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
   .
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?  

Read More

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"

Read More

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?

Read More

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.

Read More

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)

Read More