Who are the bigger crooks ?

Everyday the papers carry news of some state government officer being caught red handed with bribe money. With the Queen himself ordering this crackdown , the vigilance guys are cracking down on corruption with a missionary zeal. But sadly, it is the small guy who is caught! The JE, RI, Tehsildar, BDO, Asst. Engineer, Forest Ranger or the police SI. Never the top babu, as if all the Orissa babus are the son-in-laws of the Ambani family!

In all this brouhaha and anti-corruption drive launched by the state government, we naïve Oriyas think that the central govt. guys are saints! This is pure BS! The recent arrest of the GM of the BSNL at Bhubaneswar is a pointer. The crook was caught taking Rs.1 lakh as a bribe from a security agency. Compared to this, our BPL class officers are “trapped” with measly amounts of Rs. 200 – Rs. 500 or maybe Rs.5,000 but rarely more.

While the central govt. guys go scot free every day, our poor desi boys have to suffer the ignominy of the focus of blinding media lights as the local TV channels rush to cover the story.

Paradeep port, East Coast Railways, NALCO, FCI, Central Excise, Income Tax, Rourkela Steel Plant, BSNL ,BPCL, HPCL, Indian Oil Corporation,etc. together handle more than Rs. 50,000 crores of public money a year. Just imagine what kind of corruption can take place here!

A little bird in the export business told me that the Paradeep port guys are raking in the real moolah! With the boom in the mineral exports, they made tons of the good stuff last year. They terrorise the poor exporters by threatening to cancel their dock side plot allotment which forces them to cough up. Besides, there are multi crore orders for equipment and services.

India TV and CNN-IBN where are you? Send your sting guys to Paradeep and you will have a month’s supply of exclusive stories! Do “whatever it takes” !

Interestingly, the IAS guys seem to have lost out on the Paradeep honey pot .Both the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman are Railway service guys. Methinks they should be pushed back into their smelly stations and shoddy trains where they can figure out how to run them on time and make them avoid crashing into each other!

But I guess that big faced Southie surface transport minister is happy with the railway men since they would not (unlike the gutsy IAS guys) shout back if he dips too much into the till or treats them like faithful cocker spaniels!

Another bird tells me that NALCO is one huge smelter of corruption and it stinks of sleaze! Everybody is on the take here; from the office gardener to the board members. No supply bill gets passed without the customary pay off. The most notorious are the sales guys who manipulate the sale orders which can result in windfalls to the buyers as the price of aluminum fluctuates widely and the bloody thing is in perpetual short supply!

That is the real reason for the widespread and vehement protests by the staff against the dis-investment move. These bandits would be jobless once a private management takes over and discovers their nefarious activities. I am sure they are also funding the agitations by the commies, desperate not to lose their control.

FCI’s corruption is legendary! If their labour union leader who also happens to be a Oriya incidentally lives like a millionare, then you can imagine what kind of money the officers are raking in! The recycling by mill owners and damaged food grains being written off story is too well known.

These guys keep huge rats as pets in their godowns who loyally devour more than 5 % of the food grains which is their officially “permitted loss”. The bigger rats sit in the offices no doubt, growing fatter every day with the loot which would have fed the starving tribals of Balangir and Kalahandi!

The Central Excise guys are also another forgotten faceless lot, hidden behind their obscure offices. Ordinary folks like you and me hardly ever meet them since they deal with corporates only and large ones that too!

If you remember, about 5 years back there was the fat slob who was caught in Delhi with his mistress and numerous flats and bank lockers who headed the CBEC as its chairman. These guys get well looked after by the industrial units when they go on their inspections. Everybody is happy, the businessman who pays a pittance towards his excise dues and the officers who return home with loaded pockets.

With the growth in the sponge iron and steel units in Orissa, these guys are having a bonanza. Diamond showrooms which have been sprouting up on Bhubaneswar’s streets like footpath chaat shops, are the places where their happy wives disgorge the loot! Wonder what kind of business these posh shops do in the poorest state of the country! I hope the government makes a rule that all jewelry purchase of more than Rs. 5,000 should be paid by cheque only. Then, these crooks could be trapped easily!

The saddest lot among the central govt. guys are the IT people. With summary assessments and time bound refunds being the order of the day, these guys are sitting idle swatting flies all day! However, a few zealous inspectors do go on the prowl and corner hapless small businessmen and squeeze a couple of hundreds by threatening to issue them a notice to file returns. Unless there are raids or searches, the big bosses rarely get a chance to wet their beaks! Alas those days are gone!

Never get your sister or daughter married to an IT guy! There is nothing under the table for these poor souls!

The Rourkela guys made some juicy sums when the RSP expansion took place about 15 years ago. The loot was of course carefully invested outside the state since most officers were non-Oriyas. But their partners in crime, the local banias made posh houses complete with polished granite and teakwood doors in Civil Township. Now the scrap steel sale racket is the biggest money spinner there with millions being siphoned off every month.

The PSU oil company executives are also busy silently licking up the cream. They make money while allotting tank lorries, conniving in supply adulteration of petrol and diesel and looking the other way at those avaricious fuel pump owners who run manipulated meters and sell adulterated fuel. Lodge a complaint with them about short measure or bad fuel and you will rarely see the dealer being punished! I have seen these guys drive up to pumps and fill up their car’s tanks with free petrol though they draw fat salaries.

I remember, there was a Bong Regional Chief of the Indian Oil (the fat cat oil PSU ) who visited Simlipal in 2001. The dealers of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts set up a kitty and collected Rs.30,000 which was spent on him and his family’s 2 day visit to the Park. The best of booze and food was arranged for sahib and memsahib. Everybody was worried about their pet poodle which also went with them. I guess they carried imported dog food and toilet paper for him as well ! The corrupt bloke should have got cerebral malaria from the Park and kicked the bucket on his return!

But don’t think that corruption exists only in the public sector. I will tell you later about the action in the corporate world. Give me a few days, fellas!