Good to enlighten us with the scams.

regards

rajive

>From: vagish Jha <vagishkj@...>
>Reply-To: biharchintan@...
>To: Bihar Chintan <biharchintan@...>
>Subject: [biharchintan] Flood Relief Scam in Bihar-Part II
>Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 08:38:04 +0530
>
>Second part of the report of the Indian Express on the Flood relief
>Scam in Bihar.
>Vagish
>
>Indian Express, 25 April 2005
>THE BIHAR FLOOD SCAM - PART II
>Relief truck sets out with sattu, delivers polythene bags
>BIHAR: Rs 37 lakh for stay of flood relief crew, Rs 11 lakh for their
>snacks while more than 800 drowned and five fell to police bullets in
>fight for relief
>VARGHESE K GEORGE
>Posted online: Monday, April 25, 2005 at 0221 hours IST
>
>PATNA, APRIL 24: If the Bihar Flood Scam, exposed by The Sunday
>Express yesterday, is a shocking story of relief funds being swindled
>while more than 800 drowned in the swirling waters last July-August
>and at least five fell to police bullets in relief riots, details of
>how officials cooked up bills to divert money borders on the bizarre.
>Records maintained by former Patna DM Gautam Goswami, a high-profile
>IAS officer who was selected by Time magazine as an Asian Hero, gives
>away the scandal easily: one truck, for instance, is shown to have
>carried sattu (roasted gram flour) from Patna to Khagaria while it
>actually delivered polythene bags.
>A shocking string of similar discrepancies have surfaced in the audit
>ordered into the flood relief efforts by Sudhir Kumar, Patna DM, who
>took charge after Goswami quit the service to join the Sahara group
>four months ago.
>And an investigation by The Indian Express, backed by official
>documents, shows that the Government cannot explain what happened to
>most of the Rs 17 crore it had spent on flood relief (see box).
>According to sources, an audit by Patna district administration early
>this month has pegged the maximum worth of relief material actually
>supplied to flood victims between July-August 2004 at Rs 7 crore.
>The movement of relief material is supposed to have been recorded at
>three different places: in a daily despatch register, in receipts
>collected from destinations and in reports sent to the relief
>commissioner for funds.
>But in most cases, these documents do not match.
>The Indian Express has a copy of one such official document that
>traces relief material movement on July 22, 2004:
>&#8226; The despatch register shows that 18 trucks left for Khagaria and
>Samastipur. As per receipts, 11 trucks reached these destinations
>between July 22-23. But the list sent to the relief commissioner shows
>that 20 trucks were despatched during that period&#8212;in only one case
>does the truck numbers in the despatch register and the receipt match.
>&#8226; Documents show that truck number BR 1C 7600 left Patna on July 22
>with 4,000 kg of polythene and reached Khagaria next day&#8212;with the
>same
>amount of firewood.
>&#8226; Receipts reveal that truck number BR 1G 6978 supplied 1.9 tonnes of
>plastic to Khagaria, but in other documents the same vehicle is shown
>to have carried sattu.
>
>Then again, expenditure records on hotels and restaurants show that
>while the flood victims waited, relief seemed to be flowing in a
>different direction. Consider these:
>&#8226; During this period, bills for tea and snacks at Patna's Airport
>Restaurant ran up to Rs 11 lakh in less than a month&#8212;another coffee
>house was paid Rs 2 lakh.
>
>&#8226; Maurya, Samrat and Pataliputra hotels were paid Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10
>lakh and 12 lakh, respectively, for accommodation of IAF crew flying
>relief material.
>
>But the then Patna DM, Goswami, wrote to the relief department saying
>''nearly Rs 1 crore'' was spent on the crew. Goswami wrote on August
>13: ''We have spent nearly Rs 1 crore on crew members... and another
>Rs 75 lakh spent on jawans and their vehicles... It may please be
>noted that suppliers and hotels have already submitted bills... and
>their payment is extremely urgent.''
>No bill from any hotel was, or is, pending with the Patna district
>administration.
>**************************************
>
>Box Item
>WHAT SURFACED AFTER THE GREAT FLOOD
>
>An investigation by The Indian Express, backed by official documents,
>showed that Patna's DM Gautam Goswami got Rs 13 crore as flood relief.
>He added another Rs 5 crore which the Chief Secretary alleges were
>diverted from Railway funds.
>Goswami paid Rs 17.18 crore to Bihar Small Scale Industries
>Corporation (BSSIC), the organisation in charge of supplying relief
>material.
>But BSSIC says it supplied material worth only Rs 22 lakh and has so
>far been paid only Rs 13 lakh. The rest of the money, documents show,
>went to an employee of BSSIC, one B K Singh.
>BSSIC says there is no employee by that name. Reached for his comments
>in Lucknow, Goswami denied there was a scam and said his name was
>dragged into it because people were jealous of him.
>*********************************************
>
>
>
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