Now, an Income Tax Officer is arrested in Thane for taking bribe .
The following news item gives the facts.
At one time, lady government officers were expected to be honest. But times have changed.
Undisputably, there cannot be any gender discrimination. It is therefore only natural that the malaise has spilled over to the fair sex.

News Item

Woman I-T officer caught accepting Rs 1.5 lakh bribe

Nitin Yeshwantrao, TNN Nov 2, 2012, 02.44AM IST

THANE: A woman income tax (I-T) officer was remanded in police custody till Saturday after being caught red-handed by CBI sleuths accepting a bribe from a Thane builder. Accused Madhavi Chavan was picked up from the Wagle Estate I-T office late on Wednesday after she accepted Rs 1.5 lakh from Sandeep Salvi, a partner in a construction firm which has projects in Chiplun and Roha in the Konkan region.

Salvi and his associate Rajabhau Patkar had complained to the anti-corruption wing of the CBI in Mumbai about the alleged harassment and cash demand made by Chavan. They claimed Chavan had contacted them in September and said her superiors had issued orders for scrutiny of their tax papers. Patkar claimed Chavan asked them to pay Rs 10 lakh to cancel the scrutiny orders.

How to Fight Corruption

Corruption is big news today. A lot is being written and said about corruption.

Why is Bribery and Corruption Flourishing in India

Bribery and corruption (including similar activities in the private sector) are flourishing in India because the public is not only tolerating, but also encouraging, such activities.
People readily pay bribes to get work done….even if the work is totally illegal.
Parents seek prospective candidates for marriage with their children with an eye on the money they will make in future.
Worse, there is no stigma attached to illegal earnings.

How do you fight Bribery and Corruption

We already have several laws to fight all these……
We have a judiciary any democratic country can be proud of.
I personally believe that a new Lok Pal will only add one more layer of bureaucracy, a lot of expenditure, which we can hardly afford, and consequential corruption.

So how do we tackle the bribery and corruption?

• First…don’t pay bribe.
• Secondly, in case of government officials or public servants, file a complaint with the concerned Anti Corruption Department, and get the culprit arrested or caught red handed, while taking bribe.

Devrao Bawane, Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax Jailed

For those who disbelieve in the efficacy of the existing laws, I am attached a news paper cutting of today to show how effective our laws are.

Devrao Bawane, Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax and his inspector have been sentenced  to 5 years rigorous imprisonment for taking bribe of Rs. 1 lakh in 2009.
And what has not been mentioned is that they will also lose their retirement benefits.

Anjali Damania….. a little bit of unanswered questions from people like me

I heard Anjali Damania, the activist, and a number of panelists, on TV yesterday. They left me in a dizzy.

The TV show has left me with some unanswered questions. Will someone answer them?
Anjali was frank enough to say that the she was not a doctor, but a pathologist…but her real occupation is not really relevant for the present.

Anjali – the Agriculturist

Anjali claimed she was an agriculturist because her grandfather was a farmer. Unfortunately, the law does not say so.
My grandfather may not have been an agriculturist, but his father, or grandfather, or someone higher up in the hierarchy, were probably agriculturists.
But that does not make me an agriculturist in Maharashtra.

She said something about purchasing agricultural land under some scheme for horticulturists. But no one pursued the matter, and she did not elaborate.

Everyone knows how difficult it is to purchase agricultural land in Maharashtra.
Even Amitabh Bachchan faced this problem.

Anjali mentioned owning 59 acres of agricultural land. You can see Anish & Anjali Damania’s Farm at Kashele, Karjat at the following site.
http://wikimapia.org/17132481/Anish-Anjali-Damania-s-Farm-at-Kashele-Karjat

I suppose this is her land…Please correct me if I am wrong. 

She further claimed she had purchased seven acres of agricultural land in 2007, got the land converted into non agricultural use and sold it in 2011 to private individuals.

According to media reports, Anjali used the land for a project for private villas created by a company in which she was a director; and till August 2011, out of the 39 plots created, 37 were sold.

Two farmers from whom Anjali purchased the land have now claimed that she had purchased the agricultural land claiming she would use them for agriculture.

Anjali has reportedly said, “I can produce all the required papers to prove that everything was done legally. If someone thinks this is wrong, the problem then actually lies with the government’s policy in changing the land-use from agricultural to non-agricultural. I am being targeted now because I raised my voice against a corrupt system.”

