Spend thrift BSNL ignores public concern

Public money and time does not matter at BSNL

In a recent interview with Hi Time Express (published March 10, 2007), Dr. Shakeel Ahmad (Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology) had criticized the media for singling out BSNL and writing adverse stories on it. Dr. Ahmad even said that he had asked BSNL officials to concentrate on this issue and handle the media more carefully. He also pointed out that media was ignoring the fact that telecom operators were giving lifelong offers when their license was valid for not more than 8 years.
Agreed that media may not have been critical of private operators to the extent that it writes against BSNL but what can the media persons do when they get story after story against BSNL, that too without much effort.
Hi Time Express presents one such issue out of the countless that can be brought to print. The issue relates to a man named Ram Kumar Awasthi, who is the residence of Nauranga Ghatampur near Kanpur. An exchange was already operational at Nauranga but when the need arose to build a tower at Nauranga, Ram Kumar Awasthi, whose residence is about 200 metres from the exchange, was contacted. An agreement was finalized between him and the BSNL officials, based on which a tower was constructed at Awasthi's house about one year back by Nokia, the executing agency working on behalf of BSNL. In fact, Nokia too sublet this to another company RN Infra Communications, who hired a contractor Shamshul to erect the tower on Awasthi’s property.
The tower had been standing for about one year but for reasons best known to the BSNL officials they decided not to shift the exchange there in spite of Awasthi agreeing to abide by the terms and conditions originally decided with BSNL. Awasthi lays the blame on some BSNL officials who demanded money from him and upon his refusal to pay them refused to shift the tower to the new site. The entire plan was stranded even though the tower continues to stand on Awasthi’s property, for which he has received no payment till the last information received to us.
When contacted, T.N. Shukla, GM-BSNL at Kanpur says that BSNL has done no agreement with Awasthi and its exchange is already operational since years. He says: "If somebody erects a tower somewhere, what can we do? We have not given the order. Why should we be bothered if we are not to pay?"
Mr. Shukla is right that BSNL has neither given permission nor done any expense on the construction of tower. That is why BSNL has not released the payment for construction of the tower to Nokia, who have stopped the payment to RN Infra Communications, who have further not paid to Shamshul. If Shamshul has not paid to the labourers employed to construct the tower, we do not know. Neither has any payment been made to Awasthi in whose house the tower stands.
Contrary to what Mr. Shukla says, Prabhat Sinha, Project Manager at Nokia says that construction could not have been initiated without BSNL’s permission: "We are doing project for BSNL. Acquisition is done by BSNL and rent is also paid by them. They give us the location and only then we make the tower for them."
Likewise, Vijayan Pandey of RN Infra says that the tower was constructed after an agreement was reached between BSNL and Awasthi, about 200 metres away from the exchange. He says that they would not have commenced worked on the site if there had been no agreement. Moreover, why would have Awasthi allowed the construction of tower on his land without an agreement?
There is no doubt that an entire tower could not have come up if BSNL had not given the go-ahead to the execution agencies. But why did the BSNL officials back out still remains a mystery.
Mr. Sinha further says: "Terms must have been written in the agreement. Unless agreement is not made, tower would not have come up." And says: "We too are the aggrieved party. After we constructed the tower, we were told that the location is not right. Our money too is at stake on that site. We are talking about resolution."
The signing authority BSNL which gave the entire order to Nokia, who passed it on to RN Infra and then to Shamshul, are now backing out and saying that they never gave the orders to construct the tower.
When contacted, Vikas Jain, Chairman of RN Infra says: "We have taken up the case with BSNL. I was told BSNL is in negotiation with the owner. My experience is that BSNL never does the agreement in advance. It is an understanding, construction starts and then the formalities are completed. Some dispute must have occurred afterwards."
What about loss of money and energy? Why can't BSNL finalize the terms and conditions in advance and then initiate work?
Mr. Jain gives the solution that if no agreement comes through, they will seek permission to dismantle the tower. Again more money and energy will be spent. And says: "I am also the sufferer. We are not allowed to talk to BSNL directly. We are making presentations through Nokia."
Both Nokia and RN Infra’s official line refutes BSNL's claim that the tower was built without their permission. There is something fishy somewhere. TN Shukla’s views clarification in this regard lacks credibility while AK Mishra – DGM Marketing at BSNL-Lucknow refused to entertain Hi Time’s query in this regard. CMD-BSNL and other top officials and also the MoS-Communications and Information Technology chose not to respond to the mail sent in this regard. Wonder whether Dr. Shakeel Ahmad was apt when he talked of better media management for BSNL!

