Anti-Modi campaigner alleges funds meant for cultural ties with NRIs being misused to "propagate" Gujarat

By A Representative
A senior human rights campaigner has alleged that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is misusing Gujarat government’s NRI funds to “export” ministers, police officers, IAS bureaucrats and senior government functionaries to other Indian states in order to “propagate” Gujarat’s progress. Well-known anti-Modi crusader Shabman Hashmi, in association with several Gujarat-based activists Mahesh Pandya, Hemant Shah, Manan Trivedi and Gautam Thakker, said this while releasing documents which state that the government's NRI funds, meant to establish cultural ties with non-resident Gujaratis living abroad, are being illegitimately used for Modi poll propaganda.
Calling this “shocking”, Hashmi read out government documents which said funds for Modi’s “programme” in other states -- including for his ambitious Statue of Unity project for building world’s tallest building in the memory of Sardar -- should be “drawn and debited from Demand No 33 Account Head 2052-Secretariat General Services, 090-Secretariat (5) Non-Resident Indian Department –Grant-in-aid allocated under Account Head 3135- Grant in aid to others for organizing programme.”
“According to information available with us 172 Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of state, MPs, MLA, mayors, deputy speakers, chief whip, deputy whip, and panchayat presidents have been deputed to travel across the country. Apart from these 116 government officers including IGs, collectors, chief conservators of forest, deputy secretaries, information officers, principal secretaries, chief general managers, police superintendents, DIGs, DDOs, DCP and many other officers have also been deputed by the government to propagate Gujarat progress story in various states”, Hashmi said.
The documents with her, she said, “has made special exemption for officers who are not entitled to travel by air to travel by flights”. Thus, the general administration department’s (GAD’s) government resolutions (GRs) issued on November 15, 2013, one of which is called “No BNG/102013421(2)-NRI”, says, “Permission is hereby granted for air travel in economy class in case of necessity as special case, by relaxing Gujarat Civil Service (Traveling Allowance) Rules, 2002.”
The purpose, a GR said, is to allow “air travel to the office bearers who are part of the delegation and not otherwise entitled for air travel as also in case of members of teams of administrative officers and if so required, by officers/employees of Non-Resident Gujarat Pratisthan for visiting other States for dissemination of information on ‘Statue of Unity’ project under ‘Sadaa Kaal Gujarat’ programme.”
The GR further states: “For the purpose of meeting expenditure to be incurred on accommodation, lunch or dinner, local transportation and other contingency expenditure in relation to the program would be required during visit of high level delegation and officers/employees of administrative team to respective State, permission is hereby granted to place at disposal of Liaison Officer of respective team an amount of Rs.5.00 lakhs (Rupees five lakhs only) as advance.”
Hashmi said, release of functions form the state’s NRI funds fun counter to the functions of the NRI department, as the Gujarat government website http://www.nri.gujarat.gov.in/objective-nri-fond.htm says the “objectives of the NRI division” is to “establish effective communication with NRIs of Gujarati origin in various parts of the world, prepare and maintain a comprehensive database about NRIs of Gujarati origin” and to “study from time to time social and cultural issues of NRIs of Gujarati origin and take steps to formulate schemes for meeting their requirements.”
Other functions include:
· To take effective steps to survey and assess the technical and professional skills of NRIs and to dovetail the same in the developmental efforts of the State.
· To create a database on NRGs (Non Resident Gujaratis), highlighting the professional areas of interest.
· To enable Government of Gujarat and its agencies to communicate with NRGs with relevant interest.
· To facilitate Government of Gujarat to initiate steps to address specific needs of NRGs in different fields.
· To tap the technological, managerial and financial resources of the NRI so as to upgrade the technical and professional skills and the human resources of the State, for the economic and industrial development of the State.
· To channelize the savings and surplus financial resources of the NRI in to the developmental efforts of the State for mutual benefits.
· To monitor the general welfare of the NRI and in times of crisis identify specific problems of Gujarati NRI groups and take up the same with and through Government of India.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog