Chennai Corner

Politics Over Koodankulam

Narayanswamy has tossed the ball into the PM’s court after his earlier statement, that the expert committee promised by the PM has got delayed because Tamil Nadu has not yet sent its list, got him into hot water. He claimed that he had phoned finance minister O. Panneerselvam, a member of the committee that had met the PM late last month, and was “promised” that the former would consult the CM and get back to him. “The list is yet to come and that’s the reason for the delay in the constitution of the expert committee,” Narayaswamy said. Jayalalitha rounded on him to accuse him of “trying to shift the blame on the TN government.” The expert committee is supposed to talk to the protestors (who resumed their stir after a day’s break for the local body polls on October 17) to mollify them and remove their anxieties.

It appears Jayalalitha is playing politics— she claims she has not received the two letters written by PM. “Never has a PM released a copy of the letter written to me to the media but failed it to send to me. But I have faced this strange experience twice in the past 10 days,” she said. But nowhere in her diatribe against the PM (or Narayanswamy) on October 18 does she reveal her list if indeed she has selected the experts. Then she claims the centre has not allayed the fears of the protestors against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant but her government has done nothing to pacify the protestors either (after all, the plant is located on land given by the state government ). The PM has already said the plant is safe (what more does she want in terms of allaying fears?). She has also cleverly— with an eye on the local polls— painted herself as a sympathiser/saviour and the PM as the villain.

Match Fixing

We always knew recruitments in government are fixed but just how much it was during the DMK tenure between 2006-2011 is getting revealed only now. This week the DVAC ( Director of Vigilance and Anti-corruption) opened the locker of Dr K. M. Ravi, one of the members of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), and found 1.5 kg of gold. Ravi claimed he was an honest man and had got the gold by earning it!

The seizures so far are just the tip of the iceberg. Not only in Ravi’s case but in the case of the other 12 members as well as the TNPSC chairman, R Sellamuthu, who were raided by the DVAC on October 14. Nearly Rs 27 lakhs, at least 23 bottles of foreign liquor, appointment letters, original answer sheets, letters signed by DMK ministers indicating the post to be allotted, blank cheques, hall tickets and call letters were seized during the surprise raids. A DVAC official says, about the documents seized during the raids, “Against the roll numbers of the shortlisted candidates, the members had made some jottings using pencil and pen. There were also many diary jottings. We have gathered names of some touts (who collected money to fix jobs) engaged by the members. Investigation is on.”

The commission worthies, including the chairman, had allegedly abused the official powers to their benefit during recruitment of state government employees including assistant dental surgeons. They even reportedly prevented authorities from looking into specific allegations of corruption against ineligible candidates who were recruited for the post of motor vehicle inspectors grade-II (vacancies for the years 2006-2008).

Unbelievable as it may seem, Dr Ravi was caught red-handed some years ago when he was a sub-registrar in Kancheepuram. Many were shocked when the Karunanidhi regime appointed him as member. According to a DVAC official, “He was made a member despite his shady past. This shows how recruitments were done in the TNPSC.” All its key members including the chairman, were political appointees.

Whistleblower Udayachandran

Lakhs of job aspirants have TNPSC secretary, T Udayachandran, to thank for outing the scam in the commission.

Since the members were appointed by the commission, Udayachandran was bypassed. Meanwhile, Udayachandran cottoned onto the game, and asked the commission to provide all the answer sheets before releasing the list of selected candidates. Not only did the members refuse to hand over the answer sheet, they also did not send any files to this upright IAS officer. He took the next step, despite advice that the members were very influential, of appraising the chief secretary.

Meanwhile, following a complaint by candidates to the DVAC about the selection of motor vehicle inspectors, they approached the commission. According to a DVAC official, “The chairman cited two government orders passed in 1996 and 2001 and refused to cooperate saying the commission was outside the purview of the DVAC.”

Apparently, the commission chairman and members had allegedly demanded the final list of selected candidates from Udhayachandran to get pecuniary benefits. They reportedly even prevented Udhayachandran when he wanted to ensure there would be no corruption in recruitments of Group-I officers.