Dual face of the United States

The United States has shown its dual face once again. North Korea was labeled part of the “axis of evil” only in January 2002 when Washington went public with its accusations of nuclear activity at Yongbon. Thereafter, defying international pressure, North Korea went ahead with a nuclear test. Now that it has tested the bomb, the United States is patting its back over the deal with this ‘rogue’ state, as per which Pyongyang will declare all its nuclear facilities and shut them down.
Analysts feel that making Pyongyang declare all its nuclear facilities and shutting them down is likely to prove arduous. This is so because the country is believed to have numerous mountainside tunnels in which to hide projects. This is to be remembered that North Korea conducted its only nuclear test deep inside a mountain. Therefore it is perfectly possible that weapon’s research could be continued at other, undeclared sites.
At the same time, the United States has promised fuel to the North Korean regime. This much-needed support will in fact help preserve the regime. In 1994 too, Bill Clinton had persuaded Pyongyang to freeze its plutonium-based nuclear weapons program in return for aid and funds to build light water, power-producing reactors. But it backed down and went ahead with nuclear research. Fact remains that America has rewarded the communist regime, which left the Non Proliferation Treaty four years ago, for defying the world with its test, while at the same time it is fighting tooth and nail to deny Iran the same privilege, which has reiterated time and again that it will limit itself to peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Nobody can deny now that the US has engaged in this exercise because it wishes to calm fears of conflict in one corner of the world, while it pursues war in others, viz. Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, including Iran.
The dual face of the US is evident also from the fact that while on one hand it is leaving no stone unturned to strangulate Iran on its attempt to go ahead with nuclear research, Clay Sell (Deputy Secretary of Energy) and Robert Joseph (Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security) in a press briefing at Washington DC on February 16, 2006, talked of the urgent need for all developing countries to look at nuclear power as the energy substitute, something that Iran claims to be doing.
Look at the urgent need for taking optimum benefit out of nuclear resources that the two are talking about: “There are over 130 nuclear reactors under construction, planned or under consideration around the world today. The U.S. has not ordered a nuclear power plant in over 30 years and we have 103 nuclear power plants in this country. We have more than any other country, but we have not built one in about 30 years. And so we are anxious to get back into the nuclear generation business ourselves.”
And then the two talks of the benefits: “I would like to spend just a moment to elaborate just a little bit more on the benefits; why we need such a dramatic expansion of nuclear power. Here in the United States we are serious about reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, particularly coal and natural gas for electricity generation. We want to be able to meet this increasing energy demand in a way that does not significantly increase our carbon emissions. We want to develop technologies that allow us to recycle spent fuel.” It is clear that they can do it, but not Iran.
Speaking further on US’s recent Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, they said: “There are seven key elements of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and I will quickly tick through each one of those and then we'll open it up to questions.
“The first element is to expand dramatically the use of nuclear power here in the United States. We think -- today, we have 100 nuclear reactors; many of those are going to start phasing out in the coming decades. We think we really need to be, from a public policy standpoint we're shooting for 300 reactors in 2050; that's a significant increase. That's what we think would be appropriate to meet our energy needs as well as to manage our greenhouse gas emissions and that's going to require significant advances in technology.
