Why elect honest politicians?

In India it is common to have cost and time overruns in almost all infrastructure projects. This results in huge losses. Most of the time and cost overruns are due to extreme corruption in the government machinery. The extra money assigned to the project goes into the pocket of the politicians in different ways. 

Many a times the materials required for the project are sourced from a contractor at a cost way above normal market rate. Many a times this expensive materials are of substandard quality. There have been dams made that leaked within a few weeks of inauguration. Bridges built that were damaged in no time. One can see newly constructed roads being washed away in monsoon because of the low quality materials used in its construction. 

Now corruption happens in case of sports as well. Millions of dollars allocated to build sports facilities are stolen. The Common Wealth Games of 2010 held in New Delhi are the biggest example of the levels of corruption in sports. Rs 70,000 crore were lost in the games. A similar incident of corruption happened in the Feroz Shah Kotla cricket ground upgradation.

A budget of Rs 24 crore was set for upgrading the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, the project went over budget and it was finished with a 5 year delay. It cost Rs 114 crore to upgrade the stadium. If you watch the Kotla stadium on TV, you would realize that it has a horrible design. It cannot be called world class.

Recently the stadium at Dharmasala was made for a budget of  Rs 22 crore. The world class stadium of Rajkot was built at a cost of Rs 70 crore. So surely there has been tremendous corruption in the upgradation of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. Cricket is not just a game but a religion in India. But it is a well known fact that a good amount of corruption exists in cricket as well. Cricket is a money spinner in India. India contributes the maximum amount of revenues to ICC. 

India lacks infrastructure in terms of roads, power, education and medical facilities since the money is not spent properly. The loss is due to dishonesty. It is because of people who don't give a damn about people of the country, the kind of leaders people have elected are only interested in filling up their coffers at the cost of common people. 

India is home to maximum number of starving people in the world, close to 200 million. 400 million others are living a life of extreme poverty. Why this poverty exists? It is all because of governmental corruption. Huge amounts of money belonging to Indian nationals are deposited in banks overseas, in tax haven nations like Switzerland, Singapore, Malta, Linchestin, Isle of Man etc. 

Now look at this example of what a honest politicians can do. In Delhi, AAP government build a flyover that was budgeted at Rs 250 crore, not only before scheduled time, but also at a cost of Rs 150 cr, 60% of the budgeted amount. The money that is saved goes as investment into other infrastructure projects.

So you see whom you vote for matters a lot, if you vote for honest people development and prosperity will follow. If you vote for dishonest people, if you vote for criminals and thugs, you are destined to be ruined as a nation. So the button of vote is in your hand, value it high and vote for honest. 

CBI raid on Delhi CM's office

On 15/12/2015, the Central Bureau of Investigation, that directly reports to the Central Home Ministry raided the Delhi CM's office. The pretext that was given was about some complaint relating to the principal secretary. However, the CBI raided the office of Delhi CM along with the office of the Principal Secretary.

This was surely done to get access to the files relating to the case related to the DDCA scam in which Arun Jaitley is involved. The files in Delhi CM's office are not more than 15 days old. So they investigators were not likely to get anything on the case that involved the principal secretary. However it was known that Delhi Government was working to set a committee to probe the DDCA scam. 

2 years ago the Supreme Court of India has said that the CBI is a caged bird. Every ruling party has used the CBI to its own advantage the present government is also using the CBI against the current Delhi government. The BJP has been badly beaten in Delhi, Bihar and also it seems to be loosing grip in its traditional fortress Gujarat, where congress won the panchayat elections.

Since Modi became the Prime Minister, his work has hardly impressed anyone and his popularity has come down significantly. The debacle in Delhi, Bihar and Gujarat seems to have got into the nerves of the PM and he ended up giving some ridiculous orders. 

This would only work to the benefit of Arvind Kejriwal since it is now proved that Narendra Modi is behaving more as a dictator. The CBI questioned Rajendra Kumar and then ultimately left him, since they were unable to make any case against him.

When BJP was in the opposition it complained time and again about the centre using CBI against the opposition. Now that it is in power it is doing the same thing. 

Surely Narendra Modi is bound to lose public support, which has already come down significantly. His bullet train ambitions will find no takers, people are distressed when they buy pulses at Rs 200 a kilo. 

