Finally, Lokpal gets a building, outside Lutyen's Delhi

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

special report

Finally, Lokpal gets a building, outside Lutyen's Delhi

Harish Gupta 

New Delhi, Oct. 21 

Finally, the Lokpal has a got its own building to function. More than seven months after the 9-member anti-corruption watchdog came into being, it was functioning from the sprawling 5-star Hotel Ashok. It’s a different matter that the Lokpal was not paying any rent to the ITDC owned Hotel Ashok and bearing the loss. 

The Lokpal continues to struggle with the government for the rules to be framed for the past seven months. The department of personnel and training (DoPT) has not framed the rules so that Lokpal is able to function and look into the complaints of corruption against the Hugh and mighty people.

But the Lokpal is now to move out of Delhi's five star hotel 'The Ashok' to Vasant Kunj in the building of the International Center for alternative Dispute Resolution. The building was identified by the PMO in the city for a great building hunt. The International Center’s building is a sprawling area outside the Lutyen’s zone in Vasant Kunj. Now the Lokpal will acquire it. It is at Vasant Kunj Institutional Area, Phase-II, Mahipalpur. The government had said recently that it is in the process of searching a permanent office for Lokpal in response to an RTI query. But it did not go further as to when it will identify and where. 

It said no payment has so far been made towards rental charges for the Lokpal office at 'The Ashok' hotel.  the government has taken over the building of Arbitration building in vasant kunj.

Meanwhile, the government appointed Senior IAS officer Dilip Kumar as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the office of Lokpal. It is perhaps the first official appointment of a bureaucrat in Lokpal. Kumar, a 1995-batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre, was working as the joint secretary of the NHRC when his appointment was announced.

The Centre is yet to notify a form for filing complaints with Lokpal.

Fly on the Wall:Naidu refusing to relent, TDP Ministers may quit Cabinet

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Naidu refusing to relent, TDP Ministers may quit Cabinet 

Alarmed over the public ultimatum given by Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to quit the NDA if the Centre didn't give special status, the desperate BJP leadership found a way. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu landed in Visakhapatnam to open the state investors summit on February 24. Normally, Prime Minister Modi is on the forefront of opening NDA-ruled states' Investors' summit. But he was extremely busy and hence Venkaiah Naidu went to assauge the hurt feelings. However, Chandrababu Naidu reportedly conveyed that his Union Ministers in the Central Cabinet will quit as a first step if special projects for Andhra were not announced.

Fly on The Wall : Bitter battle grips Railway Board

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

A bitter battle has gripped the Rail Bhawan here ever since Ashwini Lohani was appointed chairman of the Railway Board in a mid-night coup. Lohani was brought by the PMO after A K Mittal quit in the wake of two consecutive railway accidents last month. While the Railway administration was still in the process of absorbing the shocking news of Mittal quitting, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu also quit. But all hell broke when Lohani was brought to the Railway Board as its chairman. Lohani could not have been appointed as Chairman under the rules and procedures. Insiders say that rules were thrown to the winds. Rules state that unless an officer held the post of General Manager in the Railways, he cannot become a Member of the board or its chairman. A non-member can become chairman of the board. But the condition is that he must have an experience of working as GM in the Railways. Lohani was two ladder down in the seniority and yet he was made chairman straight. The insult to the injury was also in store as Lohani also superseded two highly competent and senior members of the Railway Board. The two members are Ravindra Gupta and Mohammad Jamshed who are bitter and contemplating quitting. The position of these two members has become untenable with Lohani's appointment. The new Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal is busy sorting out the grave issue as both of them reportedly threatened to quit. Goyal wants to resolve this anomaly as continued acrimony can take a turn for the worse. The internal trouble has cropped up at a time when the Railways is trying to overcome serious problems. No doubt, Lohani is an old Railway hand and a technical guy himself. He is reported to have impressed the PMO when he was made ITDC chairman. His appointment had raised eyebrows in the ITDC as well. But within no time, he got a big boost and brought as Chairman Air India.

Amit Shah's advice to Narain Rane

The BJP high command has conveyed to dissident Congress leader Narain Rane to keep patience and his entry is only a matter of time. BJP president Amit Shah had a meeting with him a couple of months ago where in principle decision was taken to admit the Ranes into the BJP. Amit Shah's philosophy is to admit leaders from other parties with an open arm and once they are in the BJP, they would be “reformed.” Shah is of the firm view that this is the only way to expand BJP in a short span and win Lok Sabha seats. This open arm policy is contrary to most of his predecessors who were rather slow in admitting leaders from other parties. But Amit Shah wants every influential leader to be part of the BJP. Therefore, he has conveyed to Rane that he would surely be admitted.

India Foundation calls the shots

What is common among Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha and MoS External Affairs M J Akbar ? All of them are professionals and highly successful and their rise has been rather brisk. In the case of Nirmala Sitharaman, it has been phenomenal. But there is one more factor; all of them are key member of the India Foundation, a think tank founded by BJP general Secretary Ram Madhav. His focus is to ensure that BJP gets more Lok sabha seats in states where it didn't get numbers in 2014. The Think-Tank formally came into being early 2014 though Ram Madhav was working for Narendra Modi in Gujrat for a long time. Ram Madhav is considered a parallel power centre. There are as many as eight such think tanks floated by those associated with the RSS & BJP. But India Foundation and Vivekanand International Foundation are the two most powerful think tanks providing talented persons to the Modi government. Interestingly, Ram Madhav keeps a low profile and works from behind the scenes. The rise of Nirmala Sitharaman is being attributed to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. But it is said that Ram Madhav is the key behind her success and worked hard to promote her at every stage. He prefers to handle security and international affairs apart from J&K and North eastern states.

The mystery of 'Old Notes' deepens as RBI counts

The mystery of “old notes” demonetized and deposited with banks deepened further after the RBI said: Rs 15.28 lakh crores in old notes out of Rs 15.44 lakh crores had been counted and final figure will be released later. This leaves only Rs 16000 crores which were not deposited with the RBI. But think of 'Old Notes' still lying with Nepal Rashtriya Bank and other neighbouring countries. The figure is stated to be over Rs 8000 crores. The RBI has yet to accept around Rs 7000 crores from Cooperative banks. Then, thousands and thousands of NRIs who made a bee-line outside the RBI branches failed to deposit old notes who came from all over the world as government changed rules at will. In addition, banned notes lying with the Income Tax, ED, Police in states and other agencies could not be deposited with the RBI either. Did India print more notes than notified ? No one has a clue. But everyone in the government is frightened if the old notes in the “pipeline” are allowed to be deposited.

Mamata wants Kejri in Mahagathbandhan

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is pitching for the inclusion of Aam Aadmi Party into the grand alliance of 17 Opposition parties. Mamata wants Arvind Kejriwal to be part of the “Mahagathbandhan” as he is a force in Delhi and elsewhere. However, the Congress has puts its foot down and made it clear that there is no place for AAP in the front. Rather, the Congress leadership has cautioned Mamata Banerjee to keep away as Kejriwal is known for selling dreams. The Congress leaders sheepishly confessed how Kejriwal fooled Shiela Dixit saying that he will never float a political party and work for her victory in Delhi. But Mamata is unwilling to dump Kejriwal. Perhaps, Kejriwal has promised to campaign for Mamata and project her as Prime Ministerial candidate in 2019.

Strategic sale of AI, ITDC on cards

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Strategic sale of AI, ITDC on cards

22 sick PSUs to be shut down

AI failed to revive itself even after a ballout package of  Rs.20,000 crores.

PSUs suffer One lakh crores annual loss

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Feb 28

The Modi government has served an ultimatum to country’s 45 loss-making Public Sector Undertakings including Air India, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) etc to perform or perish.

Highly placed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office and NITI Aayog say that the PM is determined to cut down Rs one lakh crores annual losses incurred by these PSUs year after year and there is no accountability.

One of the proposals gathering pace is to find a strategic partner for Air India. The PM felt at a recent review meeting with AI Chairman Ashwani Lohani that the flagship airlines failed to revive itself even after a bailout package of Rs 20000 crores. Modi made it clear that the government would not waste tax payers money anymore and gave three more months to him to tone up.

Similarly, the NITI Aayog came to the conclusion that the government should not have any business to be in the hotel business and barring the Ashok in the Lutyen’s Delhi, the government should exit them.

failed to turn around the loss making national carrier, people with knowledge of the matter said.

It now transpires that several presentations have been made to the finance ministry and the PMO by experts and stake holders in the recent past.

The NITI Aayog, tasked with preparing a roadmap for ailing PSUs, had submitted a list of 74 companies, had suggested the closure of 26 companies. With regard to remaining 54, the Aayog suggested status quo in case of two PSUs, strategic disinvestment of 10, revival with option for strategic disinvestment for 22, transfer of ownership of six, merger of three and long term lease of five.

Finally, the government has decided to shut down 15 loss-making public sector units, of which at least five have been cleared by the cabinet, while opting to go against internal advice and revive three state-run companies.

The Centre also has to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 56,500 crore. On the list are large state-run companies such as Container Corporation of India, Bharat Earthmovers, as many as three plants of the Steel Authority of India and unlisted entities like Cement Corporation of India. The government has also exited from stocks held by SUUTI in some of the private sector companies like ITC, L&T and others. SUUTI is an arm of the central government which held stocks running into thousands of crores.