YEH MERA INDIA
Can this be called another kind of looting !!
Mumbai: The probe into the multicrore Adarsh housing scam might have visibly slowed down but the lawyers assigned to assist the commission unearth the various aspects of the scam and bring out the truth are making merry. Fees charged by the lawyers is one of the single largest expense incurred by the costly inquiry commission that is still a long way away from any conclusive report on the scam.
An RTI query has revealed that the commission’s senior counsel Dipan Merchant is richer by more than Rs 35 lakh since the commission began proceedings on April 18, earlier this year.
Merchant charges Rs 40,000 per day for his services. His junior advocate Bharat Zaveri has charged nearly Rs 5 lakh so far. His daily fee is Rs 5,000.
The state government’s legal team charges even more. Senior council for the state Anil Sakhare Charges Rs 1.15 lakh for a day’s hearing. He is assisted by two juniors --R M Vasudev and U B Nigot -- who are paid Rs 25,000 each per day.
If advocate Sakhare attends the court, but there is no hearing, he is paid a retainer fee of Rs 55,000. A chamber meeting to discuss the case is Rs 7,000 per day.
And it doesn’t end here; the Defense Ministry too has a team of advocates to represent its case. AJ Rana, senior counsel for the Defence Ministry who has reportedly quit his job over non-payment of fees charged Rs 50,000 per day. Apart from Rana, the Defence Ministry is represented by two junior counsels, Aniket Nikam and Karan vyas.
And it’s not just the lawyers who are part of the slow and costly probe, the commission itself is a massive money guzzler costing the state government around Rs 8 lakh per month.
Plain operating expenses of the commission have amounted to around Rs 53 lakh till August this year while stationery and telephone charges have cost Rs 1 lakh. With documents running into lakhs of pages and hundreds of affidavits submitted, photocopying alone has cost the commission more than Rs 1 lakh. The commission has been assigned a massive staff of 24 persons, of which around 4 posts are vacant, the highest assigned to any commission in recent times. According to the reply to the RTI query, around six staff members (including clerks and peons) are given monthly salary to just ‘look after files’. Apart from their remuneration, the chairman of the commission justice (retd.) JA Patil and member P. Subramanyam, former state chief secretary are given a monthly salary of Rs 1.60 lakh each.
The commission, which has examined just 17 witnesses, has worked for around 160 days so far. However, after being set up on January 7, 2011 it began proceedings only on April 18 since allotment of office space and staff took time. Only around 90 days of actual court sittings have taken place.
The commission was initially asked to give its report in three months but later given an extension of another three months till July 7.
But since the slow pace of proceedings had not revealed anything conclusive, it was granted yet another extension till January 7, 2012.
With statements of high-profile former chief ministers along with several other key witnesses yet to be recorded, the cash –strapped state government will only have to shell out more money for the ‘costly’ probe.
Public healthcare system function on sub-standard equipment
New Delhi: Fundamental flaws in procurement procedure and lack of standards in supply of medical equipment for maternal and neo-natal care is resulting in entry of "unsafe, non-standard equipment" into the market, the AIIMS has told the Central Information Commission.
The prestigious institute said high quality medical equipment lose to cheaper alternatives during bidding process resulting in accidents like babies getting killed in short-circuits in incubators. "There are no standards for such equipments and no regulation barring entry of unsafe, non-standard equipment into the market. Faulty equipment can end up burning itself and the baby it holds. There are fundamental flaws in these procurement procedures," Dr Vinod Paul, representing Director AIIMS told the CIC during a hearing.
He said there was a Medical Devices Regulatory Authority bill circulated in 2006, but there has not been much movement in this regard. Taking serious note of it, Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi directed the Health secretary to ensure that purchase and maintenance details of medical equipment costing over one lakh and neo-natal warmers and incubators, purchased after April 1, 2007 should be posted on the Health Ministry website. The case relates to a complaint filed by an RTI applicant Anushree Jain who said Health Ministry should publish these details on its websites as per obligations of suo-moto disclosure under the provisions of the Right to Information Act.
