Track2Realty Exclusive
By: Ashok Wankhade
The Ministry of Rural Development has decided to get the names of the companies IL&FS Ltd, Infrastructure Kerala Ltd, Marg Ltd, Megha Engineering Infrastructure Ltd and Seri Infrastructure Finance Ltd cleared from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as the ministry itself do not have any mechanism to investigate the credentials of these companies which have been allotted the pilot projects of the scheme Provisions of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA).
This was stated by the then Minister of Rural Development Vilasroa Deshmukh in a reply to a letter dated March 10, 2011 written by Sumitra Mahajan, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee of the Ministry of Rural Development.
The letter in possession of Track2Realty shows Sumitra Mahajan had raised number of issues including allotment of the pilot project of PURA to the company IL&FS where a son of a senior IAS officer Arvind Mayaram who working in the Ministry was employed.
Vilashrao Deshmukh gave the details of the procedure how the companies were selected for the pilot project of PURA. In his reply he says the projects were based on the recommendations of Inter Ministerial empowered committee and not on an individual officer’s decision.
It becomes more serious that how one company which got three projects was facilitated to work in the constituency of Mother of Arvind Mayaram who is Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, Sanganer (Rajasthan), in the then Minister C P Joshi’s constituency in Rajasthan and the third near Dehradoon where ND Tiwari (who has been the Mayaram’s family friend) owns farm land and property.
Deshmukh also stated that an inquiry was ordered on the issue and after the investigation by the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the Ministry the report was sent to Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) for further clearance.
The issue is how one can expect a CVO who is a junior officer to speak adversely about Additional Secretary of the same Ministry. Moreover, when CVO gives a clean chit and sends that report to CVC, obviously CVC is left with no options. Vilasrao has very strongly defended the company IL&FS by saying ‘Ministry does not have any conclusive adverse findings of any court of law or any competent authority establishing misdemeanors on part of the companies shortlisted’.
However, the second chargesheet filed by CBI in 2G Scam clearly mentions how Balwa took money from IL&FS and gave to Kanimozhi. This company had stake in DB Realty and Executive Director Shahzad Dalal of IL&FS was Director in DB Realty. He resigned when Balwa was arrested.
Shielding the senior officer Arvind Mayaram of the Ministry Vilasrao Deshmukh preferred to keep silence on the number of issues raised by Mahajan. Arvind Mayaram, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor in Rural Development is the same officer who opposed the minimum wages of Rs. 100 in a MNREGA scheme which resulted in shunting of P.C.Joshi from Rural Development Ministry to the Ministry of Surface Transport.
Mayaram and his mother are also facing charges of cheating in a land deal and the case at present is in Supreme Court under the subject category of Criminal Matters, matters relating to Bank scams, cheating, forgery etc. under the Special leave petition criminal 6177 of 2009.
