Thursday, November 27, 2014

Spineless Bengal Bureaucrats for the first time defy Minister's order! Change of Rulers, foreseen?

The Telegraph
Thursday , November 27 , 2014

Rare sighting: glint of a spine

THOSE WERE THE DAYS
Sir Humphrey Appleby, cabinet secretary: I see, what do you advise, Bernard?
Bernard Woolley, principal private secretary to the Prime Minister: I advise you to consider your position carefully, perhaps adopting a more flexible posture, while keeping your ear to the ground, covering your retreat and watching your rear.

Sir Humphrey: Thank you, Bernard. You’ve been a great help.
Woolley: Actually, Sir Humphrey, I haven’t told you anything.
Sir Humphrey: I should hope not, Bernard. That would have been most improper.
From A Real Partnership, the fifth episode of Yes, Prime Minister, 1986
If Bengal’s finest seek such advice now, the answer will probably be uncharacteristically direct and brief: “Whatever you do, make sure you don’t have to visit the CGO Complex.”
“The CGO Complex” is the sprawling property in Salt Lake that houses the offices of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, both of which are probing the Saradha scandal and generally robbing the state’s high and mighty of sleep.
Bureaucrats who used to confine themselves to “Yes, Minister” are now declining to sign on the dotted line and are sending files back to ministers if the content is controversial, multiple sources have told this newspaper.
The refusal to toe the line is not a show of defiance or rebellion but is born out of an eagerness to remain on the right side of the law.
“It is very clear that I do not want to visit the CGO Complex,” a senior IAS officer was quoted as telling a subordinate after refusing to sign a file that a minister had wanted him to clear.
The display of extreme caution by the officials marks a change. In the past few years when chief minister Mamata Banerjee appeared unassailable, officials had complied with the whims of the political leadership. Two of the most infamous instances were the arrest of a professor for circulating a joke on the chief minister, and the who’s who of the state bureaucracy being made to stand on a dais behind a politician who has been accused of murder.
But the uproar over the Saradha scandal and other controversies appears to have emboldened some bureaucrats to cite the rulebook when faced with unpalatable demands.
“Bureaucrats are like weather cocks…. Realising that the government is no longer what it used to be, they are unlikely to go overboard to please the ministers and they will play it by the book. I am not surprised,” said a senior minister.
One swallow does not a summer make, but the following are four instances where officials have refused to swallow the rules:
Sorry, no advance
The information and cultural affairs department — the chief minister is in charge of it — recently refused to clear a proposal given by a minister and a ruling party MP to pay an advance to 11 theatre teams that will take part in Natya Utsav, scheduled next month.
“The financial norms do not allow the department to make advance payments to the participants of any government programmes. But the minister and the MP had proposed to pay in advance 50 per cent of the remuneration the teams are supposed to get,” said an official.
The teams will be paid between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 12 lakh.
“Following pressure from the minister and the MP, the department had sent the proposal to the finance department seeking an approval. The finance department chose to play it safe. It did not give any clear view in writing or reject the proposal but verbally communicated that the rules did not allow such an advance,” said a finance department official.
“The I&CA department could have overlooked the rule and cleared it. But the file was sent to the chief minister who has the right to clear it as the minister in charge of the department,” said a source.
No order, no cash
The officials of the information and cultural affairs department resisted pressure to clear bills of over Rs 30 lakh in favour of an event management agency that had helped the government organise Mati Utsav and Sangeet Mela last year.
“The bills were not cleared as no work order was issued in favour of the agency. The financial norms don’t allow the officials to clear bills in the absence of a work order,” said an official.
According to sources, the agency was backed by a singer close to a powerful politician. “Initially, officials used to clear bills by using an emergency provision. But now the officials refuse to clear the bills,” a source said.
Mitra’s dilemma
This newspaper had reported on November 11 how the finance department had declined to clear splitting a 60-year deal into two 30-year terms for reconstructing Lake Mall. A clearance will help Srikant Mohta, the investor and a filmmaker, save over Rs 15 crore and cause a loss to the state exchequer.
Now it has come to light that finance minister Amit Mitra made another attempt to see whether the deal can be cleared.
But the effort has again drawn a blank, said a source. No government officer wants to be a party to the decision that would affect the state exchequer, the source said.
“Soon after the finance secretary refused to sign it, the minister had sent back the file to the law department once again though the state legal remembrancer had earlier put the ball in the finance department’s court. This time too, the law department has pointed out that the decision to give relief has to be taken by the finance department,” said a source.
Since the law department has not suggested a way out and the finance secretary did not change his stand, the minister has two options: reject the deal or send it up to the chief minister to take the final call.
Mitra could not be contacted for comment.
No waiver
The public works department (PWD) recently made it clear that it would not implement an instruction to allow a company to lay optical fibre cables for a 4G network along the roads maintained by it against a licence fee of Re 1 per square metre.
Sources said instructions were sent to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the PWD to levy Re 1. “The CMC is charging the company Re 1 as it has no notified fee. But the PWD said it would not be able to waive the licence fee as it has specific rates as per a government notification issued on August 29, 2013,” said an official.
For PWD roads, the notification has fixed Rs 300 a sqm in rural areas, Rs 575 in municipal areas, Rs 2,300 in CMC areas and Rs 1,150 in non-CMC municipal corporation areas.
“The licence fee is for 15 years…. As the agencies use the PWD land, they are supposed to pay the amount. We cannot waive it until we get a written order from the department minister or top brass of the government,” said a PWD engineer.

