Plots returned after whistle-blower complained to PMO
A cooperative society of employees of BEML, a public sector defence undertaking, made at least two irregular allotments of housing sites to a niece and to a friend of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Adviser, T.K.A. Nair, in December 2008, documents available with The Hindu show.
The allotment of plots in South Bangalore at throwaway prices was made at a time when complaints by company whistle-blowers about the role of BEML Chairman and Managing Director V.R.S. Natarajan in the controversial Tatra truck deal — first made in 2005 — were pending with the Central Vigilance Commission, the Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister's Office.
The plots were allotted to Mr. Nair's niece, A. Preethy Prabha, and family friend, Uma Devi Nambiar, by the BEML Employees Cooperative Society. A third plot was allotted to another person, who, the whistle-blowers claim, is also related to Mr. Nair, who was the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary when the allotments were made, and still has Minister of State rank. Her identity is being withheld by The Hindu as her relationship to the senior official could not be independently verified. Interestingly, the three sale deeds show that a senior official in Mr. Natarajan's office put his signature to the land transaction as a witness.
Violation
All three transactions violated section 10 (b) of the BEML society's by-laws, which stipulate that allotments of land — which had been given to the society by the State government at significantly subsidised rates — be restricted to employees of the company.
When contacted on Thursday, Ms. Prabha conceded that her connection to BEML is through Mr. Natarajan, whom she described as “a close family friend,” referring to him as “uncle.” Ms. Prabha confirmed that she is indeed T.K.A. Nair's niece (his sister's daughter) and that Ms. Uma Devi Nambiar is “a family friend” who “is very close” to Mr. Nair.
She said: “The plots were not allotted because of our connections [with Mr. Nair and Mr. Natarajan].” When asked about the third allottee, Ms. Prabha's mother abruptly terminated the interview.
Despite repeated efforts to reach Mr. Nair by telephone, The Hindu was unable to obtain his response to a set of questions sent on Friday to the Prime Minister's Communications Adviser and PMO spokesman, Pankaj Pachauri.
The three plots at Channasandra in South Bangalore, each measuring 2,400 sq ft, were all sold in December 2008 for Rs. 10.80 lakh, or Rs. 450 per sq ft. A real estate broker told The Hindu the prevailing market price in the area at that time was Rs. 2,500-Rs. 3,000 per sq ft.
In a letter to the President and the Prime Minister on August 7, 2010, K.S. Periyaswamy, a shareholder and former employee of BEML, complained about the allotments made to the three persons. Alleging that the cooperative society's office-bearers were under pressure from Mr. Natarajan, he said the allotments were made purely because the beneficiaries were connected to Mr. Nair. He also alleged in his letters that the allotments were made to secure the PMO's silence on the Tatra scam.
Although Mr. Periyaswamy got no reply from the Prime Minister's Office or the office of the President, Ms. Umadevi Nambiar and Ms. Preethy Prabha returned the plots to the society without any explanation in December 2010. Asked why the sites were returned, Ms. Prabha said: “We wanted to avoid a controversy.”
On his part, Mr. Natarajan termed Mr. Periyaswamy's allegations “bogus and false” and said that “disgruntled elements” were behind such “conspiracy theories.” He said: “Beyond that I suggest you speak to the president of the housing society.”
Asked how Mr. Nair's relative and friend were allotted sites, the president of the BEML Employees Cooperative Society, N. Munikappa, said: “I don't know. I was not the president then.”
The documents show the sites allotted to Mr. Nair's relatives are part of a list of 173 sites approved by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). Strangely, this list, procured under RTI, only has the site numbers and not the names of the allottees. However, all other approvals by the BDA in the BEML layouts have the full names and details of the allottees. The procedure at the time of allotment is that all short-listed applicants submit an affidavit to the society stating that they are bona fide employees of BEML.
These affidavits are then scrutinised by the BDA before approving the allotments made by a housing society. “In this case, the allottees did not submit these affidavits, in order to escape scrutiny by the BDA,” said Mr. Periyaswamy.
