema in the contemporary highly politicized system. Every decision including economical and financial is seen through political spectacles. I am still confused how can investment decision be made on spots without working out the viability. If are made on flight mode, such investment decisions are either hollow or just showpieces. Remember how in past ambitious projects like Ford Ski Village in Manali had to be abandoned. There were tall claims over rope way and bi housing projects but none of them have come up as yet.

Employment generation, undoubtedly. should be the foremost task in Himachal for any govt. With more and more universities, medical, dental and engineering colleges and other technical institutions, unemployed youths are adding to the queues. We must remember that youthful energies if not channelized into productive purposes, become destructive. Such a situation could lead to social and political strife. Jai Ram Thakur is doing a good job by focusing on investment and employment generation. But , it has to be more pragmatic than rhetoric.

(Chander Sharma)

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Money Grows On A Tree In India

There is an old saying, " Money Doesn't grow on a tree" (paise ped par nahin ugate). But in highly materialistic society, This adage has been re-shaped as " Money Grows on a tree in India". The hard-working apple growers of Himahal Pradesh have shown to the world how money can be grown on trees. The hilly terrain, once highly degraded with steep sloppy edges is now the model for other tough geographical areas.

From just 40 hectares in 1950-51, apple is now grown on nearly 49 per cent of the total area . Apple cultivation supports more than 1.7 lakh families in the state. Addingly, Rs.3,500-crore apple economy provides gainful employment to transporters, carton manufacturers, controlled atmosphere store/cold chain owners, wholesale fruit dealers, fruit processing unit owners etc. from other states as well. Isn't is like money growing on trees.

But, money grown on a tree, not necessarily. sustains for long , Down the memory lanes. remember the plight of gullible investors who were cheated in the name of "Collective Investment Schemes" in eighties and nineties, when plethora of private companies sold " money grows on trees' dreams to gullible investors. Mushrooming of such companies were so fast that Mani Majra market on Shimla-Chandigarh highway in Chandigarh was dotted with such companies and the area was called " green street" (corollary to Dalal street) .

For these companies catch was simple. Indian middle income classes were flush with fund. Bank interests were low but return on fixed assets were high. So, it was a time when investors could be lured to high return. Then came a

hosts of non-banking finance companies and fraudsters who were out to cheat investors by offering attractive returns sometime as high as 16 per cent. As the RBI key rates were much lower and there was hardly any regulatory system in place. The large loopholes in the system provided the "greedy bizmen" the green pastures to fleece the investors.

I had worked for the daily newspaper of Kuber group, once the fast growing Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) but it collapsed overnight after regulators put their foot down. While working with Kuber group, I often wondered how this company could afford to earn nearly 40 piase on a rupee it collected from investors. The company was offering 16 percent return and nearlt 24 percent were the cost of find collections including commission to agents and administrative expenses I came to know that companies were putting its investment in speculative business that was totally banned by the regulator. All, other companies were doing the same trick. Sooner than later, such companies had to be shut down. It came as soon as strict regulations were in place but by that time hundreds of thousand of investors were taken for a ride by these companies.

One wonders despite strict enforcement of regulations, how Pearl Green Forest Ltd was allowed to flourish and cheat the investors after the closure of Golden Forest (GFIL). K. Syal of GFIL and Nirmal Singh Bhangoo heading Pearls Group empire, had put their heads together in the early 1980s chiseling the “land for investment” business for themselves. Both had a meteoric rise rise. Syal was an assistant manager in Chandigarh’s tourism department and Bhangoo was struggling with his dairy farm in the village. Both were working for Peerless, a general finance company, as part time agents then.

Sebi had set its eyes on GFIL and PGF in 1997 insisting on both the companies to follow its guidelines and declare themselves as Collective Investment Schemes. Both companies resisted the move and took the matter to courts to delay the enforcement of Sebi guidelines. However, despite Sebi’s clampdown, Bhangoo continued to expand his empire and by the time he was checked, he had swindled more than 50,000 crore from more than 5.5 crore investors. It was a bigger scam than Golden forests.

