Today Opposition leader comes with some arguments and comments abt yesterdays attack on media persons at kottayam . Some of the intruders used the venue to attck media persons .
Why Police didnt interfear on the site
media repoerters said that they are under threat for more than 3 hours. I am asking where is the police, I strongly Doubt it is a drama by the ruling party and police
Ruling party is famous for playing dramas , we had seen it on last week britas- pharis drama on karaili
Monday, August 13, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Attack on Media - Minority convention at Kottayam
All medias are highlighting the attack on media persons, and no one has given coverage for the convention..
From the above fact a man with common sense can guss , who wants such a huge convention to be in dimlight
Who had Created such a ridiculus act.....
As the result of media attack media didnt give a proper coverage to the minority convention . Nearly one lakh people assembled at kottayam , syro malabar , marthomma, latin , chirstian communities gatherd at koottaym
Mar CHrisothom Bishop who inagurated the meeting, Bishop Joseph Powathil did presentioal address. Fr Mthew chandran kunnel and prof Monamma kokkad and Adv. Koshy shared thier ideas and views
Totally it is peacefull rally. no one knows abt the media attack until meeting finished. We request The authorty to findout the real culprit behind it...( but govt is not at all intrested.. beocse of this incident media is againt churches , that is what they want ...good bye)
From the above fact a man with common sense can guss , who wants such a huge convention to be in dimlight
Who had Created such a ridiculus act.....
As the result of media attack media didnt give a proper coverage to the minority convention . Nearly one lakh people assembled at kottayam , syro malabar , marthomma, latin , chirstian communities gatherd at koottaym
Mar CHrisothom Bishop who inagurated the meeting, Bishop Joseph Powathil did presentioal address. Fr Mthew chandran kunnel and prof Monamma kokkad and Adv. Koshy shared thier ideas and views
Totally it is peacefull rally. no one knows abt the media attack until meeting finished. We request The authorty to findout the real culprit behind it...( but govt is not at all intrested.. beocse of this incident media is againt churches , that is what they want ...good bye)
Saturday, August 4, 2007
The Church loses Deepika
The Church loses Deepika
A Muslim NRI entrepreneur gains control of a 120-year-old newspaper owned by the Roman Catholic church in Kerala.
N P Chekkutty
The Roman Catholic Church, the most powerful and influential Christian group in Kerala, is facing an acute embarrassment over the loss of control of its prestigious property, the Deepika newspaper, the first Malayalam newspaper, to an NRI businessman with dubious records.
The 120-year-old Deepika, which was launched in 1887 from Kottayam by venerated Christian evangelists like Nidheerikkal Mani Kathanar and Chavara Kuriakose Elias, who has been elevated to the position of "The Blessed" by the Vatican recently, was officially taken over by a new board of directors, led by M A Pharis alias Pharis Aboobacker, chairman, and Renji Panikkar, a Malayalam film-maker, as vice chairman. Fr.Mathew Arakkal, an important church functionary, who was chairman of the company during past few years, handed over charge to the new team last week. It is for the first time that the Deepika has a non-Christian as its board chairman and members of the Christian laity, who had invested huge amounts of money in the company, are now making a last-ditch bid to recapture control. But it is unlikely that the annual general meeting of the company, scheduled for August 20, will be able to revoke the decision of the board handing over charge to the new team.
What disturbs the church dignitaries and the laymen is the fact that Deepika has been a newspaper which served the community for over a century and its readership is still drawn mainly from the powerful Catholic laity. As the paper had been known as the voice of the Catholic Church, the church leadership is finding it difficult to explain why and how the control had been lost to a corporate raider. The church lost control of the paper despite the best efforts made by a committee led by senior church leaders like Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, major archbishop of the Seiro Malabar Church, and Dr Joseph Powathil, archbishop of Changanassery archdiocese.
The embarrassment becomes more acute as media reports have described the new chairman of the Deepika Company, M A Pharis, as a dubious person with a history of financial misdeeds. He suddenly came into the picture in 2004 with a donation of Rs. 2 crore to the financially ailing Deepika Company, officially known as Rashtra Deepika Private Limited (RDL) following its decision to sell shares through private placement. The loan was welcomed as a relief to the company which was going through a resource crunch. The Deepika chairman, Mathew Arakkal, himself a bishop in the church, had sent out a note to the share-holders dated July 20,2006 in which he made the following statement: "I made sincere attempts to mobilize funds from within the community, but the responses were very disappointing. In these circumstances, I contacted Mr. M A Pharis, a Muslim NRI entrepreneur of considerable resources. He agreed to advance a small interest free loan of Rs. 2 crore to RDL for two years. He said if we were unable to repay the loan, it would be considered as zakkath."(zakkath is a donation for charitable purposes under the Muslim tradition.)