During the hearing, Jain contended that there have been a large number of cases where due to poor maintenance of equipment used for neo-natal care infants had died due to equipment failure.
Hearing the arguments of both sides, Gandhi opined, "It is accepted that there are widespread issues, putting up information in the public domain would perhaps create a pressure on the concerned authorities". "The idea of the Commission being that the information published would get the citizens at large to view the same and inform the concerned superior authorities in case of any mismanagement etc." Gandhi pointed out.
Pakistani woman issued voter ID
Bikaner: An elderly Pakistani woman, staying in a village here on a long-term visa, has managed to get her name included in the country’s voters’ list leaving officials red-faced. Alabasai, married to a local, has been residing in KJD village in Khajuwala sub-division since 1986 but has not been granted Indian citizenship so far. However, her name was included in the voters’ list in 2008 and when police discovered her origin during a routine review, the district administration was alerted and her voter ID was cancelled last month.
Mumbai needs 63,000 toilets, has only 10,000
Mumbai: The city of dreams, the financial capital of India, the international city Mumbai desperately needs 63,514 toilets. In the last four years only 10,760 were made available. These facts came to light even as the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine pushed through a Slum Sanitation Project worth Rs. 76,48,14,828 crore for building 210 more toilet blocks in the city.
The information about lack of toilets came to light in the reply given by the administration to the standing committee. All party councilors wasted a whole 90 minutes emphasising their concerns for the slum dwellers, with an obvious eye on the upcoming elections. The toilet blocks are being built under the on going World Bank Added Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP).
Launching a scathing attack on the administration, Sena and MNS councillors were the first to oppose these project stating that the quality of work done is crude and contractors do not complete their work. Congress’ Sameer Desai accused the opposing councillors as being anti-slums, thus beginning a political tug-of-war. NCP’s Niyaz Vanu said that the proposal should be passed. This also prompted a war of words between Chairman Rahul Shewale and Desai.
Rajul Patel later explained, "They (contractors) only use Rs 6 crore if say Rs. 76 crore is sanctioned, produce shoddy work and thus the toilets get damaged within a year.
Mumbai: The probe into the multicrore Adarsh housing scam might have visibly slowed down but the lawyers assigned to assist the commission unearth the various aspects of the scam and bring out the truth are making merry. Fees charged by the lawyers is one of the single largest expense incurred by the costly inquiry commission that is still a long way away from any conclusive report on the scam.
An RTI query has revealed that the commission’s senior counsel Dipan Merchant is richer by more than Rs 35 lakh since the commission began proceedings on April 18, earlier this year.
Merchant charges Rs 40,000 per day for his services. His junior advocate Bharat Zaveri has charged nearly Rs 5 lakh so far. His daily fee is Rs 5,000.
The state government’s legal team charges even more. Senior council for the state Anil Sakhare Charges Rs 1.15 lakh for a day’s hearing. He is assisted by two juniors --R M Vasudev and U B Nigot -- who are paid Rs 25,000 each per day.
If advocate Sakhare attends the court, but there is no hearing, he is paid a retainer fee of Rs 55,000. A chamber meeting to discuss the case is Rs 7,000 per day.
And it doesn’t end here; the Defense Ministry too has a team of advocates to represent its case. AJ Rana, senior counsel for the Defence Ministry who has reportedly quit his job over non-payment of fees charged Rs 50,000 per day. Apart from Rana, the Defence Ministry is represented by two junior counsels, Aniket Nikam and Karan vyas.
And it’s not just the lawyers who are part of the slow and costly probe, the commission itself is a massive money guzzler costing the state government around Rs 8 lakh per month.
Plain operating expenses of the commission have amounted to around Rs 53 lakh till August this year while stationery and telephone charges have cost Rs 1 lakh. With documents running into lakhs of pages and hundreds of affidavits submitted, photocopying alone has cost the commission more than Rs 1 lakh. The commission has been assigned a massive staff of 24 persons, of which around 4 posts are vacant, the highest assigned to any commission in recent times. According to the reply to the RTI query, around six staff members (including clerks and peons) are given monthly salary to just ‘look after files’. Apart from their remuneration, the chairman of the commission justice (retd.) JA Patil and member P. Subramanyam, former state chief secretary are given a monthly salary of Rs 1.60 lakh each.