Mamta took side of corrupt leaders of TMC

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Intellectuals of Kolkata organised a rally to Save the Saradha thieves, by Mamta's order!

The Telegraph

Thursday , November 27 , 2014 

For thieves, steal a march

1950s: Ensure food security.
1960s: Express solidarity with Vietnam.
1970s: Release political prisoners.
2014: Denounce police atrocity on students.
November 28, 2014: Save the Saradha thieves.
Calcutta, Nov. 27: Just when Calcutta, the capital of street protests, thought that it had been there, seen that and done that, comes an unparalleled event: a protest to champion the cause of thieves.
On Friday, the city will witness a march against what chief minister Mamata Banerjee has described as “the Centre’s conspiracy to malign the party and the government in the name of the CBI probe”.
The CBI is probing the Saradha scam in which thousands of poor depositors have lost their savings. The inquiry has been ordered by the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land.
What is also indisputable is that several thousand crores of rupees are still missing.
But the march by a section of the so-called culture clan will wind its way from Nandan to the Academy of Fine Arts to protest against the probe.
“This is the first time that our city will see a rally in defence of thieves…. It is going to be a sad day as Calcutta has seen rallies for so many noble causes,” said BJP president Rahul Sinha.
Academician Sunanda Sanyal, 83, who had once associated with Trinamul and walked with Mamata in several rallies before the change of guard in the state, said he was surprised to learn about the rally.
“I have never heard in my life that political leaders are calling apolitical people from the world of art and culture to bring out rallies and safeguard thieves. Such a protest would bring shame to all of us,” said Sanyal.
The involvement of the “culture clan” has also prompted some to wonder whether the rally is being organised also in defence of the right to say “s***” in the name of freedom of expression. The reference was to the swear word Mamata had uttered — and hastily withdrawn — on Saturday.
Singer Indranil Sen, filmmaker Srikant Mohta, Trinamul MP and actor Dev, actor-turned-president of the state’s vocational education council Rudranil Ghosh — all known for their proximity to Mamata — are said to be working the phones to make the rally a success. But a section of Trinamul is learnt to be against the charade.
“There will be no banners of political parties…. There will not be any political slogans. It would be a silent march to protest the manner in which the Centre is trying to malign the Bengal government in the name of a CBI probe,” said Sen, who had unsuccessfully contested the Behrampore seat on a Trinamul ticket.
While addressing a rally near Esplanade on Monday, Mamata had given the clarion call: “I am asking the members of my culture clan to come forward to protest the Centre’s heinous design to malign us in the name of a CBI probe.”
Mamata is not expected to power the rally in person as she is scheduled to be in Asansol on Friday.
“Whenever Didi is in trouble, she prefers hitting the streets to send out a message that people are with her… This is a crisis period and she is using the same strategy,” said a Trinamul insider.
Not just the Opposition parties, even some Trinamul leaders ridiculed the plan. “At this stage, a street protest against the CBI probe would be seen as an attempt to protect those who are being questioned by the central agency. Will it not send a wrong message?” asked the senior Trinamul minister.
A professor of sociology said that for any political party or for a civil liberty group, holding a rally means addressing its core constituency. Besides, rallies are often held by an organiser to measure his or her support base.
“I am not sure what factors would prompt people to take part in this rally,” said the sociologist.
“One reason for their attendance could be they want the probe to be stopped, which would mean they do not have any problems with the Saradha scam. While those benefiting from the fraud may think so, it is difficult to believe that ordinary people can think that way,” said the sociologist.

Ruling party help made West Bengal the safest shelter in India for Jihadis

"THE BIGGEST BENEFICIARY IN SARDHA SCAM IS MAMTA" - KUNAL GHOSH