Pharis neither demanded the money back nor has the company made any attempt to pay him back. Instead he was allowed a seat on the board of directors and later was made a vice chairman of the company. In stages, he had advanced around Rs. 10 crore to the company and was practically calling the shots in its editorial policy. It was then the Church leadership came to its senses and found that their traditional newspaper was now taking up a totally different role and was acting more like the voice of a group in the CPM. In the group war in Kerala CPM between senior leaders Pinarayi Vijayan and VS Achuthanandan, Deepika was acting as the unofficial mouthpiece for Pinarayi. It was a curious scene of the newspaper which led the Liberation Struggle in 1958 against the Communists taking up the cudgels for a politburo member of the party against another.
More than this political line, the Church was concerned about the track record of Pharis who had emerged as the real power centre within the paper. He came to public view only a few years ago through news reports in the Straights Times and other papers in Singapore, in connection with the Singapore Kidney Foundation scandal. The Singapore police were investigating a case of swindling in the Government supported Foundation to the tune of millions of dollars and T T Durai, its chairman, and some others were accused in the case. M A Pharis, who was a business associate of Durai, was one of the persons accused in the case, still pending there, and the Singapore courts had issued him a summons.
Worried, the Church decided to raise Rs.10 crore to repay Pharis but he refused to accept the money. At one point there was an agreement between the Church and Pharis that the Church would retain its properties at the headquarters at Kottayam while all other offices and other properties of Deepika elsewhere would go to Pharis as part of the settlement. According to conservative estimates, the assets the Church was willing to part with including a multi-storey building in prime land in Kochi, were worth more than Rs.20 crore, that is more than double his actual investment. It showed how desperate the Church was to salvage its public image. But the agreement could not be implemented as a court ordered a stay on it following a number of suits filed by some shareholders challenging the terms of the agreement.
With the court staying the agreement of a division of the properties in March 2007, there has been a stalemate with the Church keeping out of the paper and Pharis running the show. Satyadeepam, the official weekly publication of the Seiro Malabar Church, recently wrote a strong article condemning the affairs at Deepika and its loss to the Church because of mismanagement. In view of the sharp criticism within the rank, the Church leadership had decided to make known the fact that Deepika was no longer a Christian paper, through a declaration in the various dioceses. The formal exchange of reins at the paper has been done and now it is only a matter of record for the Church to declare that its century-old property is no longer in the service of the Church and its laity.
A Muslim NRI entrepreneur gains control of a 120-year-old newspaper owned by the Roman Catholic church in Kerala.
N P Chekkutty
The Roman Catholic Church, the most powerful and influential Christian group in Kerala, is facing an acute embarrassment over the loss of control of its prestigious property, the Deepika newspaper, the first Malayalam newspaper, to an NRI businessman with dubious records.
The 120-year-old Deepika, which was launched in 1887 from Kottayam by venerated Christian evangelists like Nidheerikkal Mani Kathanar and Chavara Kuriakose Elias, who has been elevated to the position of "The Blessed" by the Vatican recently, was officially taken over by a new board of directors, led by M A Pharis alias Pharis Aboobacker, chairman, and Renji Panikkar, a Malayalam film-maker, as vice chairman. Fr.Mathew Arakkal, an important church functionary, who was chairman of the company during past few years, handed over charge to the new team last week. It is for the first time that the Deepika has a non-Christian as its board chairman and members of the Christian laity, who had invested huge amounts of money in the company, are now making a last-ditch bid to recapture control. But it is unlikely that the annual general meeting of the company, scheduled for August 20, will be able to revoke the decision of the board handing over charge to the new team.
What disturbs the church dignitaries and the laymen is the fact that Deepika has been a newspaper which served the community for over a century and its readership is still drawn mainly from the powerful Catholic laity. As the paper had been known as the voice of the Catholic Church, the church leadership is finding it difficult to explain why and how the control had been lost to a corporate raider. The church lost control of the paper despite the best efforts made by a committee led by senior church leaders like Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, major archbishop of the Seiro Malabar Church, and Dr Joseph Powathil, archbishop of Changanassery archdiocese.
