by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)
By Quaid Najmi,
Mumbai : Indiscriminate acquisition of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by the Election Commission, inexplicable mismatch in numbers of machines from producers and buyers, and insecure transportation have emerged as major concerns from official replies to Right to Information (RTI) queries.
Mumbai RTI activist Manoranjan S. Roy — who painstakingly pursued the matter for nearly a year — said the RTI responses may have severe repercussions on the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in the country.
Terming the revelations “extremely grave”, Roy said the poll panel and the EVM manufacturing companies need to be asked to explain these discrepancies as it “affects the very foundation of the Indian democracy and its election system”.
Used in India since 1989, the EVMs — comprising a Balloting Unit (BU) and a Control Unit (CU), and recently, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) — are currently manufactured by only two PSUs — Electronics Corp of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad, and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Bengaluru.
Roy’s RTI queries revealed that from 1989-90 till May 15, 2017, the Election Commission procured a total of 1,005,662 BUs and 928,049 CUs from BEL, plus another 1,014,644 BUs and 934,031 CUs from ECIL.
?
An RTI query to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice showed that the government received intimation of purchase of 1,395,306 BUs and 930,716 CUs in 2016-17.
BEL said on June 9, 2017, that it supplied 125,000 CUs and 190,000 BUs to EC, from 2010 to 2017.
ECIL said it provided 222,925 BUs and 211,875 CUs to EC from 2010 to 2017, and another 497,348 BUs and 307,030 CUs for the same period.
According to Roy, against the figures provided by the EC on the number of EVMs received, BEL and ECIL have submitted data with huge differences in the numbers they have supplied, at times ranging from several thousands to lakhs of EVMs, raising questions on “where the excess number of EVMs are going, what is being done with them”.
Roy says all this “indicates something very suspicious is going on between these organisations”.
On the questions of payments too, major discrepancies came out in the figures from 2006-07 to 2016-17.
Against the EC’s “actual expenditure” of Rs 5,360,175,485 (spent) on EVMs, the BEL RTI reply said it received from EC a payment of Rs 6,525,644,000 — a difference (excess) of Rs 116.55 crore.
On the mode of transportation, the capacity of trucks vis-Ã -vis the dimensions of the EVMs, BUs and CUs — figures provided by both BEL and ECIL also were way off.
“In many instances, the transportation details are at complete variance with the purported capacity of the trucks vis-Ã -vis the EVM dimensions and the carrying load of the containers that are disclosed,” Roy said.
“According to the standard calculations, a 32x8x8 feet container can accommodate 199 BUs or 261 CUs, and a 20x8x8 feet container can take 124 BUs or 163 CUs, but the BEL says it has dispatched between 320 to 400 units per container. Were extra machines
dispatched to EC? If so, what happened to them,
?”?asked Roy.
Even on the question of voter and candidates capacity of the EVMs, the figures thrown up points to non-standardisation from both the manufacturers.
“Between 1989 and 2000, the ECIL EVMs capacity was 64 candidates and voter capacity 3,902. It was modified in 2014-15 to accept 384 candidates but only for 2,000 voters. In 2014-15, its EVM’s capacity was for 60 candidates and 8,000 voters. But the capacity of VVPAT EVMs was a mere 1,500 voters,” said Roy.
BEL said in its reply that, till 2005, its EVMs had a capacity of 3,824 voters which was later reduced to 2,000 from 2006. At present, their EVMs have capacity for only 16 candidates. “There is absolutely no logic or standardisation applied. Who authorised these design changes,” Roy asked.
Roy has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court, through Pawar & Company, seeking directions to all parties to provide all records/documents pertaining to EVMs, setting up of a suitable probe panel to ban use of EVMs till the logical outcome of the probe.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Somrita Ghosh,
New Delhi : Less than 30 per cent of the much-hyped Nirbhaya Fund, that now has run up to Rs 3,100 crores, has been utilised so far in the last five years despite tall claims by the government on women’s safety and welfare in the country, an RTI reply has revealed.
The government, in the Union Budget that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented on February 1, proposed to pump in another Rs 500 crore into the non-lapsable corpus fund that was launched in the aftermath of nationwide outrage over the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman — given the moniker Nirbhaya, or fearless, by the media — in the capital on December 16, 2012.
In response to a RTI query by IANS, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) said only Rs 825 crore has been utilised from the Nirbhaya Fund — which was named after the woman — till date out of the Rs 2,711 crore that accumulated in 2017-18.
Till January 2018, 21 proposals have been appraised by the WCD Ministry, of which 17 have been implemented.
The RTI query revealed that only Rs 50 crore has been utilised by the Railway Ministry, which was given Rs 500 crore from the fund for its proposal — Integrated Emergency Response Management System (IERMS).