But the members got their comeuppance only when the DMK government was voted out of office and the AIADMK came in and the earlier GOs were amended bringing TNPSC under DVAC’s purview. DVAC had closely monitored the TNPSC chairman and members following complaints from Udhayachandran, and also from a few candidates alleging malpractices in the selection and recruitment process. The DVAC is collecting a list of candidates who got government jobs between 2006-2011 and plans to summon them for a formal inquiry.

Widespread Relief

Maybe it’s the Anna effect but the raids had much cheering from bureaucrats and politicians. CPIM leader G Ramakrishnan welcomed the raids, saying, “There have been many suspicious about the TNPSC.” Ramanathapuram MLA and Madineya Makkal Katchi(MMK) chief M H Jawahirullah (who was one of the two allies who tied up with the AIADMK for the local body elections) said, “Thousands of youngsters put in years of hard work believing that the selection process will be honest. Appointing candidates through scandalous means is a great betrayal.” He has called for due diligence in the appointment of TNPSC so that only those with integrity are selected.

Who’s Next?

Incidentally, following this and other raids, DMK leaders are worried they will get the midnight knock next! So much so that they decided to adopt a low profile before the local body elections. Rather than bring attention to themselves when Amma is on the rampage arresting leaders for land grab or for corruption, DMK leaders who were kings of their areas like M K Azhagiri in Madurai, Veerapandi Aruumugam in Salem and K N Nehru in Tiruchi chose to be in the background. Even when Nehru was released a day before the Tiruchi bypoll, he chose not to campaign for himself and left it to party chief, Karunanidhi and his son, former deputy CM Stalin.

Incidentally, during her campaign for the local polls, CM Jayalalitha has made it clear that land grabbers will be prosecuted. “The government will soon start 25 special courts to deal exclusively with land grabbing cases. There are 7,430 cases registered so far (out of 17,000 plus complaints received) all over the state and FIRs have been prepared in 755 cases. The government will continue to unmask the land mafia.”

Some leaders are hoping they’ll get prior warning before a raid and have even telephoned DVAC officials to find out. A former minister who had planned a holiday with his family cancelled it and chose to stay home. In fact minister Anbarasan had gone to a wedding when he was raided. Another one claimed that a leader postponed his son’s engagement when he heard he would be raided. Last week there was even a rumour that former CM Karunanidhi would be raided. But when sleuths instead went to the offices of the TNPSC chairman and his 13 members, there was relief, for a while.

Good News

Vardhman Jain, founder-director of Laurus Edutech, who refuses to see the glass as half-empty has news for those who do: “Real work is happening on the ground,” the 36-year-old says, adding that is not a bad news-destination only.

Did you know India needs 12 million skilled workers but gets only 4 million from the existing ITIs and other vocational training centres? To address this challenge, 540 centres will come up over the next 10 years to train 1.1 million students. The setting up of these centres will be possible because of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that has been established between Laurus Edutech and the government promoted National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Chennai-based Laurus Edutech is a premier skills development group providing vocational training to students and even placement services to customers across different industries.

Despite Chennai being celebrated as the “Detroit” of India— a title that is in jeopardy with Gujarat emerging as the place to be, thanks to the industrial-friendly ambience created by its CM Narender Modi (with even Maruti Suzuki, that has been dogged by labour problems at Manesar, also looking at Gujarat)— the shortfall of skilled workers is adding to its other problems, like power shortage. In fact, according to Srinivas Rao Cheedella, MD, Laurus Edutech Private Limited, Tamil Nadu will be one of the focus states— the others are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharastra, Rajasthan and Bihar— where these centres will come up. Laurus will also train 40,000 students in high-end programmes. Vardhman added that the centres will be a combination of acquisitions, greenfield setups and partners. Laurus has partnered with TAHDCO (The Tamilnadu Adi-Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation) and the first batch of 120 students have been trained in engineering skills.

Interestingly, one of the company’s projects is training the children/ family members of every family affected by the Bhopal Gas tragedy. It has already trained 150 as Tally accountants, a three-month-long programme at the end of which certificates have been given. Apart from training, the company’s other interventions in the city, where a gas leak killed and maimed thousands 25 years ago, is to also impart skills to those who want to turn entrepreneurs, Srinivas said.