The embarrassment becomes more acute as media reports have described the new chairman of the Deepika Company, M A Pharis, as a dubious person with a history of financial misdeeds. He suddenly came into the picture in 2004 with a donation of Rs. 2 crore to the financially ailing Deepika Company, officially known as Rashtra Deepika Private Limited (RDL) following its decision to sell shares through private placement. The loan was welcomed as a relief to the company which was going through a resource crunch. The Deepika chairman, Mathew Arakkal, himself a bishop in the church, had sent out a note to the share-holders dated July 20,2006 in which he made the following statement: "I made sincere attempts to mobilize funds from within the community, but the responses were very disappointing. In these circumstances, I contacted Mr. M A Pharis, a Muslim NRI entrepreneur of considerable resources. He agreed to advance a small interest free loan of Rs. 2 crore to RDL for two years. He said if we were unable to repay the loan, it would be considered as zakkath."(zakkath is a donation for charitable purposes under the Muslim tradition.)
Pharis neither demanded the money back nor has the company made any attempt to pay him back. Instead he was allowed a seat on the board of directors and later was made a vice chairman of the company. In stages, he had advanced around Rs. 10 crore to the company and was practically calling the shots in its editorial policy. It was then the Church leadership came to its senses and found that their traditional newspaper was now taking up a totally different role and was acting more like the voice of a group in the CPM. In the group war in Kerala CPM between senior leaders Pinarayi Vijayan and VS Achuthanandan, Deepika was acting as the unofficial mouthpiece for Pinarayi. It was a curious scene of the newspaper which led the Liberation Struggle in 1958 against the Communists taking up the cudgels for a politburo member of the party against another.
More than this political line, the Church was concerned about the track record of Pharis who had emerged as the real power centre within the paper. He came to public view only a few years ago through news reports in the Straights Times and other papers in Singapore, in connection with the Singapore Kidney Foundation scandal. The Singapore police were investigating a case of swindling in the Government supported Foundation to the tune of millions of dollars and T T Durai, its chairman, and some others were accused in the case. M A Pharis, who was a business associate of Durai, was one of the persons accused in the case, still pending there, and the Singapore courts had issued him a summons.
Worried, the Church decided to raise Rs.10 crore to repay Pharis but he refused to accept the money. At one point there was an agreement between the Church and Pharis that the Church would retain its properties at the headquarters at Kottayam while all other offices and other properties of Deepika elsewhere would go to Pharis as part of the settlement. According to conservative estimates, the assets the Church was willing to part with including a multi-storey building in prime land in Kochi, were worth more than Rs.20 crore, that is more than double his actual investment. It showed how desperate the Church was to salvage its public image. But the agreement could not be implemented as a court ordered a stay on it following a number of suits filed by some shareholders challenging the terms of the agreement.
With the court staying the agreement of a division of the properties in March 2007, there has been a stalemate with the Church keeping out of the paper and Pharis running the show. Satyadeepam, the official weekly publication of the Seiro Malabar Church, recently wrote a strong article condemning the affairs at Deepika and its loss to the Church because of mismanagement. In view of the sharp criticism within the rank, the Church leadership had decided to make known the fact that Deepika was no longer a Christian paper, through a declaration in the various dioceses. The formal exchange of reins at the paper has been done and now it is only a matter of record for the Church to declare that its century-old property is no longer in the service of the Church and its laity.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Trinity - Pinarayi- Pharis - Arackel
Pinarayi And SNC LAVLIN
KSEB contract for SNC-Lavalin
Malabar Cancer Centre or kick-back?
By K Vijayachandran
The renovation and augmentation (R&A) programme at Pallivasal,
Sengulam and Panniar hydel power stations (aggregate capacity 115 MW)
ordered by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) in 1996, when the
present Secretary of the Kerala CPI (M) was Power Minister of the State,
has turned controversial now, with the CA&AG taking up a performance
audit of the programme, which was completed in 2001.
Brief history of the case: An agreement was signed by the KSEB with
the Canadian project consulting company, SNC Lavalin (SNC-L), in
February 1996 for the supply of project equipment and related services
under Canadian credit. Within a few months, the Left Democratic Front
(LDF) came to power and the new Power Minister took the initiative in renegotiating
the price and other terms and conditions of the contract and
also visited Canada twice for discussions in this regard, the first along
with KSEB officials and the second time in the company of his Chief
Minister, before finally awarding the contract. This much is generally
known to the public at large. However the details now bought out by the
CA&AG through its performance audit are politically damaging for the
Left in general and the CPI (M) in particular.
