NEW DELHI, May 10:Domestic passenger car sales rose by 3.4 per cent to 1,68,351 units in April 2012 from 1,62,813 units in the same month last year.
Figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today also show that motorcycle sales in the country grew by 6.54 per cent during the month to 8,61,602 units from 8,08,728 units in the same month last year.
Total two-wheeler sales in April increased by 10.94 per cent to 11,57,108 units from 10,43,010 units in the same month year ago.
Sales of commercial vehicles climbed by 4.37 per cent to 56,257 units in April from 53,903 units in the year-ago period, SIAM said.
Total sales of vehicles across categories registered 10.01 per cent growth to 14,72,385 units in April 2012 from 13,38,430 units in the same month last year, it added. (PTI)
TOKYO, May 10:Asian shares fell on Thursday, as a weak Chinese trade data stoked fears of a growth slowdown, further undermining risk appetites already reduced by worries about the health of Spanish banks and deepening political chaos in Greece.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan , which has declined the past five days, slipped 0.1 percent to its lowest in nearly four months. Earlier, it briefly rose as much as 0.5 percent on strong Australian jobs data that was released before China’s April trade figures.
China’s exports grew 4.9 percent in April from a year earlier, data showed on Thursday, weaker than a 8.5 percent increase forecast and down from March’s rise of 8.9 percent. Annual growth of 0.3 percent in imports last month also missed expectations for an 11 percent increase.
‘Chinese trade data for April came in surprisingly weak, with both export and import growth disappointing …Indicating weakening external demand and suggesting that strengthening of the yuan in the past few years has undermined China’s competitiveness,’ said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong.
‘The poor import number bodes ill for GDP growth. It should be a wake-up call for policymakers to do more to stimulate domestic demand’ , he said, adding that weak exports ‘may convince policymakers to try and prevent any meaningful appreciation of onshore spot.’
The Australian dollar initially strengthened on strong jobs data, which scaled back expectations for further aggressive monetary easing. But with the currency sensitive to data from China, the biggest export market, the gains were pared by Beijing’s fresh trade numbers.
The Aussie last stood up 0.4 percent at $1.0079, slipping from an earlier high of $1.0120. On Wednesday, it touched $1.0021, its lowest since Dec. 20.
Australian employment far outpaced expectations by adding 15,500 in April while the unemployment rate surprisingly dipped to 4.9 percent.
The Australian stock market lost most of its gains to stand nearly flat after rising earlier on buoyancy in miners, which bounced back on upbeat comments from world No. 3 miner Rio Tinto Ltd.
Oil fell as weak Chinese trade data fuelled concerns about demand, sending U.S. Crude down 0.4 percent at $96.38 a barrel and Brent down 0.5 percent at $112.66 a barrel.
Japan’s Nikkei share average fell 0.2 percent.
Asian credit markets stayed subdued, with the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index nearly unchanged from overnight.
EUROPE VACUUM FEARED
Global shares slid for a sixth day while safe-haven U.S. And German government debt rose on Wednesday on fears a political vacuum in Greece could put the highly indebted country on course for insolvency and exiting from the euro.
The euro turned around also from an earlier weakness, rising 0.1 percent at $1.2940. But it hovered near $1.29115 hit on Wednesday, its lowest since Jan. 23, indicating markets remain wary over developments in the euro zone, which have fallen short of convincing investors to be risk-positive.
Spain took over Bankia, the country’s fourth-biggest lender, on Wednesday, aiming to dispel concerns over the government’s ability to clean up a financial sector severely hit by a property market crash four years ago.
Spanish banks will likely be forced to further boost provisions against ailing loans, and uncertainty over the final tally of banking recapitalisation pushed Spanish yields back above 6 percent on Wednesday.
Greek politicians will strive to form a government on Thursday to avoid a new election, after voters rejected a bailout deal in Sunday’s poll. But prospects looked dim, with seemingly little ground for compromise as parties for and against a bailout were split almost down the middle in the new parliament.
Greece appeared to have averted an imminent funding crisis, however, after the board of the European Financial Stability Facility agreed to a scheduled 5.2 billion euro ($6.72 billion) payment.
