Breaking News: Abhishek Singhvi Chennithala cheating public......... Business Bhutan Report

law-breaking bhutan lottery agent drags rgob name to indian court

Posted by tenzing_LAMSANG | 02 October 2010

The government has been thrust into the center of the slimy lottery scam in Kerala by Megha distributors without RGoB’s knowledge violating an agreement with Bhutan.
Megha Distributors sells Bhutan Lottery in the South Indian state. It is now fighting a case in the state high court against the Kerala government decision to stop the illegal sale of Bhutan lottery there.
Without Bhutan’s permission, Megha has named RGoB as a direct party on behalf of Megha distributors in the Megha distributors Vs. the Kerala government case.

On September 29, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson, senior congress leader and eminent lawyer, Abhishek Singhvi, appeared in the Kerala high court to argue on behalf of Megha Distributors claiming he was representing the Royal Government of Bhutan in the case and was their counsel.

However, Business Bhutan has found that RGoB is not a party to the case and so has not hired any lawyer. Bhutan government’s role was limited to only signing an affidavit saying that Monica Distributors is the main agent of Bhutan and Megha distributors is Bhutan’s agent in Kerala.
The director of the Directorate of Lottery Yeshey Lhendup, with approval from the Ministry of Finance had gone to Kerala last week to sign such an affidavit. He said, “I only signed an affidavit saying that Megha is our distributors in Kerala but we have not hired any lawyer nor authorized anyone to hire a lawyer since we are not a party to the case.”
In fact, when the Kerala government asked Megha Distributors for a copy of the agreement proving that Megha Distributors was representing Bhutan, Lawyer Abhishek Singhvi claimed they could not show the agreement as it was a commercial document.
Damija, the CEO of Martin Lottery Agencies, which is the parent company of Megha Distributors told Business Bhutan over phone from Chennai, “The Bhutan government has signed a wakalat (affidavit) authorizing the hiring of a local advocate and that local advocate had hired Abhishek Singhvi.”
However, the lottery directorate and the finance ministry denied any such authorization.
When Business Bhutan contacted the Bhutan Embassy in New Delhi, an official said the Embassy was not aware of RGOB hiring any lawyer. As per procedure, a government agency can hire a lawyer in India through the foreign ministry and the Bhutan Embassy in India.
Business Bhutan also found that as per the original lottery agreement signed between Monica Distributors and RGOB in 2007, the distributor has “to indemnify (protect) the government against any financial and legal liabilities on account of violation of relevant laws and rules in force in Bhutan and India and all such claims that are solely attributable to the sole purchaser.”
This, in short, shows that the RGOB will not have any legal or financial responsibility which solely lies with the distributor.
The appearance of a senior Congress leader on behalf of Megha Distributors has embarrassed the congress party of Kerala who until now had been accusing the ruling Communist party-led government of colluding with the lottery mafia which in this case was Megha distributors.
On his first day in court, Abhishek Singhvi was heckled by Kerala Youth Congress workers when he argued for around 90 minutes on behalf of Megha Distributors. There were more red faces in the Kerala Congress when he showed up again on Thursday to claim that he was representing the RGoB in court against the Kerala government. Abhishek Singhvi had earlier said he was in court not as a Congress leader but in his personal capacity as an advocate for the RGoB.
Senior Congress leaders spoke up against Singhvi and complained to the Congress national leadership following which Singhvi said he is withdrawing from the case.
Earlier in court, Abhishek Singhvi had said that Monica Distributors is the all India agent for Bhutan Lottery and Megha Distributors was the agent for Kerala based on the affidavit signed by the Bhutan government. He said that Bhutan Lottery was being printed in security presses and the printing costs were borne by Bhutan.
The Kerala high court on September 30 instructed the Kerala government to collect advance taxes from Megha distributors but forbade the sale of Bhutan Lottery tickets in Kerala until another hearing scheduled on Monday.
Singhvi claiming to represent Bhutan is an effort to provide cover to embattled Megha Distributors to hide behind the RGOB.
Early this week, Kerala revenue officials in a fact-finding meeting asked Megha Distributors to produce the original copy of their agreement with RGoB proving they were the promoters. Megha Distributors officials walked out of the meeting saying they cannot provide the document.