Facts as I know personally: As a member of the Steering Committee for
Power, constituted by the Kerala State Planning Board in 1996 for
preparing the Ninth Plan, I had the opportunity to study this R&A
programme of the KSEB in some detail, along with Mr Sambamurthy (ex-
Chairman, CEA), who was, at that time, serving as Member (Energy) of
the Planning Board. The three power stations in the Periyar river basin,
with a total of 12 generating machines in the capacity range of 5 to 15
Mw and installed during the period 1940 to 1964, were generating much
below the design capacities for a variety of reasons, including overage of
a couple of components or sub-systems, which could have been set right
by KSEB engineers themselves, with little or marginal assistance and
inputs from organizations and enterprises at the national level. In our
view, there were three fundamental defects in the agreement signed by
the KSEB under the UDF regime: (1) the price agreed to for the supply of
goods and services was quite high, considering the scope of the R&A
programme; (2) contracting the consulting firm for the supply of goods
and services, specified by it, was procedurally wrong and lacking in
transparency and (3) the need for external consultancy was only
marginal and most of the engineering services could be organized
internally within the KSEB organization. Mr Sambamurthy had
conveyed the above understanding to the KSEB Chairman, the Vice-
Chairman of the Planning Board, as well as the Minister. We had also
used our influence, individually as well as jointly, to get from BHEL its
proposals and quotation to do the job on a turnkey basis with or without
credit from the Power Finance Corporation. As I remember, BHEL's price
was around Rs 100 crore, much less than that of the Canadian firm. This
is the last I know personally about this KSEB project.
Prophecy by Ex-CEA Chairman and the Power Secretary: Mr
Sambamurthy had later informed me that the Minister himself was
favouring the Canadians because they had offered to set up a Cancer
Centre in the Chief Minister's constituency in Malabar at a cost of Rs 100
crore. Trading a misconceived power project contract for a healthcare
institution in the Chief Minister's constituency was a new experience for
Mr Sambamurthy and in his view it was a clear violation of the spirit of
the Electricity Act 1948, of which he had been the custodian for several
years. He had cautioned that it was nothing short of political corruption
which would get exposed in no time and could do immense damage to
the movement that we all believed in. Mr Varadachary, IAS, a close friend
of mine and then Power Secretary, had told me that for expressing such
concerns on the file the Minister had openly branded him a madcap.
These honest officials stand vindicated today, more than 100 percent,
and the developments are proving to be so very costly and embarrassing
for the CPI(M). Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan was only a Minister at the time
of committing this indiscretion: he is now the Secretary of the Kerala
contingent of the CPI (M), the largest working class party in the country.
Advice by Balanadan Committee: The expert committee on power
development appointed by the Government under advice from the party
State Committee, with Comrade E Balanandan as Chairman and several
technical experts of international repute and representatives of trade
union executives and associations as members, had refused to endorse
the recommendations of the Canadian consultants and had suggested far
more cost-effective approaches as alternatives after detailed field
investigations and studies. Within seven days of submission of this
report by the expert committee, headed by Mr Balanamdan, the then
President of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a veteran trade
unionist from India's power sector and politburo (PB) member of the CPI
(M), the Cabinet of Ministers headed by another PB member of the party
had put its seal of approval on the SNC-L contract. That was very typical
of the power equation that prevails in the Kerala CPI (M) even today.
Recent newspaper reports: Just before the damaging CA&AG document
got leaked to the press, Tthe Hindu had reported on July 1, 2005 from
Kannur: The Malabar Cancer Centre (MCC) in north Kerala is struggling for
survival even as the controversy over its funding by Canadian company
SNC Lavalin is raging. Cancer patients from the northern districts continue
to go to distant places in Kerala and neighbouring States for treatment as
MCC has been functioning without even a radiotherapy unit, which is the
basic requirement for a cancer centre. SNC Lavalin had promised Rs 983
million to the MCC as a reward to the contract awarded to them for
renovating the Pallivasal, Cherkulam and Panniyar hydel power projects
at an estimated cost of Rs 2.83 billion. The work on the cancer centre was
started after the Canadian company provided the first instalment of Rs120
million after which they have remained silent. The MCC has now only 12
doctors and 65 beds as against the original plan of 276 beds
and....Quoting the CA&AG draft, The Hindu of July 10 reported: The R&M
project, executed at a colossal cost of Rs 374.50 crores, did not result in
any improvement in power generation at Pallivasal, Sengulam and
Panniar, which had a combined generation capacity of 115.5 MW of
electricity. On the contrary, because of various technical defects in the
renovated equipment, the power stations at these three places did not
achieve the pre-renovation generation levels when the R&M was completed
in 2001.