A rough count says that more than 30 crore of investors have been cheated by NBFCs (including Sahara India) and Chit Fund companies and by ponzi schemes in India and roughly 3 lakh crore of money has been drained out, So, "money certainly grows on tree in India". Its a different matter that the tree growing ill-legal money withers sooner than later.

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SYL Project : Literally Dead

The Supreme Court latest directions is likely to put Capt. Amarinder Singh govt. in tight spot. The top court has given four more months to Punjab, Haryana, and the union govt to find an amicable solution to break the deadlock over the SYL Canal. But there is another harsh reality.

The SYL is highly emotive issues between Punjab and Haryana. The people of Punjab and their political leaders, whether Congress, Akalis, APP or BJP, are not ready to give a drop of water to their brethren in Haryana.

Punjab. for all intent and purpose, has closed the project. It has even earthed the dug portion of SYL in its territory and returned the land to the farmers. The land in question is now being cultivated. Even if top court directs the Punjab govt to acquire the land in question, farmers will move the court. In that even. the matter could be delayed further.

To recall the timeline, In 2016, the SAD-BJP coalition govt had de-notified 5,376 acres of land acquired from 4,980 farmers and returned it to them. Not only this, it returned Haryana share of the project also. Revenue officials were asked to complete all formalities including mutation for the transfer of land to the farmers. Akali leaders and their supporters reached the canal site with JCB and levelled the large part of the canal, Even Congress and other political parties clandestinely supported the move. All this was done to circumvent the court directions, Supreme Court had to intervene after Haryana govt knocked its door. It cracked the whip directing the Punjab government to maintain status quo on land for the canal .

It is the 1981 water-sharing agreement. for effective allocation of river water that has created bad blood between people of two neighboring state. SYL Canal was carved out and two states were required to construct their portions within their territories.While Haryana constructed its portion of SYL canal, Punjab stopped the work, leading to multiple cases.

In 2004, the Congress government in Punjab terminated the 1981 agreement and all other pacts relating to sharing waters of the Ravi and Beas rivers. This was done after the top court In 2002 ordered Punjab to honor its commitments on water sharing. Punjab filed an suit that was rejected in 2004 by the Supreme Court which asked the Centre to take over the remaining infrastructure work of the SYL canal project.

In November 2016, the top court declared the law passed by the Punjab Assembly in 2004 terminating the SYL canal water-sharing agreement unconstitutional. But despite this, Punjab returned land—on which canal was to be constructed—to the landowners in 2017.

Punjab stand is that the SYL share of water to Haryana was based on 1920 data and now the situation has radically changed. "Punjab does not have a drop of water to spare and there is no question of our accepting or implementing any decision which deprives us of our fundamental right under the riparian principle," the then Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had said. Haryana claims to be a water-deficit state and has said that it has been deprived of more than half of its legitimate share of 3.50 MAF in surplus Ravi-Beas water,

If we look at the past events and rigid stand of the Punjab govt, there is hardly any hope of an amicable solution. The project is, literally, dead for all intent and purposes. All Haryana could get out of this sensitive issue is some mileage in assembly elections due later this year.

(Chander Sharma)

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Want To Be Super Rich, Join Politics

Long back in early seventies, a group of students of the newly set-up Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) gathered to discuss the preferred career after finishing the post-graduation.

The PG degree (M.Phil), was then seen a better qualification, at least, for teaching. Most of of us, surely, wanted to bid for All India Civil Services (IAS,IFS,IPS and so on). None of us except two wanted to join politics. I was the lone person to prefer journalism, least of lucrative job. . Politics, then, was the least preferred. I hated politics because I saw my father sufferings immensely for real "jan seva", honesty, straight forwardness and being an Gandhian. In India, such stupid things have no value.

Among my batch mates and contemporary at HPU were Anand Sharma, Suresh Bhardwaj, Narendera Bragta, Ram Lal Thakur, K.K. Kaushal. Of all of us, Anand Sharma was most aggressive and vocal. But then, he was ABVP man and switched over to Congress much later. He became first NSUI president from the state. It goes to his credit , he hand many firsts. Another leader Virender Kashyap in science stream was not as active in politics but later after joining teaching he became active in union activities. He left the teaching to fight elections. And among my contemporary was also Mohar Singh, who later joined Marxist party and became its architect. Among us, he was simplest of all. Remained wedded to Marxism, didn't marry and left no assets.