‘However, it appears that political uncertainty is here to stay, and that, combined with weak economic prospects, should keep market concerns elevated. We remain EUR bears,’ analysts at Barclays Capital said in a note.
Some analysts caution about a further, sharp acceleration in risk aversion.
‘Equity vol indices already show that the market is hesitating to stay in a regime of deep stress,’ said Sebastien Galy, a strategist at Societe Generale.
‘VIX hesitates to move to the 20-30 regime of stress. The battle between better economic data and depressed investor sentiment is yet to reach its final conclusion. Greece only provides the headlines, the EFSF will pay its tranche,’ he said.
The CBOE Volatility index, a key gauge of how investors perceive risk and measures expected volatility in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index over the next 30 days, rose 5.4 percent to 20.08 on Wednesday. Its rise reflects mounting risk aversion.
While markets broadly took a beating on renewed fears over the euro zone debt crisis, China could defy such bearish mood.
A steady dose of market reform announcements from Chinese authorities, abetted by a pick-up in IPOs and Europe’s growing unattractiveness as an investment destination suggest now is as good time as any to position for at least a short-term bounce in China stocks. ($1 = 0.7733 euros)
BEIJING, May 10:Huawei Technologies Co Ltd , the world’s No.2 telecom equipment maker that has diversified into making mobile phones, expects sales of its consumer devices to rise to $9 billion this year from $6.8 billion last year, a senior executive said on Thursday.
Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei Mobile, made the comments during an industry conference in Beijing. Huawei’s consumer devices business group mainly sells wireless cards, mobile phones and tablet PCs.
Huawei said earlier it aimed to ship more than 100 million mobile phones this year, including 60 million smartphones to increase its global market share.
Huawei expects consumer device sales, which includes handsets, to reach $30 billion in five years, from $7 billion now, becoming as big a revenue driver as its flagship telecommunications equipment business.
The Shenzhen-based company is the world’s No.6 mobile phone maker, ranking behind other bigger players such as Samsung Electronics, Nokia and ZTE Corp. (agencies)
With China and Pakistan having openly joined hands militarily, India currently is under maximum threat both from its Western and Eastern Borders. At this time when we should be at the peak of our Defense preparedness the pathetic state of Indian Army has already been revealed in the leaked letter of Army Chief to the Defense Minister AK Antony recently. State of Indian Air Force is also no better. It is crashing at alarming rate.
Recently the Defense Minister AK Antony admitted in Parliament that since 1971, 482 MIG Fighter Aircrafts, the main stay of Indian Air Force, have crashed killing 171 Fighter pilots and 48 others. These MiGs were not all that old as they were made out to be. Most of them were at their mid life with 2000 to 3000 flying hours still left. The problem lies in the training of fighter pilots in MIG series of fighters. The MIG fighters are unique in design and are very capable but they do not permit any error. Their landing speed itself is 300 km an hour, the highest for any fighter. For a very long time the Indian Air Force has been demanding from the Ministry of Defense (MOD) good Intermediate Jet Trainers so that new pilots graduate to MIGs only after a decent level of jet flying in safe aircrafts. All their pleas had fallen on the deaf ears of the Babus sitting in the MOD while the loss of life and crashes continued. It is only now after the public outcry over the Army Chiefs leaked letter that has shaken the lethargy out of MOD and the sanction has been given for the purchase of 75 Swiss made Pilatus jet trainers at the cost of 2900 Corers.
The other most important factor for these large scale crashes is purchase of spurious spares. Some time back at the height of MiG crashes when these planes earned the nick name of flying coffins, Russians had openly blamed India of purchasing sub substandard spare parts of MiG series of fighter aircrafts from Ukraine. This should not surprise us. How the Neta Babu combine controlling the MOD fleece the Nation at the cost of National security has been amply highlighted in the recent unraveling of Tatra Gate Scam where sub standard Tatra trucks were being purchased for more than two decades from a fictitious source by the Defense PSU BEML at twice the market value.BEML then claimed that it is producing these trucks in India when in actual fact it only did 20 percent screw driver work balance was all imported. Nothing is impossible in Mera Bharat Mahan even when the country is taken for a ride at the cost of its security and life of its soldiers.
