India -Turkey to resume Direct Airlinks soon-140 Castes added as Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution Controversial Minister's Gulf Visit Dubai-Muscat-Riyadh link of Kerala Politicians Keralamonitor.com June 8, 2002. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - A leading Contractor approaches the branch manager of a public sector bank in Kerala and asks him to arrange fresh Five Hundred rupee notes worth Rs. 10 lakhs within one day. Without bothering to know the intricacies of withdrawing Fresh Five Hundred rupee notes exclusively by a regular customer , the manager arranges the money. Next day the businessman comes with an empty suitcase and arranges the five hundred rupee notes in it and walks away to an unknown destination. The bank official was curious to know the secret behind insisting on withdrawing only five lakh worth fresh currency notes. Even though he asked the gentlemen about it later, he avoided any direct answers. However, one day he invited the manager for a party at his residence and when he was fully drunk, he called him to a corner and said: "You asked me about the purpose of taking fresh five rupee notes from the bank. Nowadays, these stupid ministers started accepting suitcase full of money directly from businessman like me. Earlier they needed the assistance of third parties or agents to receive bribe. Because of this new five hundred rupee notes and the acceptance of bribery as a routine matter, they have started accepting money directly." The manager was quite surprised to realize that Kerala ministers started receiving bribe directly from such businessman. Many branch managers will be aware of the businessman withdrawing fresh five hundred rupee notes from the banks located in the state capital. During informal conversations, bank employees share a number of such stories, which reveal the uncivilized and corrupt face of Kerala politicians. While giving big as well as small contracts, project tenders or other major deals involving money, the ministers, senior bureaucrats involved in the decision making and some senior political leaders engage in an unholy partnership to share a part of the booty. The State Chief Minister is adamant that due to the salary given to government employees, the state exchequer is empty. But compared to the amount of money siphoned off by this unholy nexus of politicians and businessman, the employees role in emptying the treasury is very limited. The commonly accepted practice in tendering is to accept a certain percentage of the total bill amount as commission to the ministers and senior officials. "While awarding any major contracts, the minister invites all the major bidders for private meeting and advise them how to go about to get the contract," reveal sources closely associated with the tendering process in Thiruvananthapuram. "If there are four pre qualified bidders for a project, the minister invites all of them for separate meetings and advise them that each bidder will get a share of the work. Instead of quoting lower amounts, he will ask them to quote a higher amount and share the work among the four. If it is a project worth Rs. 10 crores, he will ask them to quote for Rs. 20 crores. The additional ten crores, which flows from the public exchequer to the contractor, the minister and his subordinates, will be the additional earning for all the parties involved. The only loser in this business is the tax paying public. Even though the work is contracted for Rs. 20 crores, the consortium will see to it that the project is not implemented within that cost and time period. Citing a number of silly reasons, the contractor will introduce new terms and conditions in the project work, seeking more funds for completing it. 'With the knowledge of the minister and other higher officials involved in project implementation, the contractor will say that for removing some rock in the project area or some additional work, he incurred additional expenditure," added sources. It is the common modus operandi used by the contractors to make quick money. In awarding liquor and hotel licenses and tourism projects corruption is prevalent in the state, added sources. Thanks to the free flow of money from the treasury to this coterie of politicians-businessman nexus, many contractors and businessman have amassed huge amount of money. In allocating new schools, engineering or medical colleges etc, the same method of corruption is prevalent. The privatisation of various state owned companies is the latest source of income to the politician-businessmen nexus. A number of companies and properties owned by the people of India are sold to greedy businessman at throw away prices. Through a number of crooked ways, the politician-businessman nexus ensures that these properties are sold out at much cheaper rate than their real market value. They will see to it that a so called 'international consultant' will evaluate the property value. All the black money earned through corruption and dubious deals is converted into white money following the hawala route. Many of the Kerala politicians have got their 'agents' or 'benamis' engaged in some sort of insignificant business in the Gulf countries, Canada, the USA or any other foreign countries. "In Canada and USA such agents are operating the dirty business openly on behalf of some of the Kerala ministers. In various Gulf countries, they have their benami operators who are used as a cover to convert their black money earned in the state into white money. Prominent state minister have their own people in the Gulf. Some of them are engaged in business, as a cover to transfer huge amount of money through the hawala route and convert black money into white. Thanks to the liberal approach of Dr.Manmohan Singh, the former finance minister, any amount of foreign exchange can be remitted or gifted by a Non Resident Indian to anyone in India. The hawala operation or the unofficial fund transfer from the Gulf region to South Asian countries and vice versa - comes handy for these politicians to convert their black money earned in India into white money. The modus operandi is very simple - those who need to send their foreign currency to India give their money directly to the hawala agent in the Gulf. Many ordinary people and members of the crime syndicate who want to send money for illegal purposes like drug trafficking, arms struggle or funding political groups, engage the service of these hawala operators. People who are not comfortable with sending money through banks also prefer this illegal route. Hawala operators give higher exchange rate to attract customers. After receiving the foreign exchange abroad, the hawala agent's representative in India arranges to give the black money earned in India through dubious means to the end recipients. So without any trace of paper or documentation, money has changed hands and black money is converted into white. The politician will give a higher premium to the hawala agent for converting his black money into white. The foreign currency bought by the hawala agent in the foreign country is remitted through the legal channel to India either by the local agent of the politician or by a "carrier". 