Honestly speaking, we didn't see any bright future to our contemporary with political affiliation. But, all of then have done extremely better and are super rich with security future. And me, the poorest of all with no social security and not even a house except ancestral property. My fault was that even after passing the M.Phil in Economics first among my batch mates in 1975, I chose to become journalist.

The purpose of recalling these events to tell my friends how rich are our leaders, the representative of relatively poor India. A career in politics can ensure you riches without toiling.

Have a look at the richness of my contemporary varsity fellows:

Anand Sharma. Declared Income, Rs 4 crore in 2010. Latest figure not availabl but it exceeds Rs. 10 crore. Of all through his career, he once fought assembly election from Shimla but lost. Since then, he has been getting elected to Rajya Sabha. After retirement, he will get more than 2 lakh as pension.

Virendera Kashyap: Declared 28 lakh in 2009 and in 2014 he declared assets worth 60 lakh. But, actually. its more than that.

Ram La Thakur: Former minister and MLA: Declared assets more than Rs. 2 crore but actually its more than that.

Suresh Bhardwaj: A son of a revenue official. During varsity time as hard pressed as we were.No official record available but his assets should be over 1 crore.

Narendra Bragta. He was wealthiest of all of us and hosted lavish party whenever he won student elections. He grows apple and get handsome income. So, it is not surprising his assets will run into crores.

K.K Kaushal: Ex .M.L.A from Bilaspur. He is a staunch CPI leader and fought elections against Cong leader Ram Lal Thakur. Details of his assets are not available but he is not more rich than his contemporary Ram Lal Thakur.

Mohar Singh Thakur: Among us, he was simplest of all, was Narender Bragta batch mate in Political Science stream. Later was groomed as Marxist in JNU and remained as Marxist all through his life. Got anything except sufferings. His greatest quality was, his readiness to learn.

Many students leaders coming out of the HP university are active on politics and leading the state. BJP working president , JP Nadda and chief minister, Jai Ram Thakur are among them. And all of them are now crorepati.

To drive point home is that the politics in contemporary India is much more lucrative than any other profession, especially after pension benefit as been extended to ex-MP and MLAs.

Look at the salary and perks MPs: Apart from getting a monthly salary, they get fringe benefits including quarterly laundry service worth Rs 75,000.

Practically, our MPs literally spend nothing. They are entitled to receive a salary of Rs. 50,000/- per month during the whole term of office.An MP is entitled to a daily allowance of Rs 2000 per day if he or she signs the Parliament register everyday.

A total of Rs 45,000 is entitled to each MP for office expenses. Out of these, Rs 15,000 is for meeting expenses on stationery items and postage, and Rs 30,000 is paid by the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

A member is entitled to travel allowances if he/she is travelling for official purposes such as to attend a Parliament session or to attend any meeting of Parliamentary committee or on a duty related to his office.

Air travel: MPs pay one and one-fourth of the airfare. Every member can avail of 34 single air trips during a year. The spouse/companion can travel alone eight times in a year to meet the member, which comes under the total of 34 journeys.

By Rail: MPs get one free non-transferable First class AC or Executive class of any train and one First class and one Second class fare.

Road travel: MPs are entitled to Rs 16 per km travelled.

Under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), each member can recommend to the concerned District Authority, developmental works to the tune of Rs 5 crore per annum to be taken up within the constituency.

A former MP is entitled to a minimum pension of 20,000/- per month and an additional pension of 1500/- per month for every year served as member of either House for a period exceeding five years.Family pension to spouse or dependent of a deceased member/ex-MP equivalent to 50% of the pension otherwise admissible to such deceased member/Ex-MP. An ex-Member can obtain Ex-MP Spouse Identity Card valid for PHA and PLB.

All these ft monetary benefits at the cost of hundreds of thousands of unemployed youth, toiling farmers and common man.

No other service or profession in India extends such lucrative salary packages and pension. Our lawmakers have taken care of themselves fully and leaves no available opportunity to hike their salary and benefits. HP has done just that the other day. Long live . demo(n)cracy and netas.

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