Actual generation at these three stations in 2002-03 was only 371
million units which was less than 60% of the design capacity. This
supports the contentions of the AG's report that the R&M project as
implemented by the Canadian consultant did not meet the declared
objective, even though the cost was substantially high compared to the
options available to KSEB.
Defence by Kerala CPI (M): With charges of political corruption and
kick-back in the SNC-L deal mounting against its, the Kerala CPI (M)
Secretary is on the defensive and there is a plethora of explanations from
the top, such as:
(1) The CA&AG report is a mere hoax to discredit the party.
(2) The main target of the leak was A K Antony. It was a part of the
ongoing feud within the Congress Party.
(3) The original agreement was signed by the UDF, and the LDF cannot
be blamed for poor performance or non-performance.
(4) The LDF Minister brought down the cost during his visits to Canada
and discussions with SNC-L.
(5) The BHEL offer and the Balanandan Committee recommendations
could not be considered because the contract was closed by the UDF and
cancellation would have led to arbitration in Paris.
(6) The balance money of Rs 89 crore for the Malabar Cancer Centre
could have been collected if the UDF had made an earnest try.
(7) The LNC-L offer for social services was only Rs 40 crore originally and
the LDF could increase this to Rs 100 crore.
Self-defeating explanations: Explanations 1 to 4 were flimsy and
mutually contradictory and quickly went out of circulation. Regarding
(5), one may say that going for arbitration would have (a) served public
interest in a big way by substantially reducing the project cost, (b) helped
to re-assert the policy of support to the public sector for strengthening
national self-reliance, (c) won the confidence of the employees of KSEB,
their TUs and other professionals who had participated in the
Balanandan study and (d) exposed the UDF for political corruption and
kick-backs in foreign contracts.
Guilty of political corruption: Explanations (6) and (7) are even more
harmful politically, for The Hindu had reported: SNC Lavalin had
promised Rs 983 million to the MCC as a reward to the contract awarded
to them for renovating the Pallivasal, Cherkulam and Panniyar hydel
power projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2.83 billion. This is tantamount
to political corruption and kick-backs on foreign contracts, as in the case
of Bofors and other defence deals, the Enron scandal or Jayanti Shipping
of Dharma Teja and violated the very spirit of the Electricity Act 1948, as
alleged by Mr Sambamurthy and Mr Varadachary. Even more important
are the legality and transparency related to such payments: Who was
supposed to pay for the MCC, by what instrument, when and for what
purpose? If already Rs 11 crore was paid as reported by The Hindu; who
paid it, who received it, who spent it and who has accounted for it? MCC
is a Government organization with the Chief Minister as Chairman.
KSEB is accountable to the State Legislature, the Power Minister and
also to the State Tariff Regulatory Authority. And all of them are
accountable to the people at large. As it is, everybody, including the
media, takes it as just another example of corruption or kick-back, and
counts that nothing at all will happen despite the stir and noise.
Mr Vijayachandran, an engineering and management consultant based at Kochi,
with long experience in the design of energy systems, technology transfer, R and D
management, corporate planning, policy reviews and public sector administration,
is an occasional contributor to Passline Business Magazine.
KSEB contract for SNC-Lavalin
Malabar Cancer Centre or kick-back?
By K Vijayachandran
The renovation and augmentation (R&A) programme at Pallivasal,
Sengulam and Panniar hydel power stations (aggregate capacity 115 MW)
ordered by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) in 1996, when the
present Secretary of the Kerala CPI (M) was Power Minister of the State,
has turned controversial now, with the CA&AG taking up a performance
audit of the programme, which was completed in 2001.
Brief history of the case: An agreement was signed by the KSEB with
the Canadian project consulting company, SNC Lavalin (SNC-L), in
February 1996 for the supply of project equipment and related services
under Canadian credit. Within a few months, the Left Democratic Front
(LDF) came to power and the new Power Minister took the initiative in renegotiating
the price and other terms and conditions of the contract and
also visited Canada twice for discussions in this regard, the first along
with KSEB officials and the second time in the company of his Chief
Minister, before finally awarding the contract. This much is generally
known to the public at large. However the details now bought out by the
CA&AG through its performance audit are politically damaging for the
Left in general and the CPI (M) in particular.
