Somewhere in Uttar Pradesh....

With less than a year to go for general elections, BSP bigwigs and former ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha got embroiled in a Rs.1,410 crore scam with the UP Lokayukta indicting them for wrong-doings in the buying of sandstone for dalit memorials in Lucknow and Noida. He also named 197 others, which makes the scope of the memorial scam among the larger ones to rock UP.
The misappropriation was in the form of overspending of public money, said Lokayukta NK Mehrotra, who also called for a CBI inquiry, or by any other agency not controlled by the state government. Mehrotra also called for special trial courts.
The Lokayukta, who handed over his 88-page report to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, exonerated former CM Mayawati for lack of evidence and said there was no proof against any bureaucrat either.
However, the 199 people indicted include sitting MLA Ramesh Chandra Dubey and two former BSP MLAs, Anil Kumar Maurya and Sharda Prasad.
Others indicted by the ombudsman are two advocates, 57 engineers, 20 consortiums, 60 marble supply firms and 37 accountants, and eight others.
MEMORIAL MOOLAH
The Scam : 1,410-crore anomaly in purchase of sandstone for five dalit memorials
The Accused : 199 people, including two former ministers — Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha — indicted
What Next : The Lokayukta has recommended recovery from all the 199 people; FIR against 19 and trial by special court
The sandstone has been used in five memorials – Ambedkar Samajik Pariwartan Sthal, Manyawar Kanshiram Smarak Sthal, Gautam Buddha Upvan,EcoPark (all of them in Lucknow) and the Noida Ambedkar Park.
The Lokayukta said when the construction work began, the rate of pink stone was between Rs 40 and Rs 50 per cubic feet. The contractors, engineers and consortiums, however, fixed the rate at Rs 150 per cubic feet claiming this was the rate; the Lokayukta added that assuming that the rate might have increased from Rs 50 to Rs 100 per cubic feet; there was still overcharging by Rs 50. The overspending of over Rs 1,410 crore was computed on the extra Rs 50 per cubic feet siphoned off from the government coffers, said Justice Mehrotra.
The total budget for sandstone purchase and installation involving four departments—housing, public works department, cultural department and tourism —was approximately Rs 4,277 crore, of which over Rs 4,100 crore had been spent, the Lokayukta said, adding that the total budget was transferred to LDA which got the construction done through Nirman Nigam.
In the report, the Lokayukta also recommended recovery of 30% of the amount from the two ministers, 15% each from CP Singh and SA Farooqui and 15 engineers who fixed the rate of sandstone without any tender or quotation and 5% each from the accountants.

Green Revolution 2.0

A string of previously laggard states are poised to overtake Punjab and Haryana, India’s traditional grain bowl, as the new powerhouses of food production, driven largely by — surprise — state support.
While privatisation is often thought desirable for key sectors of the economy, second-generation “green revolutions” across several states demonstrate that government initiatives can still turn things around.
India had raised the annual funding for a "green revolution in eastern India" from Rs.400 crore to Rs.1,000 crore for 2012-13. The results are showing.
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar have posted over 10 million tonnes of food output for the first time, with Madhya Pradesh picking a top central award recently.
Each of these states were awarded Rs.2 crore for highest overall foodgrain output, while they were also given Rs.1 crore in the individual crop category.
With the gradual weakening of the 60s green revolution, which had transformed India into a nation that could feed itself, planners knew it was time to turn the foot-dragging eastern part into the next food bowl.
Rising consumption and flattening yields in the country's breadbasket (Punjab and Haryana) has necessitated a renewed “green revolution”, especially in newer states. Northeast, with its fertile soil and abundant rainfall, could be the country's next agricultural powerhouse, trends show.
Nagaland and Manipur achieved farm output of nearly 1 million tonne this year.
Under individual crop category for rice, Bihar outperformed even big states. In wheat, pulses and coarse cereals, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have nearly matched Haryana’s production.
Roughly two years of work has paid off for Bihar, which has doubled its rice output from 3 million tonnes to about 6 million tonnes, while Jharkhand has trebled production from 1.1 million tonnes to 3.3 million tonnes.
Overall, the eastern states have produced 7 million more tonnes of rice, an official said.

DMIC snippets

The UP government is all set to sign a state support agreement (SSA) with the Centre for the multi-crore Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project during the three-day international industry summit in Agra beginning January 27.
The agreement was likely to be inked on January 28 when UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav would chair a session projecting UP as an ‘industry destination' during the summit. UP's infrastructure and industrial development commissioner Anil Kumar Gupta confirmed that a draft of the agreement would soon be readied to be signed between the state government and the Union ministry of the commerce and industry. He said that the state government would subsequently sign a shareholding agreement with the Centre to take the project forward.
The project envisages setting up of seven investment and 13 industrial regions between Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai and Dadri in Greater Noida, will pass through two investment regions in UP – Greater Noida and Meerut-Muzzaffarnagar.
This is apart from a dedicated freight corridor of 150 to 200 km on both sides of the investment region. The project becomes crucial for UP because the proposed east-west corridor merges at Khurja which lies in Uttar Pradesh. The corridor will help the farmers, especially of the east UP, to ship their produce to places as far as Mumbai.
The project also proposes the development of Bodaki railway station, Dadri-Vallabhgarh railway station, and Greater Noida-Faridabad expressway, besides a logistic park/township and an automart. The authority has also identified setting up of a power plant in the region as an important feature.
The GNDA and UPSIDC had been asked to identify a site for setting up a hi-tech integrated industrial township in the region.
Gupta said that the state government has already earmarked around 2,500 acres of land for the project. Of that, 500 acres will be allotted in Greater Noida alone.
According to the project blueprint, the Centre will invest around Rs.3000 crore in the region lying in UP. This will include setting up of industries, including Food, IT, electronics and auto industries. In all, the project is expected to create 12 lakh jobs.

Akhilesh's Agenda for Development

Agra - Lucknow Expressway snippets

The Uttar Pradesh Public Private Partnership Monitoring Committee has finalised the alignment of the Agra-Lucknow Green-Field Eco-Friendly Expressway Project. Reviewing the progress of its implementation, infrastructure and industrial development commissioner, Anil K Gupta examined the draft concept report submitted by consultants Redicon India Pvt Ltd and approved the final alignment proposal of an approximately 270-km long six-lane (extendable to eight lanes) expressway starting from proposed Agra Ring Road close to Yamuna Expressway, passing through Fatehabad, Shikohabad, Saifai, NH-92 near Etawah, NH-91 near Kannauj, NH-25A near Malihabad, and finally culminating at Inner Ring Road in Lucknow.
According to the draft concept report, the consultants have proposed five toll plazas, eight interchanges with 7.5 metres service lane along the expressway and 80 under passes, 135 cattle passes and four public amenities. The draft concept report has also fixed a project execution time of three years.
The state government also asked the consultants to incorporate design parameters for a speed of 120 km/ hour on the proposed expressway. The committee also observed that it should be clearly specified in the concept report that the concessionaire will have to acquire land himself, while the state government will only facilitate the acquisition. Moreover, the final concept report will also include provision for optional annuity or toll based revenue models, setting up two fuel stations, linkages to existing industrial clusters of potato-based food processing in and near Agra, glasswork of Firozabad, Attar (perfume) industry of Kannauj and the leather industry in Kanpur. Gupta said, “The finalised alignment has been derived on the criteria of maximum utilisation of barren, waste and low cost land in the area. To make the expressway economically inclusive, small Mandis have been proposed, as they will benefit farmers, schooling facilities for their wards and medical-care facilities will be developed along with eco-friendly green belt and water bodies with a view to protect environment and rain harvesting.”
Gupta also said the consultants have been asked to include alternative bidding processes for selecting developers for the entire expressway as a single project or in small pockets of growth centres. “In addition, masterplans of cities along the alignment must also be synchronised with the expressway, so that, there is no hurdle in execution of project later on,” Gupta said.
The final comments on the project by UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority will be made available to the consultants by early September after which the final concept report will be accepted by the PPP Monitoring Committee.
Apart from reducing travel time between Agra and Lucknow to three hours from the present seven, the access-controlled expressway will help the swift transportation of perishable farm produce to bigger markets, apart from boosting tourism.
The six-lane expressway, that seeks to reduce the distance between the two cities from the existing 350 kilometres to 274 kilometres, will pass through Yadav-dominated belt comprising Etawah, Mainpuri and Kannauj districts.
Proposed to come up at an estimated cost of about Rs 9,800 crore, the project aims to reduce the travel time between Lucknow and Agra from 5 hours to 3.5 hours. The expressway will be ready by 2016.
Government may put in place the annuity-based system to decide on the toll that will be charged from commuters. Infrastructure and industrial development commissioner Anil Kumar Gupta said the system would ensure that the developer doesn’t quote arbitrary toll rates.
“The traffic volume will be ascertained every year and accordingly the toll rates will be decided,” Gupta said.
While reviewing the project during a presentation, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said the expressway will help farmers to ship their produce far and wide.

Of NCR expansion....

The Centre will consider inclusion of Mahendragarh, Bhiwani, Mathura and Bharatpur in the National Capital Region (NCR) following demands put forth by Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan governments to the NCR Planning Board.
In a written reply to Lok Sabha, minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy stated that these demands will be examined by a study group constituted for review and revision of regional plan-2021 for NCR. “The matter will be considered by the Board after the examination by the study group,” the minister replied.
Three MPs had asked the UD ministry whether there are any laid down norms for extension of the NCR. Roy explained that while there is no such norm, the study group on policy zone, demographic profile and settlement pattern constituted by NCRPB had recommended not to extend the region at least upto 2021. The group had reasoned that the existing NCR “has not developed as envisaged and any extension will amount to spreading of scarce financial resources thinly.”
However, after fresh requests came from three constituent states of NCR, the Board has asked them to submit their views and comments. Roy mentioned that the study group had recommended NCR boundary should coincide with the district boundary of Alwar. NCRPB officials said this recommendation was accepted by the Board and entire 7,829 sq km of Alwar was included in the region. Earlier only 4,493 km of Alwar was part of NCR.
States have been lobbying for inclusion of more areas in the NCR since they can get additional funds from the Board for development activities.

Politics v/s Development

After the Mamata v/s Buddhadev battle which led to West Bengal loosing the Tata Nano project at Singur,here's another one brewing.This time in Uttar Pradesh.The Sonia Gandhi-Mayawati battle for the political turf of Uttar Pradesh flared up months before the general election on Sunday when the BSP government in Lucknow cancelled its order for the allotment of 189.25 hectares of land for the setting up of a rail coach factory at Lalganj in Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency, Rae Bareli.The Congress president was scheduled to perform the ‘bhoomi pujan’ of the factory this Tuesday. While the land has been returned to the gram sabha, Rae Bareli district magistrate Santosh Kumar has been directed to find an alternative site for the factory.Mayawati’s principal secretary Vijay Shankar Pandey told mediapersons that the decision to cancel the allotment was taken following the Rae Bareli DM’s report that said there was great anger among the people whose land had been acquired, and that the situation in the villages concerned had turned explosive.Congress leaders cried foul, accusing Mayawati of depriving the industrially backward state of a big manufacturing unit. Congress leaders upset with Mayawati’s decision to retract the allotment of land for a rail coach factory in Rae Bareli have threatened to launch a movement to put pressure on the chief minister. “It’s unfortunate that Mayawati has denied land to the railway project at a time when other CMs are vying with each other to bring investments to their states,’’ party general secretary Digvijay Singh said. He said the Congress was considering the option of a political stir to pressure Mayawati to rethink her decision. Singh’s party colleague Abhishek Singhvi deplored the decision as a “petty political game’’ that would only harm UP. Railway minister Lalu Prasad termed Mayawati’s move a “vengeful act’’ and regretted that UP would be deprived of a major opportunity for investment and employment.It’s not just Sonia and Lalu who have had to bear with Mayawati’s maverick behaviour. Union chemical and fertiliser minister Ram Vilas Paswan, too, was at the receiving end when the temperamental BSP leader refused to allot land for the premier National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER). “We had planned to open NIPER—a premier institute for pharma research and manpower training—in UP but Mayawati refused to give land,’’ Paswan said. He added that his ministry was offering land price at competitive rates but the BSP leader was disinterested. Paswan had also planned a steel processing unit to be set up in the state but so far there has been no progress in the matter.Meanwhile, Vijay Shankar Pandey said the DM, in his report of October 10, had written that the project-affected villagers were enraged as they felt that any hope of getting the ‘patta’ of the gram sabha land in their names had ended.