People voted for Modi with a hope that he would change the face of the nation.Of course BJP did succeed in spreading the myth of Gujarat Model(which exists only on paper) and people were carried away by the advertisements on TV that promised acche din. However Modi was not able to deliver on any of its promises. What he has given to us since he became the Prime Minster of the nation was only lectures and nothing else. 

Modi has just worked for a couple of crony corporates who has helped him win the Loksabha elections by their  money power. 

This morning Arvind Kejriwal uploaded this images of the list of things taken away by CBI, all the documents have nothing to do with Rajinder Kumar's case .






The above list is enough to prove that the raid was not regarding Rajinder Kumar's case but they wanted to look into the DDCA file. Probably the investigators even might have taken snaps from the file to give it to their masters. 

However the reactions across the internet indicate that it is Modi who is going to be the ultimate loser in this game. Its surely going to boomerang on BJP and BJP will keep losing seats all across the nation. 

Get the right thing from Japan- Bullet Train is not one of them (Updated on 14/12/2015)

Japan is a global leader in the field of Technology. Japan is well known for bullet trains, the country has some of the fastest bullet trains in the world. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown interest in getting Japanese bullet trains to India and recently a deal has been signed between two nations in which  Japan would set up a bullet train line between Ahmadabad and Mumbai, the cost of this project is estimated to ₹98,000 crore.

₹98,000 crore will be spent on a railway line between the two cities whose length will be around 530 kilometers. It will bring down the travel time to 2 hours from the current 8 hours. However looking at the cost of the project, when the trains are up and running, the ticket prices for the trains have got to be very high. So high that it will more than the airfare between the two cities.

The time taken to fly between the two cities is around 1 hour 10 minutes. So people who can afford to use bullet trains already have a faster mode of transportation than bullet trains. So this raises serious questions regarding the economic viability of the project. The present bullet train project may not succeed at all.

The quality of railway transportation in India is not very good. The train fares have been increased but hardly anything has been done to uplift the quality of services offered by the Indian Railways. It would have been much better if the money was spent to improve the current railway infrastructure than spend it on a project that is aimed at the rich.

India does have a lot to learn from Japan. After the second world war, Japan was completely devastated. But the Japanese rose back as a global technology and economic superpower. Japan relentlessly focused on science and technology. A lot of research in the field of science and technology is done in Japan. India has to learn this from Japan. I just hope instead of bullet trains Modi actually invested in building excellent research and development centres in India.

Japan is a nation with very little corruption in the government. So can Modi emulate the Japanese and remove corruption from India as well? Since he has become the Prime Minister of India, the amount of corruption has not changed at all.

Japan is a nation that achieved tremendous economic success in spite of limited natural resources. India has far more resources than Japan however in the first 68 years after her independence, India stays way behind Japan. Huge population of India lives under poverty line. While poverty is virtually non existent in Japan.

The above portion was written yesterday. However I got some more information about the project from the Huffington post article. 

According to the above mentioned article, Japan will give a loan of almost ₹80,000 crore to India at 0.1% interest, it will have a moratorium of 15 years - which means the loan repayment can start after 15 years of taking the loan. Also, the loan repayment period will be 50 years. If we take inflation into account, the cost of things and correspondingly incomes are going to go up. So by then when the loan repayment period begins, the tickets, I guess will be quite affordable to most people.

However there is always a risk. What if there is some destructive technology that makes travel even faster and cheaper, with science and technology, you never know what's coming next. 

Citizens Charter Bill passed by AAP Delhi Government

In India it is common knowledge that it is not possible to get any work done in a government office without giving bribes. If you don't give bribe the one tactic the government officials follow is to delay your work for months or years. There are many people who are made to run pillar to post just to get their pension. Government offices in India are not only stinky and dirty but also the work is done there at snail's pace. You will invariably find officials reporting to work late and leaving early. 

One of the major promises of Delhi AAP government was the enactment of the Delhi Janlokpal, but it is likely to face some challenges in the Centre. So the Delhi government separated the Citizen's Charter from the Janlokpal into a separate bill.

Yesterday on 26th November 2015, the Delhi Citizen's Charter Bill was passed in the Delhi Assembly. Now people of Delhi will be entitled to get time bound services in all the offices that comes under the Delhi Government. There would be time limit fixed for each and every work to be done. In case of a delay the citizen would be entitled to a compensation and the money for the compensation would be deducted from the salary of the official who is responsible for the delay. 