The allotment to Mr. Nair's relative and friend also violated a 1995 Supreme Court order in the HMT House Building Cooperative Society vs. Syed Khader case upholding a High Court ruling which said: “In case of House Building societies formed in respect of employees of any organisation or industry, the membership should be confined only to the employees who may continue as members even after retirement and the Societies should be prohibited from enrolling outsiders as members. Even if a provision is made for enrolling nominal or associate members in the bye-laws of a housing Society, they should also be bona fide residents within the territorial limits of the Society concerned and they should be rendered ineligible for allotment of sites.”
Keywords: BEML, irregular land allotment, Bangalore Development Authority, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Adviser, T.K.A. Nair, Preethy Prabha, whistle-blower
Consider the retirement benefits of the highest ranked officer such as Mr. Nair. About 60 lakhs in cash and a monthly pension. This is not even sufficient to buy a 2 BHK flat in Bangalore in a prime locality. There is no way the official could pass on financial benefits to dear relations & friends by honest means while in service or after retirement. This is the root cause for grabbing valuable house sites and flats at throw away prices while in service. A honest officer will try his/her best to make the allotment seem entirely legal, such as by amendment to bye-laws, issue of (de)notification, etc, which we notice already in the denials. Why are the land prices keep going up? The expanding economy has created many new jobs in manufacturing and service sectors, which is most welcome. The undesirable aspect is the uneven distribution of the expansion in money circulation and wealth. A honest officer helps to create the new money/wealth but only for others! Is there a way out?
This is indeed unbelievable. One wonders whether the PM was aware of the goings on.Such unsavoury incidents could be possible only if the CMDs are under obligations of the PMO and 10-Janpath since the times of their initial appointments. The unethical practices are common in case of appointments of CMDs and other Board members of NavRatna PSUs .All cases need to be re-opened by the CBI in the interest of transparency.Details must be kept in the public domain.Roles of wheelers and dealers having nexus with unscrupulous politicians must be probed.There have been whispers of big 'Quid pro quo' deals in these appointments under political patronage.Roles of Secretaries and Ministers-in-charge have been dicey with utter mis-use of discretionary powers. Merit is the obvious casualty in such appointments.Such malpractices took and have been taking place both during the NDA and UPA regimes.
Persons inducted into PMO should have highest standard of moral code. Unfortunately, our recommending authorities for such key persons do have ulterior motives to transplant black sheeps.Our system is so putrified that it is almost impossible to rely upon anyone who could further the cause of the nation honestly.To me it appears that present day's education system, blatant materialism and lack of patriotism are factors behind such sordid state of affaires prevalent in the country.Instead of relying upon age old proven Indic moral ethics we have borrowed and assimilated imperical trivias in the name of modernity of Jholawalas.With all this, we can only multiply traiters and money makers.
Now more than ever we need a strong Lokpal bill with Lok Ayuktas in the States to monitor corruption in high places. Eventually by and large the lower bureaucracy to will fall in line.
Politicians in connivance with sensation seeking media have managed to confuse the public on a number of issues raised by Anna Hazare.
We must support Anna Hazare now more than ever!
Mr.Nair - just resign and go home.
when will poor India and its not soooo influential people get justice
Your report states that as per the society's bye-laws the applicants should submit an affidavit stating that they are bona fide employees of BEML. This procedure itself is the root cause for this episode. Why an affidavit? Why the applicant was not asked to submit a regular employment certificate from the BEML itself duly verifying his signature along with his photo identity. This could have been cross checked with the employee's ID card issued by the employer. This shows that the society itself framed the rules in such a way that they contain in-built provisions for manipulations. As Bofors expo under N.Ram so is PMO's exposure under Siddarth Varadarajan. Both are catching nation's attention now through The Hindu.Good luck. This episode strengthens the case for a strong Lokpal Bill. As a Tamil proverb goes, if the PMO itself is like this what is the future of this country? Of course the big question is who cares for the country. No wonder, S & P has categorized India as 'Negative'.
How can we be proud Indians with such corrupt persons ruling us?I thank The Hindu and it's staff!
Co-Operative societies from many employees unions of National and State govt firms, and their allotment of sites to people is seems like another big scandal waiting to go off.
Where the buck stops? If I am the leader of an organization, am I not responsible for the acts of omissions and commissions by my organization? Is there no Statesman or an honest person in the ministry who can own up once and say, "because that person committed an offense while working for me, I take moral responsibility and resign". how many more cabinet ministers and assistants need to be convicted before the 'clean' person's brain can be activated to make a correct decision? Have we not had enough from this government and this ministry?
I congratulate The Hindu, its Editor Mr Sidharth Varadarajan and Sudipto Mandol for this classic report. This is an excellent example of investigative journalism. We need more of this. No other English newspaper would have published this expose even if they had all the evidence with them for obvious reasons. Only those with Editorial integrity and those who are above narrow considerations will publish such explosive stuff. The pattern is clear. First Mr A K Antony, who is touted as a clean man from Kerala, failed to act on a Defence scam that was brought to his notice by an upright Army Chief Shri V K Singh. Now, Mr Nair has misused the trust reposed in him by our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and favoured his niece, close friend and another unnamed woman. We do not know what else Mr Nair has done to benefit his near and dear ones. The Hindu must probe that. Before more evidence emerges, Mr Nair must quit.
The reputation of the Manmohan Singh government is waning so fast that even friendly media is finding it difficult to help maintain its sheen. Nothing can save it from disaster in 2014.
Appreciate the wonderful work from Hindu. Common citizens try to purchase land investing all the hard earned money though prices are hyped up by the realtors. They struggle to secure the land from goons. While people in respectable position do such cheap things grabbing the land that was supposed to be given to the middle class employees. I am deeply dejected at the events coming to light for the past few days. But as it happens always, we will struggle to live our way in India as it is all black box for us and comes to know only when media brings it to news.
It seems to me that Mr. TKA Nair has zero ethics and corrupt from top to bottom. Such are the persons employed as principal secretary. Imagine how many files he would have 'moved' in nexus with political leadership and middlemen. These people must be prosecuted and the most harsh punishment must be handed out to them. These rogues are selling the nation. TKA Nair has brought shame to the post he holds.
Tehelka says the third allotee who has not given up the land is the daughter of TKA Nair. Why Hindu is afraid of publishing this? "Luther claims in his petition that sites were even allotted to relatives and friends of an official in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)." Two sites were allotted to Umadevi Nambiar and Preetha Prabha, who are complete outsiders and are benamis for TKA Nair, an advisor to the PMO. However, after our complaint was filed, they returned the sites that they had been allotted. However, Dr Priya, Nair's daughter, who was also allotted a site in Bangalore, continues to retain its ownership," says Luther."
I am reminded of Manmohan Singh's statements in Parliament on the 2G scandal. He was not aware of anything -- ignorant, therefore innocent. How long can we continue to believe in MMS's 'honesty.' 'integrity', 'uprightness', 'sincerity'etc.
Sir, It is well known that the by-laws of any Co-operative Society in India formed for the benefits of employees in an industry permit only employees who are called members of the society to avail of any benefit i.e. seeking loans, allotment of housing sites or consumer facilities etc. Non-members are strictly prohibited to avail of the benefits. In the instate case, the allotment of house sites to a niece and to a friend of Prime Minister Manmohn Singh,T.K.A Nair in December 2008 who is not an employee of BEML, a public sector defence undertaking is clear violation of law. Since the Prime Minister is credited with honesty, it has become the duty of PMO to order an investigation by an appropriate agency.
If a Bangaru Lakshman is shown the entrance of Tihar jail after eleven years for just one lakh rupees,T K A Nair must be given visa to Tihar immediately since his crime is much bigger and may be a tip of the ice berg.we do not know how many more IAS officers will fall in queue since the cadre lost its glory long back.Thanks to the Hindu for unearthing truth.
Almost a half century ago,the Indian Administrative service was the
most respected one with such personalities like H V R Iyengar,R K Vepa
etc and the recent Sreedharan of Delhi Metro whom people adored as
illustious administraters.Today it is getting difficult to single out
any one as Mr,Clean among its cadres since every second day some one's
name appears in the list of corrupt!As a long time reader I thank the
Hindu for exposing those close to even the supposed to be Mr.Clean
PM,Dr.MMS.They are the cream of Acadamics and One wonders why greed
increases with seniority even though the IAS officers are well paid
with many perks.