Facts as I know personally: As a member of the Steering Committee for
Power, constituted by the Kerala State Planning Board in 1996 for
preparing the Ninth Plan, I had the opportunity to study this R&A
programme of the KSEB in some detail, along with Mr Sambamurthy (ex-
Chairman, CEA), who was, at that time, serving as Member (Energy) of
the Planning Board. The three power stations in the Periyar river basin,
with a total of 12 generating machines in the capacity range of 5 to 15
Mw and installed during the period 1940 to 1964, were generating much
below the design capacities for a variety of reasons, including overage of
a couple of components or sub-systems, which could have been set right
by KSEB engineers themselves, with little or marginal assistance and
inputs from organizations and enterprises at the national level. In our
view, there were three fundamental defects in the agreement signed by
the KSEB under the UDF regime: (1) the price agreed to for the supply of
goods and services was quite high, considering the scope of the R&A
programme; (2) contracting the consulting firm for the supply of goods
and services, specified by it, was procedurally wrong and lacking in
transparency and (3) the need for external consultancy was only
marginal and most of the engineering services could be organized
internally within the KSEB organization. Mr Sambamurthy had
conveyed the above understanding to the KSEB Chairman, the Vice-
Chairman of the Planning Board, as well as the Minister. We had also
used our influence, individually as well as jointly, to get from BHEL its
proposals and quotation to do the job on a turnkey basis with or without
credit from the Power Finance Corporation. As I remember, BHEL's price
was around Rs 100 crore, much less than that of the Canadian firm. This
is the last I know personally about this KSEB project.
Prophecy by Ex-CEA Chairman and the Power Secretary: Mr
Sambamurthy had later informed me that the Minister himself was
favouring the Canadians because they had offered to set up a Cancer
Centre in the Chief Minister's constituency in Malabar at a cost of Rs 100
crore. Trading a misconceived power project contract for a healthcare
institution in the Chief Minister's constituency was a new experience for
Mr Sambamurthy and in his view it was a clear violation of the spirit of
the Electricity Act 1948, of which he had been the custodian for several
years. He had cautioned that it was nothing short of political corruption
which would get exposed in no time and could do immense damage to
the movement that we all believed in. Mr Varadachary, IAS, a close friend
of mine and then Power Secretary, had told me that for expressing such
concerns on the file the Minister had openly branded him a madcap.
These honest officials stand vindicated today, more than 100 percent,
and the developments are proving to be so very costly and embarrassing
for the CPI(M). Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan was only a Minister at the time
of committing this indiscretion: he is now the Secretary of the Kerala
contingent of the CPI (M), the largest working class party in the country.
Advice by Balanadan Committee: The expert committee on power
development appointed by the Government under advice from the party
State Committee, with Comrade E Balanandan as Chairman and several
technical experts of international repute and representatives of trade
union executives and associations as members, had refused to endorse
the recommendations of the Canadian consultants and had suggested far
more cost-effective approaches as alternatives after detailed field
investigations and studies. Within seven days of submission of this
report by the expert committee, headed by Mr Balanamdan, the then
President of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a veteran trade
unionist from India's power sector and politburo (PB) member of the CPI
(M), the Cabinet of Ministers headed by another PB member of the party
had put its seal of approval on the SNC-L contract. That was very typical
of the power equation that prevails in the Kerala CPI (M) even today.
Recent newspaper reports: Just before the damaging CA&AG document
got leaked to the press, Tthe Hindu had reported on July 1, 2005 from
Kannur: The Malabar Cancer Centre (MCC) in north Kerala is struggling for
survival even as the controversy over its funding by Canadian company
SNC Lavalin is raging. Cancer patients from the northern districts continue
to go to distant places in Kerala and neighbouring States for treatment as
MCC has been functioning without even a radiotherapy unit, which is the
basic requirement for a cancer centre. SNC Lavalin had promised Rs 983
million to the MCC as a reward to the contract awarded to them for
renovating the Pallivasal, Cherkulam and Panniyar hydel power projects
at an estimated cost of Rs 2.83 billion. The work on the cancer centre was
started after the Canadian company provided the first instalment of Rs120
million after which they have remained silent. The MCC has now only 12
doctors and 65 beds as against the original plan of 276 beds
and....Quoting the CA&AG draft, The Hindu of July 10 reported: The R&M
project, executed at a colossal cost of Rs 374.50 crores, did not result in
any improvement in power generation at Pallivasal, Sengulam and
Panniar, which had a combined generation capacity of 115.5 MW of
electricity. On the contrary, because of various technical defects in the
renovated equipment, the power stations at these three places did not
achieve the pre-renovation generation levels when the R&M was completed
in 2001.