The commission, which has examined just 17 witnesses, has worked for around 160 days so far. However, after being set up on January 7, 2011 it began proceedings only on April 18 since allotment of office space and staff took time. Only around 90 days of actual court sittings have taken place.
The commission was initially asked to give its report in three months but later given an extension of another three months till July 7.
But since the slow pace of proceedings had not revealed anything conclusive, it was granted yet another extension till January 7, 2012.
With statements of high-profile former chief ministers along with several other key witnesses yet to be recorded, the cash –strapped state government will only have to shell out more money for the ‘costly’ probe.
Public healthcare system function on sub-standard equipment
New Delhi: Fundamental flaws in procurement procedure and lack of standards in supply of medical equipment for maternal and neo-natal care is resulting in entry of "unsafe, non-standard equipment" into the market, the AIIMS has told the Central Information Commission.
The prestigious institute said high quality medical equipment lose to cheaper alternatives during bidding process resulting in accidents like babies getting killed in short-circuits in incubators. "There are no standards for such equipments and no regulation barring entry of unsafe, non-standard equipment into the market. Faulty equipment can end up burning itself and the baby it holds. There are fundamental flaws in these procurement procedures," Dr Vinod Paul, representing Director AIIMS told the CIC during a hearing.
He said there was a Medical Devices Regulatory Authority bill circulated in 2006, but there has not been much movement in this regard. Taking serious note of it, Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi directed the Health secretary to ensure that purchase and maintenance details of medical equipment costing over one lakh and neo-natal warmers and incubators, purchased after April 1, 2007 should be posted on the Health Ministry website. The case relates to a complaint filed by an RTI applicant Anushree Jain who said Health Ministry should publish these details on its websites as per obligations of suo-moto disclosure under the provisions of the Right to Information Act.
During the hearing, Jain contended that there have been a large number of cases where due to poor maintenance of equipment used for neo-natal care infants had died due to equipment failure.
Hearing the arguments of both sides, Gandhi opined, "It is accepted that there are widespread issues, putting up information in the public domain would perhaps create a pressure on the concerned authorities". "The idea of the Commission being that the information published would get the citizens at large to view the same and inform the concerned superior authorities in case of any mismanagement etc." Gandhi pointed out.
Pakistani woman issued voter ID
Bikaner: An elderly Pakistani woman, staying in a village here on a long-term visa, has managed to get her name included in the country’s voters’ list leaving officials red-faced. Alabasai, married to a local, has been residing in KJD village in Khajuwala sub-division since 1986 but has not been granted Indian citizenship so far. However, her name was included in the voters’ list in 2008 and when police discovered her origin during a routine review, the district administration was alerted and her voter ID was cancelled last month.
Mumbai needs 63,000 toilets, has only 10,000
Mumbai: The city of dreams, the financial capital of India, the international city Mumbai desperately needs 63,514 toilets. In the last four years only 10,760 were made available. These facts came to light even as the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine pushed through a Slum Sanitation Project worth Rs. 76,48,14,828 crore for building 210 more toilet blocks in the city.
The information about lack of toilets came to light in the reply given by the administration to the standing committee. All party councilors wasted a whole 90 minutes emphasising their concerns for the slum dwellers, with an obvious eye on the upcoming elections. The toilet blocks are being built under the on going World Bank Added Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP).
Launching a scathing attack on the administration, Sena and MNS councillors were the first to oppose these project stating that the quality of work done is crude and contractors do not complete their work. Congress’ Sameer Desai accused the opposing councillors as being anti-slums, thus beginning a political tug-of-war. NCP’s Niyaz Vanu said that the proposal should be passed. This also prompted a war of words between Chairman Rahul Shewale and Desai.
Rajul Patel later explained, "They (contractors) only use Rs 6 crore if say Rs. 76 crore is sanctioned, produce shoddy work and thus the toilets get damaged within a year.
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