What is expected from Anjali

Of course, Anjali has done nothing wrong. She did what any intelligent person would or should do. But for the fact, the movement she is spear heading is demanding transparency.  The reason is that transparency alone leads to honesty.
In her own case,

• Anjali has not published her assets.
• Anjali has not explained how she became an agriculturist.
•  Anjali did not answer questions about the selling price of her land.
• Anjali has not disclosed her interest in different companies.

Anjali simply said that she had filed her income tax returns and was ready to face any enquiry and all the usual rubbish.

The facts clearly show that what she was doing was dabbling with real estate business. But all rich and powerful people in Maharashtra and other places make money through real estate business.

Transparency

The leaders of such movements should not only be clean, they should be a shade higher in terms of transparency.
But in her own case, Anjali has forgotten all about transparency. Damania (left) with Kejriwal during the recent press conference held in Delhi. PTI

State Government’s stand and the BJP

The state government has said that they found that Anjali and her partners who held the land were not farmers by livelihood and therefore confiscated the land.

The BJP has also released a letter which Damania wrote to authorities in 2011 asking them to consider the change in the alignment of a dam that would submerge her property and requested that the alignment of the Kondhane dam be shifted so that her property was not submerged due to it.

Pointing out that her entire life savings were used for the land, Anjali had written that if the dam were to be shifted by 700 metres only, tribals would be hit by the project and they would be adequately compensated, unlike her. So much for the good of the common man.

My advice to Anjali and others

Anjali, and all persons im her situation, should put list of assets, all the papers, documents and full details of controversial issues in the public domain…for any and every one to see and scrutinise.
If you cannot do so, simply quit the movement.

Ashok Khemka IAS……..Right or Wrong

Yesterday evening, I watched Ashok Khemka live on TV.
I listened to the Panel Speakers, some eloquent, others less so.
So many people supported him. There was an avalanche of congratulatory sms and email messages.
The TV and the media turned him into a hero…..or did they?

He has acquired several other degrees, including a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
In the absence of more details, I can only presume that he acquired these degrees during his service period..

He has been repeatedly transferred by various state governments  in Haryana –  to be precise….. 43 times in the last 19 years.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/vadra-land-deal-why-transfers-dont-shake-khemka/1/225114.html

3.  However, before leaving office on October 15, 2012 Ashok Khemka cancelled the mutation of the 3.531 acre plot of land in Manesar-Shikohpur citing irregularities in the transfer of land by Vadra’s Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited to the real estate giant. He found that the land deal had signatures by an unauthorised Haryana official.

4. I am surprised that not a single panelist could fault this apparently illegal action…..
Honesty is only one of the criteria of a good governance…..following the law and implementing them are equally important.
No show cause appears to have been issued to the concerned parties.  The reason is Ashok Khemka simply did not have the time. Obviously, such frenzied action is wrong in law.

5.  Ashok Khemka was awarded ‘S R Jindal Prize – 2011’ prize which included cash of Rs. 10 Lakhs for ‘Crusade against Corruption’ along with Shri Sanjiv Chaturvedi for his fearless efforts in exposing corruption in high places. There are specific circulars prohibiting the acceptance of such rewards by bureaucrats.

6. Finally, the bureaucracy is expected to work in an anonymous manner. They can not vent their grievances in public, the way Ashok Khemka is doing. This way,  he lays himself open to various charges under the conduct rules.

And all this makes him highly vulnerable to victimisation……….

November 8, 2011 – I came across the above headlines in the Mumbai Mirror today. After having served the Government of India for four decades, and observing how it, or rather those who subvert the entire system function, I was not surprised.

A high ranking officer, allegedly caught taking a bribe of Rs. 2 crores is back in his post after a 18 month deemed suspension. What is surprising is why and how ?

The same tabloid contains a news item that a bus conductor sacked for Rs. 119 gets his job back after 11 years. The charge against him was there was shortage of Rs. 119 in his cash. 

 The Facts

Back to our hero, Mahendra Singh Bali (59), a 1978-batch Indian Postal Service officer, then Chief Postmaster General of Maharashtra, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 25, 2010. for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 2 crores from a builder.