The WCD Ministry had proposed seven schemes under the Nirbhaya Fund where the majority of the fund was allotted to One Stop Centres (OSCs) — a much-hyped scheme which was started in 2015. But it too remains unutilised. The reply said that only Rs 81 crore from the Rs 458 crore allocated has been disbursed in three years.
The OSCs are supposed to provide access to services like medical aid, police assistance, legal aid and psycho-social counselling to victims of sexual assaults.
The RTI also revealed that in another scheme, Women’s Helplines, for which Rs 156 crore was allocated, only Rs 21 crore has been disbursed.
Nine of the schemes come from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), of which seven have been initiated. The total fund allocated for MHA is Rs 1,273 crore, out of which Rs 554 crore has been utilised.
Two heavy budget schemes recommended by MHA — ‘Creation of Investigative Units for Crime against Women’ (IUCAW) (Rs 324 crore) and ‘Safe City Project’ in Odisha (Rs 110 crore) remain untouched, the RTI reply reveals.
According to the reply, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had also forwarded three schemes, of which the funds for one — training women to drive heavy passenger vehicles in Bengaluru (Rs 56 crore allocated) — has been unused.
The responsibility of the Nirbhaya Fund went to the WCD, which replaced MHA as the nodal ministry in 2015 after questions were raised on the utilisation of the sanctioned amounts. However, even under WCD, a majority of the fund remains unutilised.
Even last year, the WCD Ministry had issued a clarification on the utilisation of the Nirbhaya Fund after repeated reports of its underutilisation were published.
According the ministry, other states and ministries were requested and reminded in August last year to send in innovative proposals that can enhance the security and safety of women, but no details have been provided by WCD.
While acting NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma maintained her silence of the use of the Nirbhaya Fund stating that it is not its responsibility to follow up on the various schemes, Lalitha Kumaramangalam, former NCW Chairperson, told IANS that the funds have not been utilised properly.
“The funds have not been utilised properly by the ministry whereas it should have been done — a long time back. Now WCD is considering utilising the fund. There are good people now in the ministry; they should hurry up,” Kumaramangalam stated.
Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research India (CSRI) had pointed out that allocating Rs 500 crore to the Railways for its IEMRS scheme was a poor step.
“Railways is a well-established ministry which can afford to set up CCTV cameras; it doesn’t make sense to use the Nirbhaya Fund for it. In any case, the cameras are hardly monitored,” Kumari added.
(Somrita Ghosh can be contacted at somrita.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Kushagra Dixit,
New Delhi : The Modi government has spent a whopping nearly Rs 3,755 crore in three and half years on its publicity till October this year, an RTI revealed on Friday.
The expenditure on advertisements from April 2014 to October 2017 through electronic, print media and outdoor publicity is Rs 37,54,06,23,616, according to the RTI reply by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
The application was filed by Greater Noida-based social activist Ramveer Tanwar, a copy of which is with IANS.
According to the information, the central government spent over Rs 1,656 crore on electronic media advertisements, including — community radio, digital cinema, Doordarshan, Internet, SMS and TV.
For print media, the government spent more than Rs 1,698 crore.
On outdoor advertisements, which include hoardings, posters, booklets and calendars, the central government has spent over Rs 399 crore, the RTI reveals.
The amount spent on publicity blitz is more than the yearly budget allocated to some key ministries and government’s flagship programmes. The government’s allocation for “pollution abatement” in the last three years has been only Rs 56.8 crore.
In 2016, an RTI filed by Tanwar had revealed that the Centre spent over Rs 1,100 crore between June 1, 2014 and August 31, 2016, on advertisements featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Ministry gave a break up of the expenditure according to which Rs 448 crore was spent from June 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, and Rs 542 crore and Rs 120 crore spent from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016 and April 1, 2016 to August 31, 2016 respectively.
The expenditure was only for television, Internet and other electronic media and did not include expenditure on outdoor and print advertisements.
In 2015, another RTI had revealed that the Centre had spent nearly Rs 8.5 crore on newspaper advertisements for the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address “Mann Ki Baat” till July 2015.
The BJP and Congress had criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi for spending Rs 526 crore on advertising its achievements in 2015.
(Kushagra Dixit can be reached at kushagra.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mumbai : As the Narendra Modi government proceeds with the grandiose plans for a Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, a RTI query has revealed that over 40 percent of seats on all the trains on this sector go vacant causing huge losses to Western Railway.
According to RTI replies received by Mumbai activist Anil Galgali, only in the past one quarter, the Western Railway’s staggering losses on this sector is nearly Rs 30 crore, or around Rs. 10 crore per month.
“The Indian government is over-enthusiastic and plans to spend more than Rs 1 lakh crore on the Bullet Train project, but it has not done its homework properly,” Galgali said, adding it raises serious question marks on the viability of the Bullet Train project, whenever it comes up.
The Indian Railways have also admitted that they have no plans to introduce any new trains on this sector which is already in the red.
Replying to Galgali’s query on seats occupancy on all the trains between the two cities, the WR revealed that in the past three months, 40 percent all seats went vacant on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector and 44 percent empty on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route.
WR’s Chief Commercial Manager Manjeet Singh said that between July 1-September 30, there are 32 mail/express serving this sector with a total seating capacity of 735,630 seats on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector.
Of these, only 441,795 seats were booked during that period generating a revenue of Rs 30,16,24,623 against the total estimated expected income of Rs 44,29,08,220 – incurring a huge loss of Rs 14,12,83,597 in the past quarter.
Similarly, on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route served by a total of 31 mail/express trains with a seating capacity of 706,446, only 398,002 seats were booked, resulting in a revenue of Rs 26,74,56,982 against the estimated expected income of Rs 42,53,11,471, spelling a massive loss of Rs 15,78,54,489.
The WR provided the data of all the major trains plying on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai route like the Durantos, Shatabdi Expresses, Lokshakti Express, Gujarat Mail, Bhavnagar Express, Saurashtra Express, Vivek-Bhuj Express and others.
Faced with the vacancies on existing trains, the WR Divisional Engineer, Ahmedabad informed that there is no fresh proposal to introduce any new trains on this sector.
In fact, Galgali said that the most popular train, 12009 Shatabdi Express with a capacity of 72,696 seats sold only 36,117 during the July-September period on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route and in the return direction of the total 67,392 seats, only 22,982 were sold.
This train, which once always ran packed in all seasons both ways has now proved to be a loss-maker, and the executive chair car with 7,505 seats was practically deserted with just 1,469 seats booked, plummeting revenues from the estimated Rs 1,45,49,714 to a paltry Rs 26,41,083 during the last quarter.
The position in all other trains was similar and though there is a higher demand for sleeper class compared to seats, the WR has not done enough to augment its capacity.
Galgali pointed out that given this current alarming scenario, coupled with growing preference for flights and improved road travel, the Central and Gujarat governments must review the expensive option of the Bullet Train before it becomes a white elephant for the Indian taxpayers.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reviewing preparations for Global Investors Summit-2014 at Brilliant Convention Centre at Indore. (File Photo)
By Sidhartha Dutta
New Delhi:(IANS) An eight-member delegation led by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spent close to Rs.3 crore ($465,000/$58,000 per head) on a five-day US trip in February, which included giving expensive gifts to investors, the reply to an RTI querry has revealed.
The reply, received from the Madhya Pradesh Trade and Investment Facilitation Corporation Limited by whistle blower Ajay Dubey in July, revealed that on its visit to the US to meet American business leaders and potential investors, the delegation spent Rs.198,421 on gifts.
It also mentioned that 10 woollen shawls worth Rs.119,990 (Rs.11,999 each) were gifted to the guests, apart from ties and silver idols worth Rs.78,431. The visit was from January 31 to February 4 on the invitation of the US-India Business Council to meet business community leaders and investors.
The RTI reply also revealed that the expenditure for hotel rooms and air travel was Rs.30 lakh ($46,000) each ($5,750 per head), while Rs.25 lakh was spent on taxi rides, Rs.6 lakh went for daily perks and Rs.1.30 crore in rental for the ‘Friends of MP Conclave’ venue. Another Rs.75 lakh was spent on other promotional and miscellaneous charges. The total expenditure was Rs.2.96 crore over five days.
Among the others who accompanied the chief minister were Yashodhara Raje Scindia, the minister for commerce, industry and employment, Mohammed Suleman, principal secretary, department of commerce, industry & employment; S.K. Mishra, principal secretary to the chief minister; Vivek Aggarwal, secretary to the chief minister; Anupam Rajan, MD, of the MP Laghu Udyog Nigam Ltd. (MP Small Scale Industries Corporation); Manish Singh, MD, Madhya Pradesh Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam (Indore) Limited; and Devhuti Bakshi of Ernst & Young.
“The chief minister was planning another foreign tour to Sweden recently, but this was cancelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To spend almost Rs.3 crore on a five-day tour to the US is huge. It is a lot of money for a state like Madhya Pradesh. Moreover, making a foreign tour to meet potential investors when Vyapam scam was at its peak is not acceptable,” Dubey told IANS.
Madhya Pradesh has been mired in the Vyapam scam for years but the irregularities eventually came to light when 20 people were arrested in 2013 for impersonating candidates appearing for the 2009 medical entrance examination.
Forty-five people associated with the Vyapam scam have died – mostly unnaturally or under mysterious circumstances.
The CBI has already registered 67 FIRs and launched 12 preliminary inquiries into the Vyapam scam.
(Sidhartha Dutta can be contacted at sidhartha.d@ians.in <mailto:sidhartha.d@ians.in>)
