Thank you C-da for this info. O My God!!!
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This story, as incomplete a picture as it is, does point to certain
issues that are often overlooked by some of our friends here in Assam
Net for example, and by most Indians. To get a better understanding
of how and why exactly these can take place and with such impunity
one needs to read Sanjib Baruah's book DURABLE DISORDER,
Understanding the Politics of Northeast India, which I have started
reading, finally.
cm
Scam as scam can
Corruption prospers in the Northeast because it bothers so few
By Nitin A. Gokhale
The eight states of the Northeast may be unique in most respects but
when it comes to big-time financial scams, the region is no different
than the rest of India: Politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen gang
up to rob the exchequer of big amounts in the Northeast as they do
across the country. For scamsters in the region the colour of money
is same as in any part of India. There is, however, one unique thing
about scams in the Northeast - no one is unduly perturbed, no one
gets punished and all is forgotten with time.
Being outside the radar screens of New Delhi, most corrupt practices
and big-time scams in the Northeast
go unnoticed and unreported
Financial irregularities, running into hundreds of crores of rupees,
have been uncovered in the region more frequently than anywhere else.
The Rs 300-crore lottery scandal in Nagaland; the Rs 250-crore import
of palmoline oil scandal; the Rs 197-crore power department scam or
the latest Rs 100-crore fci supply scam, the list is endless. Those
in the know have even coined a term for these scandals. They are
called the 60:40 scandals.
This is how they work. The well-informed bureaucrat proposes a
scheme, the politician endorses it and! the ubiquitous businessman
implements it - all on paper! Then the spoils are shared 60:40 - 30
percent each goes to the politician and the bureaucrat and the rest
is pocketed by the trader.
All these swindles have been well documented and written about but
none of the culprits has been taken to task. Many of them continue to
be active and flourishing politicians or bureaucrats. Businessmen,
under the patronage of the politician-bureaucrat nexus, carry on
defrauding governments in the Northeast with impunity. If any of
these scandals had taken place in the so-called mainland India,
someone would have made a song and dance - the opposition, the media,
civil society groups.
But India's Northeast appears immune to any of these reactions to
big-time scams. Mainly because, like with most other aspects of
governance, the region suffers from the 'out-of-sight-out-of-mind'
syndrome. Being outside the radar screens of New ! Delhi, most corrupt
practices that take place in the Northeast go unnoticed and
unreported. In some cases, the watchdogs in Delhi get co-opted. The
Opposition in the state does not raise a voice since its members have
shared the loot during their time in power. The media, in most
Northeast states is weak, dependent, with a few exceptions, upon
government largesse and therefore subservient. Given the combination
of these factors, no one should be surprised that big-ticket
financial scams in the Northeast get a decent burial after creating a
few ripples.
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