'Carriers' in hawala business are persons who are working or doing business in the Gulf with fake labour card or passports. "These businesses are a cover to convert their black money into white," added sources. This is the secret behind the frequent foreign visits of some of the state ministers ostensibly for tourism promotion or as part of a foreign delegation. Non Resident Indians who send money to India for purchasing property or real estate also prefer the hawala route because in any property transaction they have to give a portion of the deal in black money. If you monitor the Kerala ministers who frequent the USA, Canada or Gulf region, you get a clear idea as to who is doing what. During these visits some of the ministers go with their suitcase filled with gold biscuits because the VIP baggage goes unchecked in Kerala airports. A business pays for the gold as part of his generosity. Is there anything wrong if the minister reciprocate back home. Controversial Minister's Gulf Visit Dubai: The Kerala state tourism and Fisheries minister K.V.Thomas is in the news once again because one of his party members has filed a vigilance case accusing him of amassing huge amount of wealth disproportionate to his known source of income and evading several lakhs worth of stamp duty in dubious property deals in the late 1980s. Amassing several crores of rupees is not an easy task, but to a Kerala minister handling the hot portfolios, it is not that difficult. Recently the honourable minister was touring various Gulf capitals ostensibly to promote tourism. K.V.Thomas, third from left in the Gulf Was tourism promotion the only purpose of his Gulf tour? Was it really to sell Kerala as a tourist destination through a tourism festival which will be held sometimes by the end of 2002 or was he trying to engage in some more property deals in Kerala, with the Gulf based Indian tycoons? According to sources, during a crucial Gulf tour recently, the Kerala state tourism and fisheries minister along with the central minister for civil aviation was in major Gulf capitals. During this meeting, they were reportedly wining and dining with a number of Indian businessmen, who had keen interest in some of the major privatisation projects in India. The ministers were part of the tourism promotion delegation. Marketing Kerala abroad? Minister K.V.Thomas with Padmaja. At a time when chief minister A.K.Antony is cautious about the state financial health, how come that all his cabinet colleagues keep visiting the Gulf countries one after another? There must be something that attract all the Kerala ministers to the Gulf capitals. Did K.V.Thomas and other Central Ministers who were involved in taking crucial decisions met any of the bidders and what was the purpose of such a meeting just before taking important decisions? The Minster left without meeting any of the social organizations there. What was he doing in a leading Indian businessmen's private villa in one of the Gulf capitals? The ongoing controversy in Kerala is all about the dubious land deals with hotel groups through which he has amassed several crores worth of property, alleged K.V.Babu in a vigilance case. A dubious land deal with BRJ Hotels was conducted in the late 1980s when he was only a Member of Parliament. According to reports, the land surrounding the National High Way at Kanayannoor Taluk, Marad Village was bought and sold to leading investors who created an international convention centre, a leading international five star Hotel chain and other major multinational companies on the property. Recently the Minister was roaming around all the major international capitals to market his so called Vision 2025 tourism plan to develop Malabar coast as a tourism spot. Has he planned any major land deals in the Malabar coast, where a number of international hotel chains will be coming up? A number of Kerala politicians including a former Chief Minister have made big money by purchasing property from the locals at Nedumbassery area at the rate of a few thousand rupees just before announcing the plans for the new International Airport project. Once the project was announced, the land prices skyrocketed and they managed to sell the same property at as high as Rs.50,000 per cent to make millions. Is it all part of a major conflict within the ruling coalition to share the family silver among themselves? A number of business groups have keen interest in obtaining some of the prime property in different parts of Kerala, especially Kochi owned by some of the so called loss making public sector units. One of the government owned company has got more than four thousand acre of land and going by the real estate price alone their book value will be much lower than their real market value. The scramble among politicians, ministers and businessmen is to get such properties at throwaway prices by bribing the ministers, bureaucrats and political leaders. (keralamonitor.com) 140 Castes added as Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution New Delhi; The Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Jual Oram has said that the Government has decided to include 140 castes as Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, out of which 43 additions are fresh, 66 synonymous, one each on account of bifurcation of entries and clubbing of entries, two as a result of change of nomenclature, two on account of verbal correction, one on account of local language and 16 exclusion. Addressing a Press Conference, here today, Oram said that the fresh list to be notified, was worked out and approved by the Union Cabinet recently, out of a total proposals of 971 for inclusion received from the States and Union Territories. The Minister said the Government relied on the criteria based on indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large and backwardness. Explaining the fresh inclusion of tribes, the Minister said that two were in Assam followed by four in Arunachal Pradesh, one in Andhra Pradesh, three in Bihar, one in Goa, two in Himachal Pradesh, two in Jharkhand, one in Karnataka, eight in Kerala, one in Mizoram, four in Manipur, two in Sikkim, ten in Uttar Pradesh and two in West Bengal. The Minister clarified that States of Punjab and Haryana and Union Territories of Chandigarh, Delhi and Pondicherry did not have any community specified as Scheduled Tribe. The Minister said further that the communities proposed to be listed as Scheduled Tribes would desire benefits admissible to Scheduled Tribes under Article 342 of the Constitution of India and the Order issued thereunder. Oram was happy to announce that the Government was contemplating to bifurcate the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes into two Commissions in order to provide focussed attention to the all round development of Scheduled Tribes. He also announced that the Government was also considering to set up a National Institute for Tribal Development to provide dedicated logistic support to the tribal development in the country.(keralamonitor.com June 8, 2002)