OROP is only a mirage

On 15 July 2012 18:50, Sailesh Ranade wrote:
Dear Veterans,
1. I have been closely following the situation with regard to OROP. I feel disgusted that veterans are crying like spoilt children for some fancy toy. This Tamasha has been going on for a few years now with no end in sight. In fact, we have brought this upon ourselves.
2. Now let us come to the main point. Veterans are not children. So stop behaving like children. If you think that the government (politicians and bureaucrats) is going to listen to you, forget it. Have you noticed that the government will notice you only if you do dharnas, hunger strikes, rallies and resort to things like rasta / rail roko. See how every other department is holding the government to ransom.
3. So what needs to be done? Get your butts off the ground and pull your finger out. Following points come to my mind readily.

Bring in a Tall and Clean Leader. Only one relevant present day ICON comes to my mind. Gen VK Singh. He has no financial historical baggage.

If you cannot muster VKS, bring in Anna Hazare.

Join Forces. Today we have all sorts of Brigadiers, Major Gen, Lt Gen and even a Major who run different types of organisation. Come together, but keep the tainted out. I used to see a lot of Generals on TV in the last 6 months. Dump them. Also dump all the military Governors and High Commissioners. They were all corrupt.

Form a Political Party. Call it the “Patriotic Front“. I guarantee, at least 100 seats in Parliament if there are clean candidates. The number of ex-servicemen and servicemen is easily close to 4 million. There is no bigger homogenous force in the world. If you include the paramilitary, it will easily touch 10 million. When in Parliament, make your own laws. Pass any bill in favour of the veterans.

The statement that “we will play by the rules” needs to be discarded. When your future is being decided by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and judiciary, there is simply no future. Hold rallies, strikes, rasta roko etc. I am sure Delhi and surrounding areas can easily muster more people than what Anna Hazare and Ramdev could organise. And these two gentlemen brought the government on its knees.

As military veterans, we should consider all means. All is fair in love and war. The result will be quick and the lesson will sink in once and for all. We don’t need cry babies on TV. Act now. The mood is against the government. India desperately needs a revolution. A minor storm by military veterans will be enough.
Regards,
S Ranade

An excellent idea. Implementable.
Regards,
Col Rajan

Comment: Why are IESM and IESL the two large Veteran organisations losing steam? Is it because their primary aim is now refocussed on collection of funds and spending more and doing less for the Veteran community? What has happened to improvement of ECHS, CSD and Resettlement? We hear nothing on ground.

How many Serving and Retired Military Officers have money stashed abroad?

Blackmoney: Indians have stashed over $500 bn in banks abroad, says CBI
New Delhi, Mon Feb 13 2012, 14:40 hrs
Indians are the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated 500 billion US dollars (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in tax havens, the CBI Director said today.
India, in particular, has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin islands etc.
"It is estimated that around 500 billion dollars of illegal money belonging to Indians is deposited in tax havens abroad. Largest depositors in Swiss Banks are also reported to be Indians," CBI Director A P Singh said speaking at the inauguration of first Interpol global programme on anti-corruption and asset recovery.
He said getting information about such illegal transactions is a time taking process as investigators have to peel each layer by sending judicial requests to the country where such deposits have been made.
"53 per cent of the countries said to be least corrupt by the Transparency International Index are offshore tax havens, where most of the corrupt money goes. The tax havens include New Zealand, which is ranked as the least corrupt country, Singapore ranked number five and Switzerland number seven," Singh said.
He said there is a lack of political will in the leading tax haven states to part with the information because they are aware of the extent to which their economies have become "geared to this flow of illegal capitals from the poorer countries."
The CBI director said tracing, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of stolen assets is a legal challenge, a complex process which requires expertise and political will.
"Managing the asset recovery investigation is complex, time consuming, costly and most importantly requires expertise and political will. There are many obstacles to asset recovery. Not only is it a specialised legal process filled with delays and uncertainty, but there are also language barriers and a lack of trust when working with other countries," Singh said.
He said global financial markets allow money to travel faster and further making tracking the money trail in such cases even more difficult which necessitates the organisation of such global training programs as they enhance the knowledge of investigators in tracking assets created out of corrupt and criminal acts.
Singh said criminals are using the territorial issues of investigating agencies to their advantage by spreading their crimes to at least two countries and investing in a third.
"In some of the recent important cases being investigated by the CBI such as 2G, CWG and Madhu Koda, we find that money is taken to Dubai/Singapore/Mauritius from where it goes to Switzerland and other such tax havens.
"For criminals all it involves is setting up of a few shell companies and then making layered transfers from account to another in a matter of hours as there are no boundaries in banking transactions," he said.
He said the World Bank estimates the cross border flow of money from criminal activities and tax evasion is around 1.5 trillion US dollars of which 40 billion US dollars is bribe paid to government servants in developing countries.
Singh quoted the report to say that only five billion US dollars of this money has been repatriated during 15 years.
Blackmoney: Indians have stashed over $500 bn in banks abroad, says CBI

DGR perpetuates corruption in coal transportation

Excl: Mafia exploits ex-army jawans 14 Jul 2012, 2115 hrs IST, TIMES NOW
Korba-Chattisgarh coal trucks move along the highway-headed to transport coal to and from the many mines that dot the region. It is here that the mafia has complete sway and is exploiting army jawans to make huge profits. Coal transportation companies are allotted to ex-army officers by the resettlement wing of the army. They in turn employ jawans in whose name the trucks are to be operated. It is here that the mafia muscles in.
When an officer’s turn comes without informing officer the mafia knows through the DGR, the name and address, they go and contact him and with the threats and lump sum they take over the company.
The mafia exploits the jawans by using their names, documents and signatures to run the trucks. While each coal truck can earn them close to 20 lakh a year, the jawans are paid a petty stipend of 2000 a month which also stops after some time.
They detail their own men to contact in Haryana villages, the widows and ex servicemen and collect 30 discharge books. They call the jawan to the place and open their accounts and get their signatures on blank accounts so they can raise loans for the trucks from their own finance companies Our investigation took us deep into mafia territory in Korba-men working with the mafia times now caught on camera told us how the ex servicemen just sign the documents without investing any money.
A coal transportation company sponsored by the DGR should have at least 75% ex servicemen which cannot be sublet to anyone else. On the ground, the entire work has been taken over by the mafia while jawans and their families are left high and dry.
In 2007 the scam was the subject of a parliamentary enquiry-which demanded a CBI probe. Little seems to have changed on the ground. Questions have also been asked of the army’s resettlement wing which has been unable to counter the mafia.
Times now's investigation has shown that the mafia holds sway in Chattisgarh. Using muscle and money they exploit the army officers and jawans and despite repeated probes very little seems to have changed on the ground.
Mafia exploits ex-army Jawans
Comment: DGR is corruption centric and hence need to be disbanded and save the tax payers money. The bureaucratic set up under the MOD is a set up designed to help the corrupt Military Personnel to seek resettlement.