അയോധ്യയും ശബരിമലയും

ചില ഉന്നത രാഷ്ട്രീയ നേതാക്കള്‍ ഇന്നു നടത്തിയതുപോലെ അയോധ്യ വിധിയെ അവലോകനം ചെയ്യാന്‍ ഞാന്‍ മുതിരുന്നില്ല. കേരളത്തിലെ ഇന്നത്തെ മാധ്യമ ചര്‍ച്ചകളില്‍ നിറഞ്ഞുനിന്നത് പലക്കാട്ടെ ദേവയാനിയുടെ കാലുമാറ്റവും പച്ചക്കറിയുടെ തീവിലയുമായിരുന്നു. അയോധ്യ വിധിയെ തുടര്‍ന്ന് ഇതുവരെയും Fl¢¨T c¢¼¤« o«Mtn« s¢©¸¡t¶® ¨Oií¢¶¢¿. F¼¡v, A¹¢¹® ¨Os¢i A±Jh¹w Aj©¹s¢. രാജ്യത്തെ ഒരു വലിയ വര്‍ഗ്ഗീയ കലാപത്തില്‍ തള്ളിവിടാത്ത Akpf¡a® ¨¨p©´¡TY¢യുടെ kJ®cª fÕ® നടത്തിയ വിധിന്യായം തീര്‍ച്ചയായും സ്വാഗതാര്‍ഹമാണ്.

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ശബരിമല

അയ്യപ്പന്റെ ഉറ്റമിത്രമായി ഐതിഹ്യത്തില്‍ നിറഞ്ഞു നില്‍ക്കുന്ന മുസ്ലീമായ വാവരുടെ പള്ളിയില്‍ ദര്‍ശനം നടത്തിയ ശേഷം മാത്രമേ അയ്യപ്പഭക്തന്മാര്‍ പതിനെട്ടാം പടി ചവിട്ടാവൂ എന്നൊരു വിശ്വാസമുണ്ട്. ശബരിമലയുടെ പടിഞ്ഞാറുഭാഗത്തായി വാവര്‍ക്കുവേണ്ടി സമര്‍പ്പിക്കപ്പെട്ട സ്ഥലമാണ് വാവരുനട. മതസൗഹാര്‍ദ്ദത്തിന്റെ ഉത്തമ ഉദാഹരണമായി വാവരുടെ പള്ളിയും അയ്യപ്പന്റെയും ക്ഷേത്രവും ശബരിമലയില്‍ നിലകൊള്ളുന്നു. മറ്റ് ചില ഹിന്ദു ക്ഷേത്രങ്ങളെപോലെ ശബരിമലയില്‍ ജാതിയുടേയും വംശത്തിന്‍റേയും പേരിലുള്ള വേര്‍തിരുവുകളില്ല. എല്ലാ മതത്തിലും പെട്ട ആളുകള്‍ക്കും ശബരിമല സന്ദര്‍ശിക്കാവുന്നതാണ്. ഹിന്ദുക്കളല്ലാത്ത വളരെയധികം ആളുകള്‍ ശബരിമല സന്ദര്‍ശിക്കറുണ്ട്.

ഈ ശബരിമല മോഡല്‍ അയോധ്യയില്‍ നടപ്പിലാക്കികൂടേ...............

അയോധ്യ വിധിന്യായം.......

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തിരുവനന്തപുരത്തെ പാളയത്തുള്ള പോലെ A©i¡Ú¬i¢ലും പള്ളിയും ചര്‍ച്ചും ക്ഷേത്രവും അടുത്തടുത്തായി നിലനില്ക്കട്ടെ..


 

Mani Kumar Subba, Nalini Chidambaram and now Abhishek Manu Singhvi

Congress party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared before the Kerala High Court today (29^th September 2010) for Megha Distributors owned by Santiago Martin against the recent state governments ordinance to amend the Paper Lotteries Act, with provisions including hiking the tax on lotteries. This is a big setback to the Congress in Kerala, which has been vigorously campaigning against the "illegal" Sikkim and Bhutan lotteries, alleging that the CPI-M-led government in the state was helping Megha Distributors.

Inside the court, Singhvi lashed out at the state government for bringing an ordinance that is against the Lotteries (Regulation) rules, 2010 passed by the central government this year and pointed out that it was a clear violation of the constitution by the state government. Singhvi is expected to appear in court again Tomorrow - this time for Bhutan Lotteries.

The Lotteries (Regulation) rules, 2010, issued under subsection (1) of section 11 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998 were hurried through after P. Chidambaram became the Union Home Minister. His wife Nalini Chidambaram was the counsel of the lottery agencies in the cases against Kerala government.

LDF government stopped accepting tax advance from promoters of Bhutan and Sikkim lotteries, citing violation of rules, resulting in virtual stoppage of sales of other state lottery tickets. The state government had also brought in an ordinance amending the Kerala Tax on Paper Lottery Act, making the tax provisions more stringent.

The Governments ruled in Kerala had failed to control other state lotteries for the last 12 years because of the unholy nexus between central congress leaders and lottery mafia.

