E.A.S.Sarma
14-40-4/1 Gokhale Road
Maharanipeta
Visakhapatnam 530002
Tel. Nos. 0891-6619858/ 9866021646
To
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister
Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Subject:- One private party has cornered most of Andhra Pradesh coastline- Demand for a comprehensive investigation
I have come across a highly disturbing report on the above subject in one of the local language news papers today. I have enclosed a copy of the same for your ready reference. Someone could translate it into English for your perusal.
During the last five to six years, private agencies have scrambled to get command over three national resources, land, minerals and access to the sea through the coastline. Unethical politicians and civil servants have colluded with them to make it possible.
The case in point is the way some political leaders have handed over large stretches of the AP coastline to a single family at a throwaway price and with an “exclusive” right over it. The same family has taken control of the other two scarce national resources, namely, land and minerals, in a fairly significant measure. All this has happened with the State government openly contravening its own law, the AP Infrastructure Development Enabling Act, 2001 (Act No. 36 of 2001) that made it mandatory for the State government to go through the competitive bidding procedure for allotting resources for all mega projects.
This is a case of gross defiance of the Directive Principles enshrined in sub-clauses (b) and (c) of Article 39 the Constitution that read as follows.
“The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing
(b) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;
(c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment”
The coastline is in the nature of a public resource and the government can at best be a trustee for managing the same on behalf of the people. Alienation of such a public resource, I am afraid, goes counter to the Doctrine of Public Trust, a judical principle well established by the courts in India and elsewhere.
In the Indian conditions, the maximum requirement of a typical port is perhaps 25 to 30 kilometres. Visakhapatnam, a major port in operation since 1930, has a coastline of hardly 15 km. In Andhra Pradesh, in the name of developing “non-major” private ports, the political leaders have grabbed most of the coastline and allotted the lion’s share of it to one family. Smaller but fairly sizeable stretches have similarly been allotted to the other favoured private parties on a nomination basis.
AP has a coastline of 975 km, out of which 346 km has been handed over to a single family, operating with different names from three different locations. These three ports are Krishnapatnam, Vanpic and Machlipatnam, all promoted by a single family. The State’s leaders have not only allocated the coastline but, in the guise of “Port Exclusive Zone” (similar to SEZ?), the water front extending over thousands of hectares. This is unheard of in terms of the sheer magnitude of the plunder of a scarce national resource like the sea coast. I am told that a similar modus operndi is being adopted in the other States as well.
I am aware that the so called “major ports” are at Item 27 of the Union List whereas the so called “non-major ports” are at Item 31 of the Concurrentn list. While the distinction between the two is no longer clear, it has been misused by the State’s politicians to plunder the nation and its water front.
I believe that the case of one family cornering the State’s coastline to the detriment of the public good represents a scam comparable to the 2-G and S-Band spectrum cases. From the public’s point of view, I demand that the Central government intervenes in the matter and takes such action that would put a stop to this loot and save the country’s limited coastline. I have the following suggestions for your consideration.
- The proposal to enact the Indian Ports Act by merging the existing Major Ports Act, 1963 and the Indian Ports Act of 1908 should be quickly transformed into an Ordnance and promulgated with immediate effect to empower the Central government to step in and save India’s coastline from these unethical marauders trying to grab the coast to aggrandize themselves and their political associates
- Restrict through the Ordnance the limit of the coastline to 20-30 km per port with no exclusive rights.
- Constitute an inter-disciplinary team of investigating agencies including CBI, Enforcement Directorate, CBDT, RAW and others to trace the funds of the family in question to ascertain its domestic and external investments, especially its links to the tax havens abroad in Mauritius, Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and so on. My letter of January 13, 2009 already referred to such clandestine investments.
- This family has apparently obtained many other mega projects pertaining to mining, thermal power plants, metro projects etc. The investigation cited above should be comprehensive enough to cover all such projects that have come up in violation of AP Infrastructure Development Enabling Act, 2001 (Act No. 36 of 2001) as far AP is concerned. It is suspected that this family has links to projects in the other States of India and even other countries.
- The same team should look at similar plunder of the national resources in the other States as well.
- In all these cases of moneys stashed abroad, it is possible that there are serious national security implications that need to be investigated
The ongoing proceedings before the Hon’ble Supreme Court on black money may have direct relevance to the cases I have mentioned above. The quantum of black money stashed abroad by these families is a direct index of the magnitude of corruption in politics and the severity of crime committed within India. It is not confined to tax evasion. It is much more than that. The government seems to take shelter behind the bilateral tax treaties to hide the names of the owners of the black moneys in foreign banks. Such tax treaties cannot condone the concealment of the facts when the moneys involved also represent the much larger crimes committed by these anti-social elements.
Mr. Prime Minister, I hope you will acknowledge the receipt of this letter and proceed on the lines suggested above. Delay of action in such matters will amount to abetment of these offences on the part of the government.
Regards,
Yours sincerely
E.A.S.Sarma
Former Secretary to GOI
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