Actual generation at these three stations in 2002-03 was only 371
million units which was less than 60% of the design capacity. This
supports the contentions of the AG's report that the R&M project as
implemented by the Canadian consultant did not meet the declared
objective, even though the cost was substantially high compared to the
options available to KSEB.
Defence by Kerala CPI (M): With charges of political corruption and
kick-back in the SNC-L deal mounting against its, the Kerala CPI (M)
Secretary is on the defensive and there is a plethora of explanations from
the top, such as:
(1) The CA&AG report is a mere hoax to discredit the party.
(2) The main target of the leak was A K Antony. It was a part of the
ongoing feud within the Congress Party.
(3) The original agreement was signed by the UDF, and the LDF cannot
be blamed for poor performance or non-performance.
(4) The LDF Minister brought down the cost during his visits to Canada
and discussions with SNC-L.
(5) The BHEL offer and the Balanandan Committee recommendations
could not be considered because the contract was closed by the UDF and
cancellation would have led to arbitration in Paris.
(6) The balance money of Rs 89 crore for the Malabar Cancer Centre
could have been collected if the UDF had made an earnest try.
(7) The LNC-L offer for social services was only Rs 40 crore originally and
the LDF could increase this to Rs 100 crore.
Self-defeating explanations: Explanations 1 to 4 were flimsy and
mutually contradictory and quickly went out of circulation. Regarding
(5), one may say that going for arbitration would have (a) served public
interest in a big way by substantially reducing the project cost, (b) helped
to re-assert the policy of support to the public sector for strengthening
national self-reliance, (c) won the confidence of the employees of KSEB,
their TUs and other professionals who had participated in the
Balanandan study and (d) exposed the UDF for political corruption and
kick-backs in foreign contracts.
Guilty of political corruption: Explanations (6) and (7) are even more
harmful politically, for The Hindu had reported: SNC Lavalin had
promised Rs 983 million to the MCC as a reward to the contract awarded
to them for renovating the Pallivasal, Cherkulam and Panniyar hydel
power projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2.83 billion. This is tantamount
to political corruption and kick-backs on foreign contracts, as in the case
of Bofors and other defence deals, the Enron scandal or Jayanti Shipping
of Dharma Teja and violated the very spirit of the Electricity Act 1948, as
alleged by Mr Sambamurthy and Mr Varadachary. Even more important
are the legality and transparency related to such payments: Who was
supposed to pay for the MCC, by what instrument, when and for what
purpose? If already Rs 11 crore was paid as reported by The Hindu; who
paid it, who received it, who spent it and who has accounted for it? MCC
is a Government organization with the Chief Minister as Chairman.
KSEB is accountable to the State Legislature, the Power Minister and
also to the State Tariff Regulatory Authority. And all of them are
accountable to the people at large. As it is, everybody, including the
media, takes it as just another example of corruption or kick-back, and
counts that nothing at all will happen despite the stir and noise.
Mr Vijayachandran, an engineering and management consultant based at Kochi,
with long experience in the design of energy systems, technology transfer, R and D
management, corporate planning, policy reviews and public sector administration,
is an occasional contributor to Passline Business Magazine.
Vartha new daily Planned by M.A pharis to kill Deepika daily
M.A.Pharis
who took over ailing News paper and made it into a profitable venture,initialy Pharis gave VRS to majority of its journalists run it safely and secure for disseminating his hidden agenda.Eventually the moves proved that Pharis acts such drama for Mr Pinarayi Vijayan and his faction in CPIM. Highly influential and media shy Pharis never appeared on the media. Very supportive to the communist party's Pinarayi faction Deepika showed 'outstanding' courage to oppose Kerala's Chief Minister and Mass leader V.S.Achuthanandan.When the chief minister alleged that Deepika is taking money from CIA,the news paper offered Ten million rupees if he proves it. The company decided to start another news paper 'Vartha' by using the network of deepika daily and The Court warnned such move and later the company decided to postpone.
who took over ailing News paper and made it into a profitable venture,initialy Pharis gave VRS to majority of its journalists run it safely and secure for disseminating his hidden agenda.Eventually the moves proved that Pharis acts such drama for Mr Pinarayi Vijayan and his faction in CPIM. Highly influential and media shy Pharis never appeared on the media. Very supportive to the communist party's Pinarayi faction Deepika showed 'outstanding' courage to oppose Kerala's Chief Minister and Mass leader V.S.Achuthanandan.When the chief minister alleged that Deepika is taking money from CIA,the news paper offered Ten million rupees if he proves it. The company decided to start another news paper 'Vartha' by using the network of deepika daily and The Court warnned such move and later the company decided to postpone.