“Another key aspect of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is teaming together with a number of nations on advanced reactor technology. And a lot of the reactors that are on the market today are of great scale and they're appropriate for the most advanced electricity grids where there are huge load demands. And we would like to develop, in partnership with other nations, advanced reactors that are passively safe, that could have a lifetime of the reactor cores, that are possibly meltdown proof, that can be built on a modular basis, can perhaps even be factory built, shipped to a country and deployed. There are tremendous opportunities with advanced reactor technology that we think are critical and that can be developed in a way that will allow us to safely bring the benefits of nuclear power to the developing world. And working in partnership with other nations in developing these technologies is a key part of our initiative.”
And conclude that they dream of a world with much more nuclear power (sans Iran, of course). “So in conclusion, we really hope to envision a world with much more nuclear power, with much greater nuclear energy security which comes from energy diversity, a world that advances significantly our development goals, a world with much less carbon and pollution intensity, a world with much less nuclear waste and a world with less proliferation risks and less stocks of fissile material.”
What few have noticed till now is that the US is talking of a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership when it has not built a nuclear power plant following the Three Mile Island accident nearly 30 years back. Says a US expert on the subject: “Three Mile Island was the only serious accident in the history of nuclear energy generation in the United States, but it was enough to scare us away from further developing the technology: There hasn't been a nuclear plant ordered up since then.”
This is in spite of the fact that more than 600 coal-fired electric plants in the United States produce 36 percent of U.S. emissions -- or nearly 10 percent of global emissions -- of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power.
If this is so why has the US not done so for the past 30 years? Was just a mere accident enough to reason to deter it? Russia didn’t stop doing so after Chernobyl where 56 people died from radiation or burns. There was no casualty in the Three Mile Island accident, whereas more than 5000 coal-mining deaths occur worldwide every year. In fact no one has died of a radiation-related accident in the history of the U.S. civilian nuclear reactor program. (And although hundreds of uranium mine workers did die from radiation exposure underground in the early years of that industry, that problem was long ago corrected.)
Are there other serious issues that we are not aware of? Considering the US’s dual standards, one can presume there must be some more uglier and serious reasons than a mere apparently insignificant accident for stopping construction of nuclear power plants.
Answer perhaps lies in the speech of Clay Sell and Robert Joseph themselves. Other countries that US is aligning with as part of its Global Nuclear Development Partnership, and that includes India, are shortly going to become guinea pigs not only for latest experimentations in nuclear use but also as a dumping ground for nuclear wastes. Say the two US experts: “It makes the challenge of disposing of that waste a very significant challenge. And so we want to reduce the quantity, the radio toxicity and the heat load of the waste that we ultimately have to dispose of. And we also want to capture the energy value which is in spent fuel. And if we are able to do that, we can optimize and make our geologic repository in the United States at Yucca Mountain much more efficient.
“If we keep our policy and we don't recycle in the United States, we will have to build nine Yucca Mountains over the course of the century, if we just keep Yucca Mountain at 20 percent of our -- if we just keep nuclear power at 20 percent of our electricity generation. If we recycle and can burn down those wastes in a way that we are proposing, we will be able to use -- that one Yucca Mountain will be able to last for the entirety of the century.”
This is to be remembered that Yucca Mountains, Nevada have been chosen as first long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the US. The Government plans to start using it from 2017 while at present the US stores this waste at 126 sites around the nation; these materials are a result of nuclear power generation and national defense programs.
India and other similar countries will not only be giving their territory for disposal but also providing money to the US for further research on areas which has prohibited the US Government from building new Nuclear Power Stations till now. Not realizing all this, many in India were taken aback with the Bush administration, which has always wanted to uphold the non-proliferation regime, but decided to reach an understanding with India on nuclear energy. Unable to find a logic, many of us thought it was all about China.