Mani Kumar Subba, the ex-Congress MP from Tezpur, Assam

His family owns MS Associates, a major player in the lottery business, which came under the scanner after the Comptroller and Auditor General detected a massive scam in the conduct of the Nagaland State Lottery in 1999.

The CAG report dealt exclusively with the running of the Nagaland State Lottery, of which MS Associates had been appointed the 'state sole distributor' in 1994.
Apparently, the state government earned only minuscule revenue from the lottery, which ran for four years and had a turnover of thousands of crores of rupees.
While 91 percent of the face value of tickets was to be paid as prize money, only 78 percent was actually given away. The winners were thus cheated of Rs 5,000 crore or Rs 50 billion.
'In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it can be assumed that this amount was not paid as prize money and was retained by the distributor,' the CAG report said.
The audit began in 1997, a marathon exercise that scrutinised the running of the Nagaland State Lottery from 1993 through 1997. In these years, 83,254 lottery draws were conducted, of which the CAG examined 42,459.
The CAG has calculated that of the Rs 38,297 crore (Rs 382.97 billion) worth of tickets printed, even a mere 2 percent profit for the distributor, agents, and state government would work out to Rs 766 crore or Rs 7.6 billion.
Even if the state government were to get half the profit, it should have been entitled to Rs 383 crore or Rs 3.83 billion. But it received only Rs 40.2 crore or Rs 400.2 million.

Software Freedom Day

Advocates of software freedom in India joined hundreds of their counterparts all over the world in organising various programmes and events to celebrate Software Freedom Day on 18th September 2010.

The day is aimed at promoting awareness of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in general. It celebrates software freedom and the people behind it try to promote public awareness of software freedom and encourage the adoption of free software and open standards, among other things.

The first formal definition of free software was published by FSF in February 1986.That definition, written by Richard Stallman, states that a user of a free software has the following freedoms:

• Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
• Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
• Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
• Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Happy SFD all! Celebrate the freedom, and if you cannot contribute by any means, encourage and adopt free software.

Celebrations of 'Human Gods' in Kerala

The contemporary events in Kerala, some fake Human Gods  and their Celebrations, like Birthday celebrations of Amritanandamayi, ‘Parnashala’ at the Santhigiri Ashram, etc are in headlines of news papers. President of India and our Ministers are also showing great interest in attending these functions and queuing up for blessings of these fake gods. Despite our people are educated, every year such personalities and their devotees are increasing only. People are blindly following these kind of fake citizens. These devotees fall in their traps due to their personal problems and they think that they can survive it by believing them and following their rituals. 
People are ready to spend enough money for their problem solving. Not only in Kerala, but in almost all states of India too, these fake Human Gods are cheating lot of people. People easily fall under the trap of these renowned personalities. 
Some of the news items are listed below. Just go through them.....

1. Amritapuri is gearing up for the 57th  birthday celebrations of Mata Amritanandamayi. The birthday celebrations will be held on the premises of the Amritapuri campus of the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

• More than three lakh devotees are expected to attend the celebrations. A 70-foot-long and 40-foot-wide stage has been erected for the celebrations. The main hall sprawls over an area of more than 200,000 square feet.

• Arrangements have been made for drinking water to be delivered to the devotees, right where they are seated. More than 200 temporary bathrooms have also been erected in close proximity.

• More than 100 food counters have been arranged to cater to the devotees’ needs. These counters will be run by students from the various Amrita educational institutions. The students will also lead the team responsible for getting rid of food waste and litter. The 200-plus students from the engineering, biotechnology, MBA and ayurveda schools will be joined by more than 200 devotees from abroad.

• The Union Ministers of State Sriprakash Jaiswal, Gurudas Kamat and KV Thomas, and Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy are among the dignitaries attending the jayanthi function

2. President Prathiba Patil dedicated the lotus-shaped ‘Parnashala’ at the  Santhigiri Ashram, on August 13, 2010 and it is open for the public by September 12.

• This imposing construction has a height of about 91 ft. The superstructure has a radius of about 84 ft and an inner diameter of about 64 ft. The structure has 21 lotus petals, of which 12 petals (41 ft. each) face upward and nine petals (31 ft. each) face downward.

• Pristine white marbles sourced from Rajsthan and black granite from Karnataka have been used for construction. Twenty-one pillars, embellished with carvings, support the monument. The edifice has a ‘Baalalayam’, an elevated platform for conducting ceremonies. It has exquisite wood-carvings. The structure holds ‘Sarakoodam’ - a 27 ft.-high enclosure made of teak.

• A life-size gold sculpture of the Guru is installed atop the cask. Floodlights will reflect different colours on the superstructure during night. 
• The cost of the project is estimated at Rs. 30 crore.

Can any Government (State/Central) enquire about the source of fund for such huge waste of money by the Human Gods?????