The CBI  took the action on the basis of complaint by Rita Shah, a former Mira-Bhayander corporator. According to the complaint, Bali had asked for the bribe to issue a No Objection Certificate for developing a 2,000-sq-mt plot in Mira Road, part of which was reserved for a post office.

According to reports, after Bali’s arrest last year, the CBI carried out searches of his office and residence in south Mumbai,  and found 34 lakh in Indian rupees, and foreign currency – $10,722, £3,050, 3,470 Euro – from four briefcases.
The CBI also seized laptops, and 45 bottles of imported liquor.

Further enquiries revealed that Bali owned several properties in Faridabad, Panchkula, Dwarka, Bhopal and Gurgaon. The CBI found that he had 22 bank accounts with a total balance of Rs 26 lakhs. The collective value of the properties is still to be evaluated.

Central Administrative Tribunal

Bali challenged his suspension before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Mumbai which ordered his reinstatement last week. On November 4, 2011, Bali  was reinstated as the Chief Postmaster General of West Bengal.

The reinstatement was ordered on a technical ground  –  violation of the central civil service rules. “This was a case of deemed suspension. In such cases, the suspension has to be reviewed in 90 days, and as this was not done, the initial order was rendered invalid before the law,”

The issue is not about Bali. Even though Bali is reinstated, proceedings and prosecution will continue.

What should be done

It is for the government, for the CBI and the CVC to find out who are the officers who did not follow the central civil service rules, who did not review the suspension in accordance with the law, and allowed the central administrative tribunal to pass the order it did.

Some one should find this out and take action against the concerned officers.
Otherwise, this sort of aberrations will continue….the guilty will continue to be back in their posts……….

Any one has any better suggestions ?

November 9, 2011

Someone in Delhi has read the news and the result….
Bali has again been suspended yesterday.

I belong to the 1968 batch of Indian Revenue Service, senior to her in age and experience by several years.
A petty clerk, or for that matter, any other employee, both in the private and government sector, is dismissed from service for a single instance of similar over (or false) billing. Here we have a series of systematic false billings.

For all I know, the allegations may not be correct. I would be extremely happy if they are proved to be false.
Or they may be partly distorted.
But Kiran Bedi owes it to everyone to disclose the facts and come out clean. It is not sufficient for her and her friends to say, “ let the authorities make any enquiry against her and hang her  if she is guilty “.

Coming to the allegations.
What are the allegations? What are the facts? And why Kiran Bedi should disclose details of the concerned expenses?

It is a fundamental expectation that those who fight for transparency should themselves be transparent. Otherwise, they lose the moral authority to be leaders. The public will discard them like rotten maggots.

For the moment, the allegations may not prove corruption, but they certainly demand and merit transparency. Kiran Bedi should make public the relevant facts.

My own conclusions (which of course, may not be fully or even partly incorrect) are as follows:

1.      Kiran Bedi did ask for, and received, reimbursement of her inflated air travel fares, consistently and systematically, over several years. These were probably made on the basis of estimates (or proforma invoices) conveniently supplied by Anil Bal, her travel agent and co-trustee.

2.    Later, Kiran Bedi made payments for her travel expenses to Anil Bal, her travel agent and co-trustee on the basis of actuals, which of course are far less.

3.    Kiran Bedi claims that all the amounts she received, including some from other activities, like books, etc. went to the trust.

4.     The question arises whether or not Kiran Bedi attended the meetings and conferences in her personal capacity. If she did, then the entire excess of receipts less actual expenses would constitute her personal income. Of course, she can make donations to NGOs and claim exemption as per law. But all the receipts and expenses must be shown in her personal income tax returns.

5.     On the other hand, if she attended the meetings, etc. on behalf of her NGO, were the activities justified by the objects of the NGO.

6.    In any event, claiming air fare on the basis of false bills, I repeat false bills, is a serious crime.  The motives are not relevant. Robbing the rich to help the poor would constitute the same serious offence. The law is as simple as this.

7.    Kiran Bedi says enquire and hang me if I am guilty. Great words !  Who will file a complaint against you and invite problems?  Every prudent person will just keep mum.  And even if you are guilty, you cannot be hanged. There is no such penalty for such financial crimes. And everyone knows that an enquiry takes a long time……

8.    Kiran Bedi, if you have any sense of self respect, you should publish full details of all the concerned lectures and talks; names and addresses of the invitors, details of the expenses claimed, received and incurred, and on what basis you claimed the inflated expenses. You should also publish full details of your own personal contributions to the trust. After all what is there to hide?

9.     By the way, I went through the web site of her trust – India Vision Foundation.

http://www.indiavisionfoundation.org/donation-gallery.asp

There are no details of the various donations received…only a long list of names.
If this is what transparency is all about for our leaders, God help this nation.

Sanjiv Bhatt, Police and Politics.

I have just seen the following article on a popular website.
It is most distressing and dangerous.

IPS officer Sanjiv R. Bhatt suspended

Posted by: “Anjlee Pandya”
anjleepandya@gmail.com
Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:54 pm (PDT)

I have never met Sanjiv Bhatt.
In terms of service, he is junior to me by 20 years. I was offered the Indian Police Service, but I joined the Indian Revenue Service for the simple reason my mother did not like the idea of my joining the police force.
But Sanjiv Bhatt’s conduct is hardly something which can be justified by any one – either morally or legally.

Members of the All India Services – the IAS and the IPS are a privileged lot. They are appointed by the Central Government and allotted to a particular state. They draw their salaries and allowances from that state. Even though they enjoy certain safeguards against dismissal, etc., they are under the day to day administrative control of the concerned state.

Of late, IPS officers like Sanjiv Bhatt have been mixing up politics with their official duties, hogging the media and making all kinds of allegations.

Serving officers should not address the media unless the conduct rules permit them to do so. Of course, they can and should approach the High Courts and Supreme Court, wherever necessary.

The several allegations in the above paragraphs against Sanjiv Bhatt are prima facie sufficient to justify disciplinary against him. He must remember that if he himself is thoroughly indisciplined, how can he expect, demand and get unsquinted obedience from his subordinates.
They will behave in the same irresponsible manner and the system would collapse.
And if the allegations are correct, no court can support his stand.

First, before fighting against the State, Sanjiv Bhatt or any other officer himself should be clean in all respects.
Otherwise, he will end up a hapless loser the same way as Baba Ramdev.

Sanjiv Bhatt, you are treading on dangerous turf.
You will end up a sad loser.
And in the end, it will be your wife and children who will suffer.

July 21, 2011

Every now and then, I read of a case of graft – that some official has been arrested red handed while taking a bribe.
Usually, such cases are followed up by searches at the residence(s) and other connected places of the official, leading to recovery of unaccounted wealth.
Invariably, in such cases, apart from the allegation of accepting bribe, the concerned Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) also files a case quantifying unaccounted assets worth crores of rupees ( 1 crore = 10 million).

Even in the extreme case, where no unaccounted assets are found, I would believe that cases where an official is caught red handed should be the easiest to prove in our courts.

But unfortunately, most cases end up in acquittals !

Agriculture Director of Maharashtra arrested

Prakash Wamanrao Mahindre, then Agriculture Director of Maharashtra, was arrested in 2005 for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 from Rajkumar Bhanudas Dhargude, a businessman.

According to the complaint filed by Dhargude, Mahindre had demanded bribe of Rs 2 lakh each for issuing three new licences and renewing another four.

The ACB, Pune conducted a search at Mahindre’s residence at Central Park Apartment on Ambedkar Road and recovered cash and ornaments totalling
Rs 4,97,44,957.
They arrested Mahindre for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Finally, the ACB, Pune registered a case of amassing wealth against Mahindre and his wife Priya under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code. They quantified his assets at Rs 3.02 crores.

Mahindre was suspended from the service in 2005. During the suspension period, he retired from service.

Acquittal

Defence lawyer Sudhir Shah argued that the jute bag containing Rs 50,000, which was recovered from Mahindre’s cabin at Central Building, was planted there.
The Special court of S N Sardesai in Pune acquitted Prakash Wamanrao Mahindre.

What is not understandable is the way the case was investigated and presented and what happened to the other charge of amassing wealth.

Obviously, the search team had not done its home work. May be, with today’s, modern equipments, proving a case would be easier.

And acquittal will not be that easy.

The Silver Lining

The silver lining in such cases is that the culprit is suspended, the case drags on for years, and apart from the fact that the culprit does not receive his full salary, perks, and promotion, he has to spend a lot of money on his lawyers which itself is a sort of punishment.