White garbs, black deals

Goons and white-collared criminals enjoy the protection of not just in the States of UP and Bihar. Penetrate a little inside the working of corridors of power and you would find the same happening in Delhi. Even the supposedly clean white-collared and white-dressed profession of Indian army could not wipe out the accusations of shady deals.
Former naval chief Adml. Arun Prakash’s wife’s nephew Ravi Shankaran, key accused in the naval war room leak case, is being ‘protected’ by Ministry of External Affairs, which has been reluctant to approach the British authorities for extradition despite the request of CBI pending with it for about 8 months.
Shankaran is a declared absconder and said to be the main link between the secrets leaked from the naval war room and the Rs. 18,898-crore Scorpene deal. Yet, his ‘high connections’ enabled him to sneak out of the country. Who could have stopped him from doing so when key men in the army were his backers?
Consequent to his escape, the CBI requested the MEA on two occasions, viz. May 18, 2006 and Oct. 27, 2006. Even Interpol issued a red corner notice against him on May 12, but MEA, under the stewardship of Pranab Mukherjee, is sitting on the request even though under the provisions of Article 12 of the Indo-UK extradition treaty, the Government of Indian can seek his arrest and subsequent deportation to India.
Such is the sensitive and explosive nature of evidence available with CBI that when it submitted 369 pages of classified data, including crucial file notings and procurement-related information, to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini, it handed them in a sealed packet with the plea that it be kept in her safe custody and not be made public. It is believed that these documents could cause severe embarrassment to the defence establishment as they prove that Abhishek Verma, retired naval officer Kulbhushan Parashar and Ravi Shankaran were tapping ministry of defence officials for classified information. Sources reveal that the three were passing the documents relating to the army and navy’s weapon and equipment requirements to international armament firms. CBI’s chargesheet says clearly these people were “spying on behalf of several multinational firms” and were inciting defence personnel to spy on their behalf. So far, the CBI has tracked Rs. 6.2 crore which, the agency alleges, was paid as bribes to defence personnel.
It was in May 2005 that the IAF’s intelligence wing found that secret information was being leaked from the navy’s war room. While navy headquarters dismissed three allegedly involved officers without a showcause notice or a trial, no action was taken against the civilian recipients of the data, including Ravi Shankaran.
Unless Shankaran is arrested and brought back, some of the vital links in the investigation relating to Scorpene deal will continue to elude the investigating agencies. This puts question mark on the Governments’ willingness to bring back the key accused. The irony of ironies is that the same people who left no stone unturned to pressurize the Mulayam Singh government to give the Nithari killings case to CBI are attempting to strangulate the CBI in its attempt to bring back the key accused who has also been declared an absconder.

Is Mulayam losing the won battle?

As the dark clouds of Assembly elections hover over Mulayam Singh Government in UP, the wrestler in him finds it difficult to escape the prospects of president’s rule during hustings.

Beleaguered due to the growing discontent against Samajwadi Party rule, Mulayam Singh is busy with last ditch efforts to retain his chief ministership during forthcoming (April-May) Assembly elections. In his attempt to thwart the danger of president’s rule, he called in the Assembly session from Jan 15. A notification to this effect was issued by Mata Prasad Pandey, the Assembly speaker.
On the other hand, the UP Government Rajeshwar Rao closed the session ‘sine-die’ w.e.f. 9th Jan 2007. This created an unprecedented constitutional crisis in the state of UP.
Why Mulayam Singh and his Samajwadi Party are getting desperate? Opposition parties including BJP and BSP have called upon the governor and the president of India stressing the need to impose president rule. The Congress, BSP and BJP have been citing incidents to show that the administration in UP has ‘collapsed’ and ‘law and order’ has failed.

The dailies in the state carry almost every day the stories about murder, loot, kidnapping, chain snatching, extortion and to top it all the refusal of the police to write FIRs.
The most recent incidents are of the disappearance or murder of Meerut University lecturer Dr. Kavita Chaudhary and serial killings about 20 boys and girls in Nithari (NOIDA). These are the hottest cases, which have been referred to CBI, now, reluctantly by the state government. The resignations of three ministers of Chaudhary Ajit Singh’s LOK DAL (LD) on 9th Jan, from the Mulayam Singh Ministry have sent shivers in the Mulayam Singh camp. Problem has been further aggravated due to Congress’s decision to withdraw support.
The latest Party position in the UP Assembly is as under:

SP 152 CPM 1
BSP 67 others 2
BJP 83 Independents 16
Congress 15 Nominative 1
LBD 33 Unattached 6
LD 15 Vacant 2
KCP 2 Debarred from voting rights 9

Out of total 404 (2 MLA have died) as such the effective strength of the UP Assembly is 393 members. For a majority 197 members are required. 13 independents are either ministers or CMDs of Government corporations. The Congress, LBD, LD, LCP, CPM, were supporting the government till now but the Congress has given a jolt to Mulayam’s plans by announcing withdrawal of support, making it almost inevitable that UP is heading towards President’s rule without Congress and Lok Dal.
Congress and Lok Dal’s decision means that Mulayam Singh will have a wafer thin majority of 204 members. If eight of these, too, withdraw their support, the government could collapse.
In spite of numerical strength at the moment, the imposition of president’s rule in UP appears imminent. The constitution crisis may take a curious turn. The coming days will be eventful.

King of the Jungle

And the beasts within city limits

Such is the shocking nature of Nithari episode that Mulayam, when asked whether there was actually jungle-raaj in UP couldn’t deny the allegations and merely said that if there was jungle-raaj in UP, then he was its king. No doubt, this ‘jungle kingdom’ has beasts in human garb wandering in cities, devouring and killing fellow human beings at their whims.
Unable to brush aside the issue of killings at Nithari, in which more gruesome developments are being added every passing day, the State administration tried to show that something was being done when it distributed cheques of 2 lakhs each (raised to 5 lakh later) and suspended six policemen, CO, SP-City and the then SSP of Noida. Proof that all this was merely done to silent the raging emotions and the subsequent media glare can be gauged from the fact that there are still cases, like that of a girl named Payal, whose father has not been given the cheque yet.
But too little has been done too late. Who would punish the policemen who refused to register FIRs when the children were being abducted for the last two years, who gave clean chit to Mohnder Singh when complaint was made against him, who subverted the evidence and then considered it their moral duty to lathicharge the aggrieved parents and relatives. All those who acted as patrons or thwarted investigation should be probed.
It seems law and order is only for those with clout and money. Nobody is able to tell how child after child was taken up inside the premises of D-5, sexually violated (as per present beliefs) and killed. More than 40 children have met with the same fate, at the hands of Surendra, Mohinder Singh’s aide in these heinous crimes. More shocking is that while the children from the poor locality continued to be abducted, the neighbouring rich residents continued to lie in slumber, only to wake when one from their own community was kidnapped. Then it became big news.

Box
UP Under Abduction Threat

The state government has been under fire for the poor law and order situation. Proof is here, about 135 abduction cases have been registered in ‘06.
The worst picture was revealed with the news of abduction of Anant Gupta, son of Adobe CEO Naresh Gupta from Noida. This was the first case that drew the attention of government as well as the concerned authorities. Anant was kidnapped few yards away from his home. The police department tried to do its best not to gain adverse publicity as the matter had already become highly publicized, but in vain. After about a week all off a sudden Anant came back to his home. Police claimed to solve the case later though it has been revealed that his father gave ransom amount of 50,00,000 rupees.
Anant’s abduction case brought a chain of abduction cases in light. In this series, on December 8th, Ankit, (13), was kidnapped. Ankit was son of RK Vishwakarma, a technician at SGPGIMS. He was abducted soon after he left his Eldeco Colony residence along with two teenagers on a motorcycle. Later, he was brutally murdered by the kidnappers; police recovered the body in pieces. In this case police took a ‘take it easy’ attitude, perhaps because the case was not that high profile as that of the Adobe CEO’s son. However, two people Vikas Gupta and Satender Singh were arrested for kidnapping.
On 13th December, B Tech II-year student Saif Siddiqui of Integral University disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He was reportedly kidnapped from Vikas Nagar locality when he was on way from Madiaon. When police probed the boy was found in Meerut, this case came under controversy as the police suspected that the case was of faux kidnapping.