The other most important factor is the shoddy overhaul by the Public Sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics and equally poor maintenance by the Air Force itself. HAL with the prevalent PSU culture in Defense production is not quality conscious. As for the Air Force, with the limited pay scales and lack of motivation Saab Chalta Hai concept is being followed by its maintenance crew. It should be eye opener to all that since 1971 we have lost 1010 Air Force Planes which amounts to half the Chinese Air Force in crashes alone. Out of this 39 percent crashes have been attributed to human error. This is a really large percentage and need immediate correction.
China has recently declared that by 2020 it will have a most modern Air Force consisting of 2700 Fighter Aircrafts. Pakistani Air Force currently has 450 Fighter Air crafts. As against this combined strength India which has a sanctioned strength of 42 Squadrons could only boast 39.5 Squadrons at its peak some time back with each Squadron having 16-18 Fighters. Since then due to phasing out of old aircrafts and the new ones not available it has come down to 34 Squadrons. It will further go down to 31 Squadrons. Only by 2027 IAF will have 42 Squadrons.
Needless to say this is criminal neglect of India’s Defense preparedness by the Indian political masters. In MOD Netas come and go with no knowledge of matters military. The Babus staffing the MOD hide behind the façade of their political masters besides being equally clueless. They do not allow the Chief of Defense Staff system meant to provide single window military advice to our political masters to be implemented due to vested interests. Let us be clear in our minds that still if we do not wake then up we are heading for a major catastrophe. Till the CDS System gets implemented it is now imperative that the Parliamentary Committee on Defense must call the three services chief s from time to time and should take stock of the state of Defense Preparedness of the country regularly.
Compelling Government employees to obtain, nothing outstanding certificate, from Electricity Department, for their domestic connections, to enable the drawing / disbursing officers to draw the genuine and hard earned pay for the month of March every year , has become almost a fashion in the government establishments. By this action, probably the concerned department, gets mental comfort that all the electricity bills have been paid . Ah ! what a false satisfaction, under which our Government lives and stops exerting further in catching the BIG FISH, who are stealing the electricity day in and day out without any fear from any one because they feel they have done their duties once they have greased the palms of the concerned staff looking after the distribution of electricity. Figures must be available with the PDD that how many installations , in the entire state, are still not electronically metered , because it is the belief of the Department that all those , which are electronically metered , probably won’t be doing any HERA-PHERI as such, all those connections which are not yet provided with the electronic meters , always remain the worry of the Govt. for not paying for the hundred percent consumed electricity. So first and foremost duty of the Govt. is to install 100 % electronic meters whether in rural or in urban areas in all the three regions of the Jammu and Kashmir state so that complete revenue for the actually consumed electricity, comes to Government Treasury. If any resistance, by the public, from any corner of the state, is shown in getting their houses / shops metered, it must be dealt with iron hands. Cases, where it becomes impossible to install the required meters, due to certain reasons, created by the consumers, the PDD must ensure that, not only that particular customer but even his next ten generations should not get the electricity supply for which the Government has to really work hard and show its presence.
According to Chief Minister of the State power cuts are inevitable in the state of Jammu and Kashmir because there is a huge gap between the expenditure, on the purchase of electricity and the revenue collected from the consumers of electricity and he does not feel like increasing the charges for the units being utilised by the public to meet the required difference. What a pathetic news that even at that level of high office, the remedy, to keep department working , is found only the power cuts. Does this mean that in our state, the dishonest consumers of electricity are much more than the honest ones, that is why the gap between the expenditure and the revenue collected exists. It is really a shame for those corrupt consumers and also for those employees of the PDD who help them directly or indirectly in making the theft of electricity a successful mission. A simple question remains unsolved that why an honest customer is made to suffer by forcing the power cuts on him , purely for the fault of the illegal connection holders / providers ? Definitely, it is under the clear cut blessings of the concerned department and with hundred percent connivance of its field staff that these illegal activities take place and over ride so openly . Is the PDD not able to see what is happening , for these wrong doings, in the department or it intentionally wants to ignore and shirks its responsibilities in sorting out the visible corruption being hatched under its nose ? In both the cases it is a big blot on the face of the PDD and that is why one can easily conclude that all is not well with the electricity supply.
Can the concerned authorities play harsh on the culprits , existing inside / outside the electricity department to ensure a cut free power supply to the masses of Jammu & Kashmir and also help our Chief Minister in keeping his desire alive, for not increasing the rate for power units being consumed in the state ? Otherwise it is high time for the persons in power to hand over, honourably the management of electricity supply to a keen private concern , which could guarantee smooth and honest functioning of electricity supply.
It was one of those fortuitous coincidences. On the day last week that I picked up an old biography of Indira Gandhi to do some research for a new book I am writing I happened to go for the first time into one of Gurgaon’s vast, new office complexes. My excursions to Gurgaon had until then been restricted to visiting its plush cinemas and shiny shopping malls but my son wanted to introduce me to a new German fitness regime called Milon which is currently available only in one gym run by some private companies so I suppose it could be said it was through discovering Milon that I discovered a whole new India. If not quite discovered then at least became acutely aware of this change for the better.
It is an India that would not have existed had we continued to follow the socialist economic policies of Mrs. Gandhi and an India that could well disappear again if our Finance Minister continues to steer us back towards those old policies. He is inclined that way because Pranab Mukherjee did his first stint as Finance Minister when Mrs. Gandhi was prime minister and if his recent Budget is anything to go by he has not moved away from the lessons he learned at Mrs. Gandhi’s knee.
First, let me describe to you what I mean by the new India that I caught a small glimpse of in the Gurgaon office complex and let me offer you a comparison with the old. To get to the gym we drove down a road that was a model of the old India: filthy, disorderly, decaying and hopeless. The road was newish but on either side were small, shabby windowless shops of the old kind. They sold everything from sweets and groceries to cell phones and colour televisions. The shops stood on the edge of an open drain and beside an open garbage dump from which garbage spilled everywhere and reeked to the skies. Unhealthy cows and mangy dogs scrabbled in the dump for rotting food. This is so common an Indian sight that those of us who have lived in India all our lives barely notice it any more. If I mention it here it is to emphasize the contrast between this old India and the new India I am about to describe.
My son’s trainer, Jeevan, waited for us outside the entrance to the office complex because security restrictions would have prevented us from getting in without him. After we met him we followed his car down to a basement car park and then walked into a tall building of glass and steel. No sooner than we had entered its air-conditioned lobby than the old India I just described seemed to belong to another planet. We wandered past food courts in which young Indians, both men and women, worked in spotless uniforms and then down to a huge gym in which more young Indians worked as trainers and fitness consultants. In Mrs. Gandhi’s time private enterprise was almost non-existent so these same young people would have had no choice but to work in some government office. The height of aspirations in that time was a government job, no matter how lowly, no matter how bleak. A government job was the thing young Indians wanted more than anything else because it was all there was. Even upper middle class Indians would return from completing a fine education in Oxford or Cambridge and aspire to join the civil service because other opportunities were so few and far between.
Mrs. Gandhi’s economic policies did not create wealth because she had a contempt for consumerism and prosperity. Her idea of economics was to ‘serve the poor’. Her voters came mostly from rural India where in the time that she was prime minister poverty and illiteracy were the norm rather than the exception so people voted for her often only because they knew no better. In the biography I was reading of her when I went to the Gurgaon gym last week the adulatory biographer describes an ‘ideally suited’ constituency for Mrs. Gandhi as one in which ‘a little over forty per cent of the population lived below the poverty line.’ Mrs. Gandhi spent vast sums of taxpayers money on welfare programmes for the rural poor that did very little to reduce poverty. Things began to change only after the economic reforms that began in 1991 and that laid the seeds of a new India in which young people can today aim for higher things.
The young people I saw in the Gurgaon office complex are living proof of how much has changed. Young Indians today aspire to a standard of living that has nothing to do with poverty lines and welfare programmes but because Sonia Gandhi, our de facto prime minister, has the same economic worldview as her late mother-in-law we have in the past two years started reverting to old times. