MP: El Dorado for sand mafia

Trade goes interstate

In the Congress rule, sand mining used to be controlled by village Panchayats.

The mining was not such a big money spinner. The BJP government made it a billion-rupee business by authorising collectors and MP State Mining

Corporation to control bidding for sand mines. The procedural change transformed the business as ruling party politicians started encouraging organised mafias to indulge in sand mining in connivance with the officers in

mining, revenue, police, transport and forest departments. With growth of size

and ill-gotten wealth of the nexus, the sand mining beckoned mafias from

neighbouring states, particularly from Uttar Pradesh. In the last two years,

mining in Madhya Pradesh has become an interstate organised crime. Chambal

and Sindh rivers in the Gwalior-Chambal region adjoining UP and Rajasthan are

an easy prey   for interstate mafias.

Sand illegally mined from the Chambal river is one-third in price compared to

legally procured sand. That is why, sand from Chambal is illegally transported

for construction works in cities of UP and Rajasthan.  Recent police actions in

the villages on the MP-UP and MP-Rajasthan borders have revealed massive

transport of sand to the neighbouring states. The growing demand of Chambal

sand has turned the mining into a veritable cottage industry in the region.

Villagers who used to collect sand from riverbeds for small profit have been

roped-in by big mafias as commission agents.  The villagers collect sand and

store the consignment at their farms for mafias to transport to cities in UP and

Rajasthan besides  towns in Madhya Pradesh.

In recent joint actions the forest and mining department sleuths detected

many such collection centres of sand in Nayakpura, Piprai villages in Bhind

district.

Illegal sand storage at farms is relatively less risky and more profitable for

villagers. As part of the big network of mafias, villagers prefer to clandestinely

collect sand at their farms. Henchmen of the mafias load the stored sand in

trucks or trolleys for transport beyond the state’s borders, often in the dead of

night. Demand for such illegal sand come from as far places as Dholpur , Agra,

Savai Madopur,Gwalior,Sheopur, Guna, Shivpuri.  Sand mined from riverbeds

of Sindh is also in high demand in adjoining states. But Chambal sand is much

cheaper. While one trolley of Sindh sand costs Rs 8000 that of Chambal costs

only Rs 1400. When the sand reaches its final destination, its price shoots up

nearly four times the price paid by the mafias to the agent-villagers.

Divisional forest officer (DFO) of Morena Vincent Raheem says the department

has   curbed local sale of illegal sand to a great extend but checking

transportation outside the state is still a big challenge.

With the government further liberalising the mining policy, more interstate

mafias are likely to join the bandwagon.

MP: El Dorado for sand mafia (two)

Rivers facing existential crisis

Pahanbarri was a small village of 3000 people in Hoshangabad district. Situated

on the bank of Tawa river, the 200-year old village was known for its fertile

soil. Tawa is a tributary of the Narmada. On August 1 last year, the river

changed its course, broke its bank and entered the village. A thick layer of

sand, up to four feet in height enveloped the thriving paddy and vegetables

sown in 500 acres of its agricultural land. About 100 acres of land which were

fields earlier, is a part of the river now.

Residents of Pahanbarri submitted a memorandum to the district authorities

to relocate them completely as there is no hope of a return to normalcy. They

say that sand mining in Maroda village, upstream of Pahanbarri along the

Tawa, has caused this damage. If the mining continues, they will have to face

more instances of flooding like this.

This is just one example of devastation the rampant sand mining has been

causing to the rivers and land in the state. Like Tawa, a dozen of other

tributaries of the Narmada river are facing existential crisis. Sand mining has

reduced half a dozen tributaries of Narmada in Narsinghpur district into muddy

culverts. Two decades ago, rivers such as Shakkar, Sher, Sitarewa, Dudhi,

Umar, Barureva, Pandajhir, Majha and Hiran used to flow majestically. There

riverbeds would be used to produce plenty of water melons and muskmelon

(Kharbuja). The sand mafias’ insatiable greed has almost killed the rivers. The

three-tier layers that shored the rivers have been destroyed due to illegal

mining. Narmada, a lifeline of Madhya Pradesh, is also pockmarked at many

places along its 1000-km course through the state with shallow swamps.

Sindh river in Gwalior-Chambal region is probably the most heinously raped

river. On the banks of the river  in Chandpur and Raipur ghats, sands worth

billions of rupees has been dredged with the help of submarines and boats.

The mafias have drilled as deep as 70 to 80 ft in the river to dredge sand.

Specially built crude submarines are brought from UP for drilling in the river.

Mafias are not afraid of   using even dynamites to break stones in the rivers.

Environmentalists say the explosions by dynamites have caused massive

damage to Narmada, Chambal, Betwa, Kel and Banganga rivers. The stone

quarrying has not only disturbed course of the rivers but has also damaged

biodiversity along the banks. This is because mafias get trees felled along the

rivers. The felled trees are used as wood to heat the stones on the riverbeds.

The heating softens stones and render them easier to break. Quarrying along

the Son river in the Vindhya region has seriously endangered the Ghriyal

sanctuary.

Environmentalist Dr Rajiv Chouhan of the For Conservation of Nature says

rampant sand mining has posed grave danger to environment. If this continues

unchecked, rivers will die. Sand acts as filter in a river. If sand is dredged out

uncontrollably, this will not only cause fall in the water level but also pollution

of the rivers.

Expressing concern over illegal sand mining from Narmada riverbed, the

central bench of the National Green Tribunal has asked the ministry of

environment and forests (MoEF) to examine the impact on rivers in the last ten

years.

The bench’s directions came while hearing a petition filed by and NGO

'Paryavaran & Manav Sanrakshan Samiti' in August last year.

 “ The MoEF must come forward with a practical policy taking into account the

present nature and the pace at which the development is taking place and also

taking into account the negative impact it is going to have on the ecology of

various rivers as sand is generally extracted from the river bed,” the order

stated.

The bench also directed the state government to file an affidavit regarding how

many cases had been registered against those persons on whose behalf

unauthorised extraction or transportation of mineral  had been carried out in

MP.

MP: El Dorado for sand mafias (one)

Coming days will be marked by hectic activity in sand mining

business in Madhya Pradesh. Lease periods of a majority of the

state’s 1700 sand mines have lapsed in March. State

Government’s liberal mining policy, announced on March 12, has

ensured that the multi-billion rupee sand mining business attracts

more players for bidding. A pleasant sensation is running through

the veins of those who control, monitor and protect the sand

mafias spread across the state.  These include ruling party

politicians and personnel of police, forest, mining and revenue

departments. Their cosy nexus is geared up to jockeying the

favourite ones for cutting best possible deals in nearly Rs 70,000

crore sand mining trade. Stake is higher this time around. The

state government has not only expanded the area of mining but

has also set a highly ambitious target for revenue. To meet the

target, significant changes have been made in the policy to

facilitate mining in larger areas.  

A taste of the things to come is apparent in the audio conversation

between BJP MLA from Bhind Narayan Singh Kushwaha and a

senior mining officer. Kushwaha is heard demanding Rs one lakh

from the officer. The audio went viral on March 18. The BJP MLA

is a protégé of union mining and labour minister Narendra Singh

Tomar, who is alleged to be the most powerful protector of the

sand mafias in the Chambal-Gwalior region. Just how audacious

the illegal sand minors have become under political patronage in

the region can be gauged by a recent revelation of a temporary

bridge built on the Sindh River to transport illegally mined sand.

On March 20, the bridge collapsed due to overweight of the sand

traffic. Then only the Bhind district administration woke up to the

seriousness of the illegal mining. The collector and SP with a large

posse of police rushed to the spot. , However, unsurprisingly, no

one was arrested.

Madhya Pradesh has become a veritable El Dorado for sand

mafias in the last 10 years of the BJP rule. Illegal sand mining

business is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore. The state government

gets peanuts in royalty compared to the stupendously huge profit

the mafias manage to pocket. Sand mine contractors bid for mines

through forming groups or companies and sometimes in

individual capacity. Cartelisation of contractors is also a common

practice in Chambal and Gwalior region. The cartelisation ensures

that the auction process remains under control of a group of

contractors. The most controversial company in this field whose

name is often tossed around in political discourse on illegal sand

mining is the Bhopal-based Shiva construction company. This is

because the company’s promoters are allegedly linked to the

family of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The company’s rampant mining operation in Nasrullahgang area

in Budni assembly constituency of the chief minister is frequently

cited by the opposition as a proof of the administrative

connivance with the sand mafias at the top level.

In 2012, a Congress MLAs’ committee did a spot survey of the

company’s operation. The panel found that in Sehore district's

Nasrullaganj area, the Shiva Company had illegally carried out

activities in ten villages, even though permission was granted

only in four villages.

The then leader of opposition Ajay Singh alleged in the state

assembly that Shiva Construction Company was granted

permission for sand mining in 16 hectares area in four villages

but it had carried out mining operations in 377 hectares area,

causing a threat to the course of the river and environment.

The Congress committee’s spot survey followed a senior mining

department officer’s report. Subsequently, a show cause notice

was served by the mining department on December 2011 to the

Shiva Corporation. This company was alleged to have illegally

mined sand estimated worth Rs 378 crore. Within days of the

show cause notice, the concerned officer was transferred. The

Shiva Company has thrived in the last five years even as the fine

slapped on it for violation of lease terms remains unrecovered.

Sand mining is a relatively low-risk and low-capital business

compared to mining of major minerals. Therefore, there are no

big players in the sand mining trade.

Big players are in mining of major minerals such as coal, iron,

bauxite etc. Two most controversial mining barons in the state

are Sudhir Sharma of SR group and BJP MLA from

Vijayraghavgarh Sanjay Pathak. Sharma is in jail since January

2014 for his neck-deep involvement in the professional

examination board (PEB) scam.  His transformation from a

private school teacher to a billionaire power-broker within a

decade of the BJP rule in the state bears inglorious testimony to

the vice-like grip of the mafias in the government.  Sanjay Pathak

had won 2008 assembly election on Congress ticket. At that time

he had declared his assets worth Rs 34 crore. In 2013, he showed

assets worth Rs 141crore while filing nomination for the

assembly poll. Within six months of winning on the Congress

ticket, the 43-year-old politician-businessman from Katni district

resigned from the party. He had wisely anticipated that BJP is all

set to form government at the Centre under Narendra Modi’s

leadership. He returned to the state assembly on BJP ticket.

Mining department sources say illegal sand mining is largely

politician-controlled trade. In almost all districts, ruling party

MPs, MLAs and other leaders handpick their acolytes to bid for

mining. In some cases, family members act as the front for elected

representatives too. Sand mines are the chief minister’s one of the

most potent instruments to win loyalty of local BJP leaders across

the state. That is why, the chief minister office (CMO) virtually

controls the bidding process through the chief minister’s most

trusted IAS officer SK Mishra. He is   secretary to the chief

minister as well as public relations commissioner. Till, 2012,

Mishra was the secretary, mining. But the nationwide outrage in

the wake of the murder of IPS officer Narendra Kumar Singh on

March 8, 2012 forced the chief minister to shift Mishra from the

mining department. The raging controversy had brought to the

fore how the then mining secretary favoured chosen few in giving

mining contracts at the behest of the chief minister.

However, Mishra still holds sway in the mining business.

Although incumbent mining secretary Shiv Shekhar Shukla has

sought to bring transparency in the bidding process, sand mafias

are confident that it is Mishra who still calls the shot in contract

allotment.

Shukla, another trusted IAS officer of the chief minister, is hopeful

that the e-auction process introduced in the new sand mining

policy will curb practice of illegal mining to a great extent. On

March 21, Shukla told prospective sand mine bidders through

videoconferencing that “through the new technique the auction

will be open to all and entire process will be transparent.”

However, those in the know of the government functioning are

sceptical of Shukla’s claim.

Right to information (RTI) activist Ajay Dubey,  who has brought

to the fore many a wrongdoing in the mining business, says the

mafias are too well entrenched in the business to be weeded  out

through e-auction unless the chief minister shows  strong political

will to clamp down on them.

Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Arun

Yadav says the policy is fundamentally flawed as it allows the

government to cherry pick prospective bidders.

Mafias in connivance with ruling party politicians and

bureaucrats have been mercilessly plundering the state’s river

beds. Rampant sand mining has posed existential crisis for over a

dozen rivers in the state. State’s bio-diversity is in serious danger.

Concerned over the alarming degradation of  environment  due to

untrammelled sand mining,  The National Green Tribunal  (NGT)

in August  last year  ordered a blanket ban on sand mining. The

Madhya Pradesh government cried foul over the NGT verdict,

arguing that this will badly hit the construction industry. State

government’s plea against the NGT ruling is under the Supreme

Court consideration.

Now the state government has come out with a new sand mining

policy which not only subverts the NGT   ruling but also invites

mafias to dredge and transport sand from across the state’s rivers

with greater impunity.

The state cabinet on March 12 approved a Sand Mining Policy

2015, notifying an additional 3,000 hectares of area for quarrying

to bring down market prices of sand and make it available at

cheap rates. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has given a

free-will to rural inhabitants to obtain and use sand free of cost.

Persons from rural areas need not purchase sand anymore.

Health minister and government spokesman Narottam Mishra

says under the new policy state mining corporation will

undertake sand mining throughout all tehsils of 18 districts.

 "Mining Corporation at present is engaged in sand mining from

only 53 tehsils of those 18 districts. New policy gives the

corporation excavation rights in all tehsils of the districts," Mishra

explained. "In the remaining 33 districts, collectors will auction

sand mines through e-auction."

The corporation will also give quarrying contracts through e-

auction. Bidders for this process under provisions of the Sand

Mining Policy will have to deposit only 10% as security deposit as

against earlier 25%. "E-auction and rationalization of security

deposit amount will simplify bidding process and bring

transparency," Narottam Mishra claimed

New policy has abolished provision which earlier prohibited

another sand mine within 10 km radius sanctioned to the state

mining corporation. Provision to charge royalty equal to that

charged by the corporation has also been abolished on the

grounds that this will make sand cheaper to the consumers.

Although environmental clearance is still mandatory, the policy

provides for optimum mining of sand in the state.. Government

argues this will make more sand available at affordable rates in

open market and bring more revenue to the exchequer.

As of now, the district collectors auction, operate and control

1,237 sand mines on an area of 2,677.554 hectares. Of them 1,181

mines on 2,070.01 hectares are of less than 5 hectare while 55

mines are of 607.54 hectare of more than 5 hectare.

The State Mineral Development Corporation operates, auctions

and controls 450 sand mines. Of them 285 sand mines of less than

5 hectares while 165 are of more than 5 hectares.

Under revised plan the sand mines will be of 5 hectares or more

with a total area of 9570 hectares across the state. However the

number of mines will be 1,009. The collectors will now operate

586 sand mines while the corporation will run 423 mines in 5,033

hectares.

The government has envisaged revenue of Rs 880 crore against

existing Rs 180 crore from auction of 2.28 crore cubic meter of

sand each year.

The corporation will levy Rs 125 per cubic meter as royalty and

administrative expenses while collectors will levy equal royalty

from an expected quantity of 6.80 crore cubic meter against the

total available quantity of 2.28 crore cubic meter earlier.

Insiders of the sand mining business contend that the state

government’s extraordinary generosity towards sand miners will

make competition in the business more violent. Average two

persons reportedly get killed per day in violence related to illegal

sand mining activity in the state. In 2013-14, as many as 715

persons lost their life in clashes among mafias and with police. In

2014-15, the death toll rose to 457 till December 31, 2014. The

brutal killing of IPs officer Narendra Kumar Singh in Morena

district on March 8,2013 had  caused nationwide uproar. Singh,

who was SDO (police), was run over by the driver of a tractor

trolley laden with illegal sand. His death brought illegal sand

mining in Madhya Pradesh in national focus but the outrage

petered down with passage of days. Incidents of attacks on police,

forest, revenue officers and personnel are quite frequent in the

state, particularly in Gwalior-Chambal region. But they seldom

attract attention of the national media. In December last year a

police constable was injured when sand mafia attacked a mining

inspection team after it seized tractor-trolleys allegedly carrying

sand without valid documents near a village in Hoshangabad

district.

The team, led by mining inspector Archana Choudhary, spotted

the sand-laden vehicles and stopped them for checking. As the

team was taking the tractor-trolleys to Dehat Police Station, the

attackers pelted stone, causing injury to constable Hemant Raj, he

said. Such violent attacks on government personnel are more

frequent in the Chambal region but are highly underreported.

Reports on the nexus of mafia-politicians-bureaucrats are even

rarer in the media. The nexus is so well-entrenched in political life

of the state that it has ceased to shock people.

The new policy is likely to add more violence to the gory business

of illegal sand mining because notorious dons from Uttar Pradesh,

Rajasthan and Delhi are reportedly eyeing the lucrative business.

Coming days are crucial for sand mining as fresh bidding for

mines is set to start after April.  Most of the sand mining leases

have elapsed this month.  

Madhya Pradesh Congress committee president Arun Yadav says

the new mining policy will further strengthen the grip of the

nexus on mining business.

‘ Sand mafias influence the bidding process and the government

succumbs to their pressure. Since ruling party politicians provide

protection to mafias, the government does not act against them.

As a result, the state exchequer suffers revenue loss to the tune of

hundreds of crore of rupees”, he alleges.

Staggering figure of non-recovery of fines on the sand mining

companies corroborate PCC chief’s allegations.   In two of the 51

districts in the state—Sehore and Mandla—alone the

administration has failed to recover Rs 1300 crore as fine slapped

on sand miners for violating the lease terms. In almost all districts

50 to 100 cases each are pending against sand miners but the

nexus of mafia-politician-bureaucrat manages to scuttle punitive

action against the offenders.

.

Shivraj Singh's escape route in a bill

COURTING CONTROVERSY

Madhya Pradesh bill to curb 'irritating legal practices' actually aims to protect CM, claim critics

Activists say new legislation is an indication that Shivraj Singh Chouhan is feeling the heat of the recruitment scam.

Rakesh Dixit 
Today · 09:15 am

Photo Credit: IANS

It will no longer be easy for public-spirited individuals and non-governmental organisations to drag the Madhya Pradesh chief minister and his associates to court for their omissions and commissions. On Tuesday, Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet approved a bill that seeks to provide them with immunity against “unnecessary and irritating" petitions. The bill's name describes its intentions clearly: it  has been called the Tang Karne Wali Mukadamabazi Nivaran Vidheyak (Prevention of Irritating Legal Practices Bill).

If activists are to be believed, the bill's target is more specific than its broad title makes it out to be. They claim that the legislation is intended to protect the government from the public interest litigation cases that have been filed in connection with the multi-billion rupee professional examination board scam that was uncovered in 2013. They have alleged that Chouhan played a role in manipulating the results of the entrance test for employees to several public services.

"The government wants to provide immunity to the chief minister and ministers from the PEB scam heat,"  Right to Information activist Ajay Dubey told local media on March 18.

Harassing whistleblowers

Another RTI activist, Puneet Tandon, told journalists that the government was seeking to harass whistleblowers by prohibiting their access to the courts.  Three whistleblowers played a major role in unearthing the recruitment scam. They have sought security from central forces, claiming that they no longer trust the police cover provided to them by a local court. One of them moved the Delhi High Court last month for protection against possible arrest by the Madhya Pradesh police.

Activists are not sure how much room they will have to manoeuvre under the Prevention of Irritating Legal Practices Bill. The proposed legislation empowers the state’s advocate general to object to any litigation against the chief minister or a minister if he feels that it is intended to harass the government or its functionaries. If the advocate general manages to convince the court, the petition will be dismissed immediately.

"After the bill is ratified by the state assembly, no FIR can be filed against the chief minister and ministers,"  said Dr Narottam Misha, the state government‘s spokesman and law minister.

Already, Chouhan is facing rising heat in the recruitment scam. On Wednesday, a Congress delegation comprising Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibbal called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to order a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the scam. The Congress leaders gave the prime minister what they claimed was an "original excel sheet" retrieved from the computer of an examination board employee. They alleged that Chouhan arranged to have the document manipulated to get his name as recommender replaced with that of his predecessor, Union minister Uma Bharti.

Leader of opposition Satyadeo Katare said that the bill is the chief minister's attempt to impose an Emergency in the state. “The bill clearly indicates that Shivraj Singh is seeking an escape route for the corrupt in the government to save their skin," Katare told journalists. The Congress, he said, would move the High Court of Madhya Pradesh to get the bill scuttled. It would not be possible for the opposition to stall the bill in the house because of the BJP's massive majority, he admitted.

Blatant infringement of rights

Former Madhya Pradesh director general of police Arun Gurtu, who has filed PILs that have resulted in many important court interventions in land encroachment cases, described the bill as a blatant infringement of fundamental rights. “This bill will render the law and order situation completely  uncontrollable," he told the Bhopal edition of the newspaper Dainik Jagran.

Legal experts echo the strong sentiments of the activists. “This law cannot be sustained,” retired Delhi High Court judge Usha Mehra told the Hindustan Times. “It’s against well established principles of law, common sense, and natural justice,” she added.

Supreme Court lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan said it was a “legal absurdity”. He said, “This is not only completely against all legal systems but also amounts to interference with the course of justice. There’s a limit to which you can take absurdity.”

The Madhya Pradesh law department, however, argued that too much was being read into the bill. A senior minister, who asked to remain anonymous, contended that the bill has nothing to do with the  scam. "It has been introduced on a suggestion of the registrar general of the Madhya Pradesh high court with the objective to  lessen the burden on the state’s courts”, he told Scroll.in.

Huge backlog

At present, more than 1.80 lakh cases are pending before the three benches of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. The number of pending cases in lower courts in the state is approximately 2.5 lakh.

Officials said Madhya Pradesh is not the first state to introduce such a bill to bring down “ irritating and frivolous “ lawsuits that avoidably burden  the courts. A similar act has been in force in Tamil Nadu since 1949 and in Maharashtra since 1971.

The Madhya Pradesh bill is accordance with the recommendations of the 192nd report of the national law commission, which was released early this year, the law department officials added.

Former Madhya Pradesh advocate-general RD Jain argued that the prerogative of admitting a lawsuit against any government functionary rests with the high court. The bill only authorises the advocate-general to only raise objections to unnecessary lawsuits, he said. "The judges can overrule the advocate-general's objections," he told journalists in Bhopal.

Why is Shivraj afraid of Narendra Modi ?

From farm aid to Gir forest and Sardar Sarover dam, Chouhan fails to confront Modi

The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister's poor equation with the prime minister and the shadow of a huge exam scam have considerably weakened his bargaining position.

Rakesh Dixit 
Today · 10:30 am

Photo Credit: Raveendran/AFP

A change in government in New Delhi, in May, has changed the Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as well. He seems to have ceased being angry with the Centre for “neglecting the interests and aspirations of the state’s people”, a previous refrain of his Bharatiya Janata Party government, whose tenure has coincided with the decade that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power.

Chouhan’s change of heart is reflected in the manner that he has refrained from seeking aid from the BJP-led Narendra Modi-government for Madhya Pradesh farmers whose standing crops have been destroyed by untimely rain and hailstorms over the past week.

“Why is the chief minister silent this time while the natural calamity is no less devastating than the one last year?” asked the Madhya Pradesh Congress committee president, Arun Yadav, in a press conference on March 16 in Bhopal, which included other party members, such as the leader of the opposition, Satya Deo Katare. “Whatever has happened to his anger against the Centre’s apathy towards MP’s farmers?”

The Congress accused the chief minister of being afraid of putting the state’s cases before Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP insiders admit that the widespread perception that there was a rivalry between him and Modi in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election weighs heavily on the chief minister’s mind. Within the party, Chouhan is seen as being part of the LK Advani-Sushma Swaraj camp, which has frosty relations with Modi.

Moreover, the shadow of a multi-billion rupee scam involving the professional examination board, which conducts tests for entry into medical colleges and for some government jobs, looms over him. This has rendered Chouhan even more diffident vis-à-vis the prime minister.

Crops damaged

Crops of wheat, gram, masoor dal (lentils), coriander and mustard have suffered widespread damage in 1,400 villages of the state’s 15 districts, according to the latest assessment of the state’s agriculture department.

A similar natural calamity had hit the state in February and March last year. At that time, the chief   minister exhibited marked alacrity in demanding aid from Manmohan Singh’s government. He had little patience with the agriculture ministry’s advice that he should first prepare a detailed memorandum on the extent of damage to crops.

Chouhan had insisted that crops worth Rs 10,000 crore had been damaged and that the Centre should immediately provide a Rs 5,000-crore package on humanitarian grounds. He had accused the prime minister of denying him an appointment.

A year ago, the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues even sat on a four-hour dharna in Bhopal to highlight the UPA government's ostensible callousness. The state’s 21 BJP Lok Sabha members, led by Sushma Swaraj, even called on President Pranab Mukherjee to seek his intervention for getting central aid for the state’s farmers. Chauhan, Katare and others also went to Mukherjee to plead their case.

Sardar Sarovar

This is not the first time that the Opposition has mocked the chief minister’s timidity in representing the state’s concerns before Modi. The chief minister has not uttered a word on the Modi government’s unilateral decision in June to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam, although Madhya Pradesh will be the worst-hit state in terms of the number of families who will be displaced as a result of the height increase.

Within a fortnight of Narendra Modi becoming prime minister, the Narmada Control Authority gave a nod to the Gujarat government for raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam from 122 to 138 metres. Following this, Gujarat chief minister Anandi Ben Patel rushed to the dam site to perform a puja to signal that construction would soon begin. Her Madhya Pradesh counterpart was not even consulted by the Authority, which is headed by the prime minister. A around the time the decision was taken, Chouhan called on Modi and gave him a shawl and coconut to congratulate him on being elected prime minister, but said nothing about the dam.

A press release issued after the meeting said that the chief minister had spoken to the prime minister about various issues in Madhya Pradesh, including changing the format of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and opening new vistas of development. But there was no mention of the Sardar Sarovar project.

Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar resents Chouhan’s silence on the matter. In October, Patkar had led a demonstration in Bhopal against the decision to raise height of the dam in front of the chief minister’s house. She told journalists that the height increase would submerge nearly 45,000 families belonging to 200 villages of Madhya Pradesh. Despite this, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister has kept quiet, she lamented.

As recently as March 14, the Supreme Court slammed the MP government’s lackadaisical attitude towards the rehabilitation of those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam. "File a report on the rehabilitation and the manner in which the rehabilitation has been done," the social justice bench of justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit said. The bench was unhappy about the affidavit filed by the Madhya Pradesh government. “This is a most casual approach. You have given no details.”

Gir lions

Chouhan’s apparent surrender before Modi on the issue of moving Gir lions from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh is no less baffling. The Madhya Pradesh government fought a legal battle for nine years with Gujarat for the translocation of lions from the Gir National Park to Palpur Kuno in Madhya Pradesh. The MP government has already spent more than Rs 400 crore to prepare a habitat for the lions, after rehabilitating 24 villages in the vicinity of the Palpur Kuno sanctuary in Sheopur district in the eastern part of the state.

On April 15, 2013, the MP government won the battle when the Supreme Court ordered the Gujarat government to start shifting lions to Palpur Kuno sanctuary within six months. Nearly two years have elapsed since the court verdict but the MP chief minister has not been able to summon courage to seek the prime minister’s intervention for relocating the lions. As Gujarat chief minister, Modi had anyway vehemently opposed shifting the lions.

Having given up hope of getting the prized animals from Gir, the MP government is now toying with the idea of bringing zoo lions from Hyderabad to the Palpur Kuno sanctuary, according to a report in The Times of India in January.

Shivraj's vyapam woes

Rakesh dixit

Arguably, the February 2015 has been the blackest month in the political history of Madhya Pradesh for several reasons.  For one, on February 25, the embattled Shivraj Singh government facilitated safe passage to the tainted governor Ram Narsh Yadav by the state plane from Bhopal to New Delhi a day after an FIR was lodged against him for forgery in the forest guard recruitment test conducted by the professional examination board. For another, next day, the ruling party’s brute majority ensured scuttling of the budget session barely four days after its commencement and a day after the budget was presented. Thirdly, on February 26, Congress leader Digvijaya  Singh made public the detail of the calls and SMSes  of the chief minister’s wife Sadhna Singh to jailed mining baron Sudhir Sharma recommending  a candidate’s appointment  for contract teacher. 

The chief minister hit back immediately. On the last day of the month, a paranoid BJP government dug out nine-year-old inquiry report on alleged irregularities in appointments in the state assembly between 1993 and 2003 to lodge an FIR against the then chief minister Digvijay Singh  and the then speaker   Sriniwas Tiwari. Taken together, all these developments unmistakably suggest that the Shivraj Singh government is rattled like never before in the 12years of the  BJP rule, thanks to the probe into the PEB scam that appears to be inching towards  the chief minister. 

Entire state is caught in the vortex of political storm caused by the PEB scam, with fate of  the governor all but sealed and that of the chief minister in  the doldrums.

Now all eyes are on the whistle-blower Prashant Pandey, a cyber expert, who has threatened to furnish clinching evidence before the Delhi High court about the scam. On his petition, the court has forestalled Pandey’s arrest by Bhopal police which had been after him ever since evidence against the chief minister were made public by the Congress on February 16.  The police suspect that Pandey photocopied all the data retrieved

Madhya Pradesh has been no stranger to political swindles that shook successive chief ministers since the state was formed in November 1956. But the multi-billion rupee professional examination board (PEB) scam that has been rocking the state politics for over a year is unparallel for its humongous size and complexity.

It involves chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a suspected beneficiary of the mind-boggling fraud committed on thousands of aspiring medical students and job-seekers for various government posts.  It is also linked to governor Ram Naresh Yadav whose son and OSD allegedly took money in the premise of the Raj Bhawan to get candidates cleared fraudulently in the contract teacher test conducted by the PEB.

Former personal assistant (PA ) of the chief minister is also accused. Only, Ram Naresh Yadav’s ex-OSD Dhanraj Yadav is in jail whereas Chouhan’s ex-PA Prem Prasad is on bail.        

Asia biggest scam

AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh, who has been vigorously pursuing the multi-layered scam to nail chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, dubs it the biggest political rip-off in Asia. Cabinet minister Uma Bharti, whose name has also figured in the scam, says it is bigger than the fodder scam of Bihar. She supports the Congress  demand for a CBI probe into the scam, much to the discomfiture of her own party.

The chief minister is facing unrelenting Congress pressure to step down following allegation that he had crucial evidence tempered with to save his skin in the scam. On February 16, senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijay Singh, PCC chief Arun Yadav and leader of opposition Satya Deo Katare addressed a joint press conference on the issue in Bhopal.  Senior supreme court lawyers KTS Tulsi and Vivek tankha, who have fought for Digvijay Singh in the courts on this issue were also present in the meet.

They accused the chief minister of being directly involved in the scam. They alleged that Chouhan had an original excel sheer having his name in 48 places deleted. The excel sheet was allegedly procured from the hard disk of the then PEB system analyst Nitin Mahindra who is in jail.  Mahindra had mentioned names of all those who had recommended admissions and appointments  for various tests through PEB in the excel sheets.

The chief minister has, of course, denied all the allegations against him and described them as a conspiracy of the Congress to malign his image. Digvijay Singh has dared the chief minister to get him arrested if the Congress’s allegations are proved incorrect. He has filed an affidavit  before the special investigation team (SIT) monitoring the investigation ,saying  he was ready to be arrested if his  allegations are proved wrong.

The AICC   general secretary says the Congress will not rest till a CBI probe is ordered into the scam. The BJP is equally determined to foil the Congress ‘campaign to corner the CM.

Since February 16, the scam is once again in sharp focus of the media with both sides hitting at each other.

Go ahead for action against Governor

Meanwhile, the MP high court chief justice AM Khanwilkar’s go-ahead to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to quiz the governor for his role has added a new dimension to the investigation. The SIT has recommended to make the governor a co-accused under section 120 (B) for entering into criminal conspiracy.  SIT head justice Chandresh Bhushan has said in his report to the court that the governor could not have been unaware of the fact that his son took Rs 3lakh to get 10 candidates cleared in the contract teachers’ test. One of the accused in the case had revealed that he had paid Shailesh Yadav the money in the premise of the Raj Bhawan.  The police are in the lookout for Shailesh in his home town Azamgarh, UP.

With the chief minister and the governor facing the scam heat, the Congress is optimistic of retrieving its lost ground in the state. Following a series of debacle in the state from assembly to Lok Sabha to recently held local body elections, the Congress in the state is staring at an existential crisis.

Mutual recrimination between the Congress and the BJP gives an impression as though the whole scam is a handiwork of the ruling party politicians only. More so, as names of some RSS leaders have also cropped up as suspects.

Congress’s focus on cornering the chief minister further buttresses this impression. But this is only partially true.

Bureaucratic-politician nexus

The most crucial fact being lost sight of in the whole murky affair is that the PEB scam is a shocking manifestation of the rupture in the admission and recruitment system which the state’s bureaucracy has been nurturing for decades for its own selfish end. 

A retired bureaucrat, who has worked closely with Shivraj Singh Chouhan, says he cannot say to what extent, if at all, the chief minister is involved in the scam. “But from experience, I can say that he is paying the price for giving the bureaucracy too long a rope.”

According to him, one of the secretaries in the CM office, who is viewed as Chouhan’s Man Friday, is responsible to a great extent for the mess the chief minister finds himself in.

Another retired IAS officer points out that unbridled powers vested with the PEB was the root cause for the loot to happen through its officers in collusion with middlemen, politicians and bureaucrats.  

PBE: fountain of corruption

Massive corruption spawned by the PEB is traceable to the genesis of the board.  In 1970 the state government formed a board to conduct entrance examination for the government medical colleges. Another board was formed in 1981 for engineering colleges. The PEB, which was formed in 1982, replaced both these boards. With commercialisation of professional education in 2002 insiders breached the system for fraudulent admissions.

Proliferation of private medical and engineering colleges from 2004 onwards paved way for the PEB to start conducting examinations for 50 percent of their seats. Here the college owners played a trick. They got clever “scorers” to appear for these tests. On clearing the test they would withdraw on the last date leaving the field open for the promoters to sell the seats for hefty donations.

The private medical colleges also started post-graduation courses infiltrating into the government colleges through unfair means.

Lure of the lucre in admissions

Why admissions in medical colleges have become a lucrative business for the politico-bureaucratic nexus has to be understood in the backdrop of the poor healthcare, corruption and centralised licensing power in the state.

Madhya Pradesh has only ten medical colleges- six government and four private. Former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia got approved another medical college in his parliamentary constituency-Shivpuri- but the state government is dithering on allotting land for the proposed project.

Poor health infrastructure

Madhya Pradesh has a doctor-population ratio of 1: 18650 (roughly 1:300 in Europe). Newly qualified post graduates earn approximately 20times the per capita income of the state. Therefore, privileged parents are willing to plough big money in their wards’ medical education. Post graduation costs up to Rs 4 crore in a state-recognised private medical college in Madhya Pradesh. It is much cheaper at Rs 75 lakh to secure a seat in a government college through scam network.

India is the only country where sale of medical seats by private medical colleges is part of official policy. It means ability to pay counts more than merit. The Medical Council of India (MCI), which regulates the sale of medical seats, is itself systematically corrupt.

Issuing threats of de-recognition to the state’s medical colleges from the MCI is an annual ritual. Despite poor infrastructure and acute shortage of medical and para- medical staff, the medical colleges survive the de-recognition threats through greasing the palms of the MCI officials. It suits the politician-bureaucrat nexus fine to keep the healthcare poor and number of medical colleges limited. For, stake for admission in these colleges remains high in terms of money extorted from private medical college owners who, in turn, charge phenomenon donation from students.

The nexus has a direct bearing on the state’s healthcare. MP has the highest infant mortality rate (IMR) at 54/1000 and second highest maternal mortality rate (MMR) at 220/one lakh in India. With over 60% child malnutrition, Madhya Pradesh is compared with sub-Saharan states in hunger parameters.  Yet, in the same state, income tax raids on the premises of two former health directors –Yogiraj Sharma and Ashok Sharma--yielded assets worth several hundred crores. The Central-sponsored National Rural health Mission (NRHM) is the biggest source of loot for the corrupt in the health department.

How greed soared

The ill-gotten money earned through admission-rackets whetted appetite in the political-bureaucratic nexus for bigger money.  The mafias looked for more avenues to satisfy their ever-growing greed. This became possible in 2007 as the BJP government handed the PEB the recruitment examinations for the personnel for various departments including those of semi-government and public sector units. Till then, the state public service commission used to conduct these examinations.

Recruitments to 40 departments are controlled by the board.  Opportunities to manipulate the system for filling the government departments with bogus candidates have become immense. Recruitments of contract teachers and police personnel have proved particularly more lucrative because number of candidates in the two departments was quite high. No wonder then that most of the accused including bureaucrats arrested for recruitment fraud were linked to the tests for contract teachers and police personnel.

Earlier these recruitments used to be organised through respective departments. Corrupt officials in the departments would strike deals with the racketeers to get chosen candidates cleared. The clandestine operations would go on smoothly, barring occasional rumblings from the candidates who thought they were cheated. But such complaints were too few and far between to warrant serious media attention.

Manipulating recruitment norms

In fact, smoothness of the admission-recruitment racket emboldened the nexus to tweak the system more audaciously to make their operation smoother.   

For instance, when the 'recruitment mafia' realised that though it could help candidates pass the theory test for police department but it could not help them clear the physical test, they got fitness norms diluted. In some cases they even managed to get the fitness test abolished. The bureaucracy was only too willing to help the mafia--of course, for a price.

While the college admissions fetched the middlemen anything between Rs 5 to 50 lakh per candidate the recruitment racket fetched them Rs 1 to 10 lakh for each candidate.

Enters the kingpin

With the admission-recruitment racket growing into a multi-billion industry, a top power broker in Madhya Pradesh, Sudhir Sharma, decided to control the PEB’s corrupt empire. Sharma’s rise during the 10 years of the BJP regime has been stupendous. He was a teacher in a RSS-run Saraswati Shishu Mandir. When his close friend Laxmikant Sharma became mining minister, Sudhir quit the job and entered into mining business. Within years, he emerged as a top notch mining baron. His wheeling-dealing in the bureaucracy increased. Transfers, postings and appointments in the state government department became his shady side business.

Master manipulator appointed

Leveraging friendship with Laxmikant Sharma, Sudhir got his acolyte Pankaj Trivedi appointed as examination controller in the PEB. Trivedi was a lecturer in an Indore college, so his elevation in the PEB raised many eye brows in the bureaucratic circles. But   Sudhir succeeded in silencing them.  One of Pankaj’s brothers Piyush trivedi is the vice chancellor of the state’s only technical university. Another brother Sudhanshu Trivedi is BJP’s national spokesman.

Pankaj Trivedi turned out to be smarter in system manipulation than even Sudhir had imagined. He managed to buy all the key functionaries in the board, notably chief system analyst Nitin Mahindra, assistant programmer C K Mishra, Ajay Sen and Santosh Gupta.

How fraud was committed

They colluded to subvert the PEB functioning broadly in three ways to allow the massive loot continue with impunity. 

Impersonation:  An impersonator is one who writes an exam on behalf of someone else. They are brilliant students who can score very high marks. The concerned officers on the examination board would change the photograph back to that of the original candidate after the exam. The student would end up passing an exam which he or she never appeared for. The impersonators would be paid a hefty amount for securing the seat. 

Engine and bogie system: A person would be fixed by people on the board whose work would be like that of an engine. He would be seated strategically between two other candidates who wanted a seat. The engine would help them copy from his own paper. The examiners would be  usually bribed to fix the seating arrangements.

OMR sheets: The chosen candidates would be asked to leave their answer sheets blank. They would be randomly given high percentages after the exam. Concerned authorities of the board then would file an RTI demanding to view those exact answer sheets. They then would fill in the answers in the OMR booklet according to the marks the candidates had already been given. This would be done so that if someone were to ever check those answer sheets, there would not be any loopholes that could give them away.

For years, Pankaj Trivedi and company got away with cheating thousands of deserving medical students and job aspirants, primarily because they were secure in the belief that Laxmi Kant Sharma, who was also technical education minister, was protecting them. Although the PEB is supposed to be a self-financed, autonomous body with a senior IAS officer as chairman, it was Trivedi and company who called the shot.  The then chairman Ranjana Choudhary was completely in the dark about the dubious goings-on right under her nose.

How the lid was blown on scam

By the time, the scam was unearthed in July 2013, the Trivedi and  company had got admitted over 1000 undeserving students admitted in the state’s medical colleges. Besides, several hundred persons had entered in government jobs after paying hefty cut to middlemen, who shared the booty with the PEB gang. Billion of rupees had changed hands when the crime branch in Indore registered the first FIR in the scam and arrested Dr Jagdish Sagar, one of the kingpins in the PMT fraud.

The arrest followed production of concrete evidence in the fraud by whistleblower Dr Anand Rai in the court.  The Indore bench of the high court also spurred the police to act following a writ petition filed before it by parents of some students who had appeared in the PMT-2013. They pleaded with the court to scrap the test in the wake of the reports that 300 ineligible students had managed to get into the merit list.

The police seized a list of 312 candidates from Dr Sagar’s palace-like house 12 days ahead of the counselling for PMT-2013. 

Till July 2013, there had been sporadic reports that appeared from time to time since 2008 in the state’s media about ‘Munna Bhais’ having got admission in the state’s medical colleges. 

Dr Anand Rai says the PMT scam had been going for at least 10 years.  ‘The first case of impersonation was brought to light in 2004 in Khandwa district. Most of the cases are still running in courts’. 

The scam snowballs

Dr Sagar’s arrest in July 2013 blew the lid on the scam. However, bigger storm was still in store. His interrogation led to arrest of Pankaj Trivedi and company in September 2013. When Pankaj started singing in the police custody, magnitude of the scam began to snowball. He confessed that the scam was not confined to the manipulation in the PMT but also involved forgery and bribery in at least five recruitment tests conducted by the PEB. These included food inspector, milk federation, contract teachers ,Subedar-sub inspector and police recruitment tests.

Given the ever widening ramification of the PEB scam, the chief minister announced to form a Special Task Force (STF) for investigation. The Congress alleged that the STF was formed in a hurry to preclude possibility of a CBI probe into the scam as the CM was aware about involvement of many BJP leaders.  

However, the STF’s prompt actions convinced people about its earnestness and, as a result, the Congress failed to make the scam a potent election plank in the assembly polls held in November 2013. The BJP romped home with a bigger majority.

Once the election was over, embarrassment for the new government began as Pankaj Trivedi started naming influential beneficiaries of the loot at the expanse of thousands of deserving candidates for jobs and admissions. He named his mentors Laxmikant Sharma and Sudhir Sharma as key recommenders for the fake appointments and admissions.  Laxmikant Sharma had lost the recently assembly election. Sudhir Sharma had gone into hiding.

STF  on overdrive

With revelation of the two important names, the scam unravelled with breath-taking speed.  By December 2013, the STF identified 129 accused. They included Dhanraj Yadav, officer on special duty (OSD) to governor, Aurobindo medical college, Indore chairman Vinod Bhandari, his colleagues, IAS officer KK Jain, deputy commissioner RK Mishra, DIG RK Shivhare, IG Sonali Mishra’s brother Bharat Mishra, two state police officers from Gwalior, OSD to Laxmikant Sharma, OP Shukla, and OSD to the chief minister Prem Prasad. Some of them had paid money to touts for securing admission of their wards. Others had acted as tout themselves.

Poignant stories of the ‘criminals’ plight

Subsequent months saw the STF going fast and furious in arresting suspects in the scam. Each arrest led to more revelations and, therefore, more arrests. Boys and girls would be picked up from their homes and brought to the STF office for interrogation like criminals. Some would be accompanied with their parents. Poignant stories appeared in the media as to how some parents had obtained loans after pawning assets to pay to the middlemen.  Photographs of the boy and girls being herded to the police stations would evoke pity towards the accused and anger against the system which brought them to this sorry pass.

Leader of opposition Satya Deo Katare recalls how he was deeply moved by the plight of the arrested students who were suspected of getting admission through fraudulent means.

“ It is pity indeed that poor students suffered the ignominy of arrests while the real culprits are still  out of the law’s reach”, he laments.

According to Katare, the scam has directly hit nearly 3.5 lakh families.

The arrests of Laxmikant Sharma and his OSD OP Shukla created most sensation. While being taken to court, Sharma told mediamen that three IAS officers were behind his arrest. Shukla cryptically said if he opened mouth, it would shake the entire bureaucracy. However, both chose not to divulge names. Incidentally, OP Shukla used to flaunt his fabulous connections in the IAS fraternity when he was an OSD. He was alleged to be a key interface between Pankaj Trivedi and bureaucrats who wanted their favourites appointed in government or admitted in medical colleges.

By April 2014, over 1000 accused including suspected Munnabhais and their wards had been arrested. Number of those absconding was even bigger.

CM’s predicament

A visibly upset Shivraj Singh Chouhan admitted in the maiden session of the assembly after formation of the new government   that the STF had detected 1000 bogus appointments made through nexus of the mafia with the PEB officials. He, however, refused to accede to the Congress demand for a CBI probe into the scam.

His stonewalling the demand for a CBI probe further infuriated the Congress which hit the street with a variety of agitations. For months, the scam rocked the state. While STF and state police were busy arresting and interrogating the suspects across the state, the Congress kept mounting pressure on the chief minister for a CBI probe.

The near-decimation of the Congress in the Lok Sabha election in May last year had a profound bearing on the STF probe.  A cocky BJP, which won 27 out of 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state, maintained that the STF was doing a fine job. The Congress was too demoralised to revive stir against the government.

Meanwhile arrests have continued. So far, more than 160 FIRs have been registered, 1800 persons arrested and over 1200 admissions in medical colleges cancelled. The latest to be arrested among influential persons is Amit Pandey, the husband of the senior IAS officer Amita Vajpayee Pandey. He was held for his role in contract teachers’ recruitment in January this year.

The multi-layered PEB scam is as complex as it is wide-ranging. STF personnel have arrested suspected middlemen and impersonators from many states including UP, Karnataka, Bihar and Delhi.

While the STF is doing its job, the Congress’s main focus is on how to implicate the chief minister in it.

Court steps in to monitor probe

Even as the Congress stir slackened following debacle in the Lok sabha election, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh has vigorously pursued the case for a CBI probe in the high court. However, his attempts have not borne fruits so far. 

Rejecting Digvijay Singh’s plea for a CBI probe, the MP high court chief justice AM Khanwilkar in November last year ordered to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to monitor investigation conducted by the STF. Since then, the SIT headed by retired high court judge Chandresh Bhushan is monitoring the probe and duly reporting the progress to the high court chief justice.

It may take years before the accused are finally convicted, given the sheer complexity of the scam and huge number of accused involved in it.

The scam may have rocked the state but it hasn’t instilled fear in the bureaucracy about corruption. The bureaucracy-politician nexus still endures in the state. Only, it has become a little more cautious following the unearthing of the PEB scam.