This will surely make work faster in Delhi Government Offices and Corruption would become much less in the government offices of Delhi. On Monday 30th November 2015. The Delhi Janlokpal Bill will be passed in the Delhi Assembly. 

The AAP government in Delhi is delivering what it promised. In fact its going beyond that. 

Mohalla clinics in Delhi

Health care is a basic human right and it is the duty of every government to provide it. In India due to inadequate infrastructure and facilities in government hospitals and clinics people are forced to go to private hospitals and clinics. People are in general forced to pay the high fees of the doctors this way. We know very well that as compared to other developed nations only a small fraction of India's budget goes to health care and this year the allocation has come down instead of going up. Add to that due to corruption a big percentage of the money allocated to health care gets stolen. 


However the AAP government in Delhi instead of decreasing the health care budged has almost doubled the budget. The conditions of government hospitals are being improved and private hospitals that does not take in poor patients under the EWS quota have been fined around 203 cr Indian rupees. 

The Delhi government has already opened one Mohalla clinic, that treats 300 patients a day. The government has now decided that it will open 1000 such Mohalla clinics in the next 6 months, an allocation of Rs 209 crores has been made for this. The Mohalla clinics give free treatment to patients. 

If each Mohalla clinics give 300 free treatments a day then the 1000 clinics can given 300,000 free treatments each day. Thus annually it can give 300000X365 = 109500000 free treatments each year. That is 10 crore 95 lakh free treatments. For international readers the number is 109.5 million free treatments each year. 

This shows that if intentions are clean then excellent work for people can be easily done by the ruling government. Hats off to Arvind Kejriwal and his government. 

ACHIEVEMENTS OF AAP GOVERNMENT SINCE 14 FEBRUARY 2015

Kindly note that this post is not made by me. It is taken from Mr. Aravind Gangadharan's Facebook post.

1) Power tariff cut to half for domestic consumption till 400 units
2) CAG Audit ordered for Electricity tariff and Audit Completed. No power tariff hike for first time in 4 years.
3) Electricity made available continuously in summer with week-wise planning
4) Water tariff withdrawn till 20000Litres per month consumption/per connection. Tanker Mafia under control. Water supply to more area.
5) Started Anticorruption Bureau and arrested 35 corrupt officers. Corruption reduced.
6) Made arrangements for Electricity mammoth bill dispute resolution
7) Rs.50,000 per hectare compensation given for farmer's crop fail
8) Infrastructure improved in schools. Job security given to teachers on contract.
9) Ensured welfare of contract labourers(CL). 50000 CL regularised.
10) Dengue fever controlled with Health workers and volunteer participation
11) 1500 Home guards deployed as 28 teams in buses as Marshals for women's security. Installed 200+ CCTVs in buses.
12) Deployed e-Rickshaws for last mile connectivity to ensure women's safety
13) Controlled the price of onion to Rs. 35 per kg.
14) Rescued children captured under child labour / beggar mafia
15) Single window clearance for events
16) Cleaning of Yamuna, Water sports start up.
17) Rs. 1 Cr. Compensation to security personnel who die in harness.
18) A/c Mohalla Clinic serving 300 people per day free of charge
19) Education Loan of up to 10 Lakh with Delhi Government guarantee.
20) First time a SWARAJ budget was prepared with people's participation. Huge increase in budget share for education and health care.
21) PWD roads repaird on reciept of call reporting gutter on same day.
22) Electronic Ration Cards (E-Ration cards with Ration tracking)
23) Registration and issue of House numbers to unauthorized colonies.
24) Pick and drop facility for children with special needs.
25) Rs. 5 Lakh Compensation to Sikh Riot Victims.
26) Completed 6Lane highway budgeted for 242 Cr. at only 147 Cr. by Delhi PWD.
27) Made 200 Toilets for slums.
28) Rs 209 allocated for the construction of 1000 Mohalla clinics around Delhi. 

Your so called Acche din.

While the Modi government is spending hundreds of crores of rupees to broadcast advertisements appealing people to give up their LPG subsidy(after significant drop in global oil prices its hard to believe that any real subsidy is given). 

The MPs enjoy highly subsidised Parliament canteen food and look they have ordered 55 superluxurios Mercedes Benz Cars for themselves, while people have to suffer from corruption and high prices of essential stuff. Dal is being sold at Rs 200 per kg, onion Rs 70 per kg. 

The so called ACCHE DIN for idiots.