Comment abt M. A pharis - Roshy-Roshyz world
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
Give M A pharis to singapore's court of law
Aboobackar paris(M A Pharis), the chairman of deepika has not done a small scam, it is scam made National Kidney foundation of singapore(NKF) really sinking.It is not just a finacial crime.It is crime that involves so many peoples lives.He is dangerous than al queada and osama bin laden(both of them are from are muslim community no, i just want to repeat one of my old post all muslims are not terrorist but all terrorists are muslims)Like mathrubhumi, mangalam and indiavision i also searche so many places including my deepika friends but i was not able to get a picture or photograph of faris.Like jesus said sheperd will enter through the front door, those who are entering through back door is thief.I just wonder a business minded person like mar arackal how believed faris, or both of them are palying together.Arackal is the most talented business man i have evr seen. Marian college, amal jyothi college and Peerumedu development society(PDS)are the examples of his talent.He became bishop of kanjirappally also by his management skill and making Fr.thalachelloor a mere watchdog of the game.I feel ashamed to see the name of Mr MA pharis in the board of directors of Kanjirappally diocesian co operative bank.he is the only non catholic, and a muslim.Some of my friends hinted that he is having links with some terrorist organisations in india and gets funding from overseas.one of the name we hear in funding marad victims( those muslims run away from marad fearing backlash of hindus).so a dangerous man in the wrong place.beware all people, some time next bomb attack will be in kerala
Give M A pharis to singapore's court of law
Aboobackar paris(M A Pharis), the chairman of deepika has not done a small scam, it is scam made National Kidney foundation of singapore(NKF) really sinking.It is not just a finacial crime.It is crime that involves so many peoples lives.He is dangerous than al queada and osama bin laden(both of them are from are muslim community no, i just want to repeat one of my old post all muslims are not terrorist but all terrorists are muslims)Like mathrubhumi, mangalam and indiavision i also searche so many places including my deepika friends but i was not able to get a picture or photograph of faris.Like jesus said sheperd will enter through the front door, those who are entering through back door is thief.I just wonder a business minded person like mar arackal how believed faris, or both of them are palying together.Arackal is the most talented business man i have evr seen. Marian college, amal jyothi college and Peerumedu development society(PDS)are the examples of his talent.He became bishop of kanjirappally also by his management skill and making Fr.thalachelloor a mere watchdog of the game.I feel ashamed to see the name of Mr MA pharis in the board of directors of Kanjirappally diocesian co operative bank.he is the only non catholic, and a muslim.Some of my friends hinted that he is having links with some terrorist organisations in india and gets funding from overseas.one of the name we hear in funding marad victims( those muslims run away from marad fearing backlash of hindus).so a dangerous man in the wrong place.beware all people, some time next bomb attack will be in kerala
Monday, July 30, 2007
60 Lakhs Sponsor - Silent M.A Pharis
Deccan Herald » National » Detailed Story Now, football spurs CPM group war DH News Service, Thiruvananthapuram: A football tournament organised by the CPM in Kannur has spurred a fresh round of factional war between Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the strife-torn party in Kerala.Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said here on Saturday that he would enquire into the questionable manner in which his party had received Rs 60 lakh from a “tainted” person for the tournament. In perhaps the first such exercise by a political party, the Nayanar Memorial International Gold Cup Football tournament was organised by the CPM in April last. A committee chaired by Mr Vijayan had overseen the conduct of the tournament which was attended by several teams including one from Pakistan. Last week, a Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi raised questions about the “secretive” manner in which Rs 60 lakh was received by the tournament committee from Chennai-based Parrot Grove Pvt Ltd. The company which donated the money chose to remain “invisible” at the tournament as its name was nowhere seen nor was it listed as a sponsor, it alleged. ‘Nothing shady’The CPM later clarified that there was nothing shady about the sponsorship of the tournament though it neither acknowledged nor denied the receipt of the money. Mr M A Pharis who owns the company is also the present chairman of Malayalam daily Deepika owned by the Catholic Church. He is known to be close to the Vijayan camp as justified by the spate of anti-Achuthanandan and pro-Vijayan stories appearing in Deepika for quite sometime now. Mr Pharis later issued a statement stating that a section of a section the media was out to tarnish him by publishing baseless charges. It was in this context that Mr Achuthanandan made the controversial statements linking him and the Vijayan camp. “Our party has well-established norms of soliciting funds. If we had received the funds from tainted people, then it will be probed,’’ Mr Achuthanandan said at a meet-the-press programme here.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