These kidnapping and subsequent brutal murder cases seem to have little effect on the lackadaisical attitude of police. A 12-year–old student of Rani Laxmi Bai School, Indira Nagar was abducted. But the cops did not initiate any efforts to trace the boy, despite information given by the victim’s father. The cops sat idle while the boy returned home, giving the abductors a slip.

On 29th of last month, a two and a half year boy Muzamil, son of Tanveer Kamil, was kidnapped by Noor Alam from Thakurgunj area. The abductor was asking for ransom money of ten lakh rupees.

In recent times murder case of Kavita Devi lecturer of Chaudhary Charan Singh University of Meerut again raised questions over the law and order situation in the State. Kavita’s case registered under section 364 (abduction with intent to murder), names of some politicians like Babulal were allegedly involved in the case. The case has given Mulayam Singh Yadav government sleepless nights.

Year ‘06 has ended with the news of gruesome tale of kidnapping and then brutal killing of 18 children in Nithari Village near Noida by a serial killer Surender Koli alias Satish and his master Mohinder Singh. According to police reports, 31 children of Noida were missing from the last two years.
Now it has been clear that the innocent children were kidnapped by them to benefit their self. But it’s still not clear that who would take the responsibility of the safety of the state and people living in this ‘crime capital’? This is surely not the ‘Uttam Pradesh which was visualized by all of us.

Be careful with your Cola

Never allow your child to consume Mentos and Cola together

The new findings are reaching the masses like jungle fire. Internet is replete with live examples of the effect that Mentos and Cola cause when they get mixed together. In fact the dreadful combination of cola and Mentos has given birth to new games like whether your cola bottle would fly like a missile and cross over the roof of your building or not? Or how high a fountain you would get by mixing cola and Mentos.
Not that it is restricted to gaming only! Reports have come in of children in Brazil, who died after consuming Mentos and Cola with little time gap in between. There is urgent need to educate the children over this as both Cola (like Pepsi and Coke) and Mentos are much favoured by the children. It is extraordinary how this could escape the prying gaze of our national mainstream media till now.
Not any more though! Swami Ramdev, who till now had been saying that the best use of colas is to wash your toilets with them has now got a new armoury in his arsenal to hit at these beverage manufacturers. Interestingly, some of Swamy’s staunch followers have already started cleaning their toilets with colas. A few of them we spoke to said that this resulted in sparkling clean toilets. Moreover, it serves as a lesson to children as well who realize the true worth of these beverages.
This time it is different. Children have got a new game of flying missiles and fountains. All you have to do is to put Mentos in a two-litre cola bottle and wait for some time. The moment you throw the bottle on the ground, it shoots up in the sky like a rocket and flies high up in the sky. Alternatively, if you put mentos in a freshly opened 2-litre bottle while it is kept on ground, cola and mint react to shoot a fountain as high as one metre. And the force of the fountain is such that it could prove fatal for eyes if an unsuspecting kid puts them over the bottle. Or if the bottle bursts!
The matter assumes significance keeping in mind the fact that this is the time when debate is raging over whether these beverages should be banned in schools or not. Only recently Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s president who has recently been rated by Fortune as the most powerful businesswomen in the world, said that banning cola in school is not a great idea. She said: “Our experience is when there is a ban, they are not effective. Children will get it from home.” She has an alternative plan for health minister Anbumani Ramdoss’s proposal for banning sale of soft drinks from educational institutes. Starting with a dialogue with the government on counseling against obesity, Nooyi suggested that companies like Pepsi, with diversified portfolio ranging from soft drinks to juices, could stock cafeteria with so-called “good for you, better for you” products instead of “treat for you” items like colas.
On the controversy over pesticides, she said: “The purpose is not to confront but work (together).” This was an obvious attempt to shirk the issue on safety standards raised by certain NGOs.
Whatever she says, truth is that detractors of cola companies have got a new salvo to fire at them. While Pepsi and Coke may have to think of using Amir Khan, Smriti Irani and company to do another ‘safe campaign’ against this missile potential of colas, all we can say for the moment is “Be careful with your cola”.