It shows clearly that who is having power and position can alter the law as per the convenience. It is too pity to think of the ordinary citizen's of this great country.I am really surprize to know how thes people reached to PMO level. I remeber a stement made by former SC judge that this country can be saved even by GOD until all this kutty sathana are vanished.
BEML also have house building society in heritage city of mysore. god only knows how many political people close to natarajan has been alloted the plots. there is every possibilities that in this society also there may be irregularities.
It is proven beyond doubt that if you have godfathers sitting in PMO or finance ministry, you can reach top position of any PSU Bank or company. Present, CMD of Bank of Baroda, Mr Mallaya owes it all to his mentors in finance ministry. Even his predecessor Anil Khandelwal ruled Bank of Baroda like his private property and made lot of money. He was appointed as CMD of Dena Bank but managed to come to Bank of Baroda in few months as CMD due to his close connection with Chidambram. There are endless of list of such chums, who reached the places where they do not deserve to be. This menace needs to be checked by having a differnt approach and methodology for appointments to such high positions.
So the never retiring TKA Nair of the high and mighty IAS of PMO has also fallen. IAS always lives by getting and doing favours. They always occupy positions at high echelons early in career enabling them to do so. This news would have been treated not worth reporting, if Tatra trouble had not erupted and the land prices not soared. Many members of IAS, even if they are not as corrupt as the notorious Joshi Couple, routinely bestow low level fixes to friends & relations ; securing sought after housing board plots in good areas, increasing seats in colleges or transfer of admission from rural Medical College to Madras etc. Most of us think that this is no big deal. In fact, we might look for an opportunity to cultivate an IAS, just in case we need. It can hardly be gainsaid that IAS is a service which lives by the ethos of mutual back scratching and "Put in a word" culture. Their hegemony in government is to the root cause.
Is this a big offense or an allegation against a very clean person Mr. Nair? He has not done anything for his personal benefit. All know his unquestionable credibility and honesty. There are only few officers in our country with such clean images. Please leave him alone.
let more these type of scams come to light.. let the people know the facts of the plots and allottments of each and every society. . thank u hindu for bringing this to light..
The Hindu expose the activities of PMO . Most people out there end up believing exactly what they want to believe even when the truth is staring them right in the face.Manmohan Singh wants us to believe that his policies have worked and corruption was eliminated.
'With the corporate media in the hands of the mostly conservative wealthy. It is difficult for average Indians to learn the truth about critical issues'. Lie of PMO is trickle down. The Hindu, exposing the myths about honest P M. Thanks for timely informative news.
This is indeed unbelievable. One wonders whether the PM was aware of the goings on.Such unsavoury incidents could be possible only if the CMDs are under obligations of the PMO and 10-Janpath since the times of their initial appointments. The unethical practices are common in case of appointments of CMDs and other Board members of NavRatna PSUs like ,NTPC,SAIL,ONGC,CIL,IOC, BHEL etc.All appointments need to be re-opened by the CBI in the interest of transparency.Details must be kept in the public domain.Roles of wheelers and dealers having nexus with unscrupulous politicians must be probed.There have been whispers of big 'Quid pro quo' deals in these appointments under political patronage.Roles of Secretaries and Ministers-in-charge have been dicey with utter mis-use of discretionary powers. Merit is the obvious casualty in such appointments.Such malpractices took and have been taking place both during NDA and UPA regimes
Mr Periaswamy was unfairly terminated from his job by BEML for asking questions about governance. He has suffered for the last 10 years as a whistleblower and a patriot doing the duty of every citizen. The Presidents he wrote to ignored his letters. This clearly shows that Corruption is the new master and it tramples whistleblowers with impunity. The tools of the master are legal threats, termination of source of livelihood, false criminal cases and non-responsiveness to queries. Media by not stepping in has allowed this to go on. Whistleblowers have no guardian angel in this country.
Bringing such issues to light is essential to moralize society and ensure transparency, justice, equality and freedom. One could go a step further by requiring the private sector also to respect these fundamental principles and values.
No wonders.anything can happen here
It is unfair criticism of a Prime Minister who maintains decorum and decency to the extent that even the wrong doers are given fair access to judicial process not withstanding the fact that they do not deserve it. The insinuation that the PM relies on corruption to rule the country is also equally unjustified as the PM does not replace every member of the PMO with his hand picked staff. As every PM does, the PM simply inherits the PMO and secretariat staff.
IF THE GENERAL STOCK OF THE NATION is CORRUPT with "SAB KUCH CHALTA HAI" VALUE what can one PM alone do - except to ensure due process to punish the guilty is followed as and when corruption is brought to light?
Every one knows that the vested interests that controlled the influential upper house lobby are still very much still in control of projects will see the light of day and what will not - Eg: the VIP chopper deal vs Lokpal and Economic reform. What is required now is a zero tolerance to corruption. We've had enough.
It is example for abuse of power and position. Law makers are Law breakers when it comes to their favour. Other wise bring all rules and regulation, norms, estoppel to deny the entitlement to straight forward General who has nailed the corrupts. Date of birth as per birth certificate or SSC is not accepted but some flimsy paper is given weight and the Most deserving General of the Indian Army ever had General VK Singh is pushed out before his due date of retirement as per actual date of birth of 10 May 1951. Hats off and Jaiho to the Hindu for exposing the rot by the dears and nears to the Power.
Indian people are suffering out of price hike in fuel, daily used commodities, suffering without infrastructure, lack of law order and children are dieing out of malnutrition. In this situation, beuracrats sitting at PMO is committing such a very brutal crime. These people deserve no mercy and should be stoned to death. Other beuracrats should think twice before doing this kind of activity again. What has our dear PM has to say about this? I'm sure he will keep his silence on this also and reply after one year. Have we really got Independence? It would have been good if we live under British rule because still we are living as one kind of slaves under these corrupt politicians and beauracrats.
Very Sorry and Crying for my Motherland....Thanks to HINDU team for bringing this out boldly!
Mr.TKA Nair is instrumental in elevating lot of PSU executives to CEO
status including banks, industry and the Government bureaucrats.
Probably with this exposure he can be termed as a wheel dealer sitting
in PMO helping friends everywhere in posts where it matters.
The point is that the Prime Minister, his office, the Chief vigilance Commissioner, the Ministry of defence and other authorities have been sitting over specific complaints made to them since 2005. Obviously there is a vast network of people who have benefited from the BEML largesse. I'm sure nothing will be done because as a people we lack character and that is also reflected in the working of our investigating agencies.
Such audacious & blatant misuse of authority for personal enrichmnet,is because India does not have an investigative/ legal system in place even today to punish the guilty/ confiscate their ill-gotten wealth. India's criminal justice system is lax and most get away scot free, laughing all the way upto their banks, literally even for a murder. For a few convicted by a court of law, neither their ill gotten wealth is confiscated nor their journey from home to prison made an ordeal to remember ,because someone within the system inevitably bails them out .And these so called ‘leaders’ will never allow to table or pass any strong legislation today that will stop thier free run or punish the guilty amongst them . There are hundreds of such LAND SCAMS waiting to be unearthed across India.The Windsor estate sale in TN during the tenure of the previous Govt is one such.
A socially active & politicaly engaged public with a responsible media is a must to stop this plunder.
My compliments on breaking this story.
I suggest the phone calls received by society member be traced to verify if PMO called upon BEML to allot these lands.
BEML cmd was sharing dais with prime minister sri manmohan singh when a unit was established in 'Brazil' this shows how close the natarajan was to PMO CIRCLES. also how a non technical man can head a psu defence unit is a mystery.
These are all small things as in organistions around Delhi where land prices are skyrocketed. Let there be full scale enquiries, many things would come out where undesired benefits have been pocketed by people who have been close tp powers-that-be.
The fundamental problem is with the discretionary powers that ministers and govt
officials enjoy and the outdated laws. While a common man can never dream to buy a piece of land, politicians and govt officials abuse power and loot national wealth.There was a time when PSU salaries were really very low compared to what private sector employees were getting paid, however that is not the case today. Per Capita land area available today is far less when compared to what was available in 1947. India is creating a new generation of feudal class by providing these largesses to PSU employees and Politicians.
When every thing is out of control of PM then why does he still want to remain prime minister? Every thing has its own limit. We are hearing
scam daily and Pm instead of curbing the scam is engaged in increasing
the price of petroleum product. Thanks to The Hindu to expose PMO for
this.
I am confused! Do i need to appreciate the journalist investigation on
this matter? or Should i criticize this was a sheer waste effort?
It's unfair or too early to come to a conclusion to assess the damage.
Atleast from above data, i would see an impact was relatively low.But,
the question is 'Who has suffered with above transaction? What is the
loss?' Was there any effort to assess it?
I agree it's violation and if it was illegal they should be punished.But, who is going to take this case forward.Media?? Will they take responsibility? I don't know. There was no point mentioned anywhere that case is being handled by police.
There was point mentioned that a broker was told to Hindu on market prevailing rates. Who has set that rate? Have we ever seen Govt setting the land rates and enforcing people to follow them. The answer is - I don't know. Does it make any sense? Well,we respect the Hindu for its content validity and genuine factors.
It's the time for retrospective.
Now that we know from news reports with respect to Mr Pulok Chatterjee, that the appointments in PMO are made by Sonia Gandhi, who should we hold accountable? The PM or Mrs Gandhi? In our parliamentary system the president is supposed to be the figurehead. But it seems that the PM is also a figurehead. Mr Advani was right when he called Dr Singh the weakest PM ever. The man can't even choose his own advisors. To paraphrase Kapil Sibal, 'The idea that we have a PM is "notional"'!
It gives a limitless frustration in the minds of common citizens that each and every person in politician-bureaucrate nexus are trying to snatch as much as possible for the personal benefits and those in high offices are the worst amongst them. Is this Prime Minister is only seating in his office with closed eyes and with only goal of JUST sticking to power? Enough is enough.
The "The Hindu" newspaper is only paper in India which is worth its
salt. The paper has rejuvenated my lost interest in reading newspaper
daily. Keep it up and keep the society informed by bringing to notice
about all the relevant issues in the plaguing the country.
Infact, all such lots allotments should be stopped and all past allottments to be investigated. In India all are equal and no idea why some people (already rich and powerful) should be officially preferred than the real needy.
Corruption in India, is like a convection current, that keeps circulating from bottom to the top to bottom again. An apparently clean and talented Prime Minister, lacks inner strength and guts to take on the menace of corruption. PM, relies on the corrupt to rule the nation.
I don't know how to thank the staff of The Hindu which is doing all this
detective agency work. Well done. Keep it up! Being a ex-govt employee, I know how many things are manipulated inside. Thanks to RTI and diligent staff of The Hindu. May be it is time for them to recruit candidates in numbers and form groups to look into each Govt dept deals. At least then the fear will make the officials think twice before compromising on rules.
The Contract Official TKA Nair in the Prime Minister Office should be kicked out forthwith from his employment and order for CBI to register FIR and probe to maintain decorum of Prime Minister Office in the public interest, on the Illegal affair of TKA.Nair and Tainted VRS.Natarajan of BEML and the present and past Board of Directors of BEML Employees Co-operative Society Limited at BEML Bangalore and Mysore, including BEML Management Nominated Directors in the Board and the former CVO-BEML Biswas and Kalyani Gopal. These two BEML society Board of Director owns many hundreds acres of agricultural, non-agricultural lands and other immovable properties worth more than one thousand crores acquired in their names and in their family members names in different parts of Bangalore and Mysore, Mandya, Hassan, Kolar Districts in Karnataka by cheating BEML Employees cum Society members in large scale in collude with Tainted VRS.Natarajan and BR.Subramanyaam Reddy of BEML.
I complement the Hindu for the above exposure.If all the scams are
brought to light,the media may have to give just single line coverage
to each scam. By the way,a scam connecting Mr Clean,although not directly.
Please Email the Editor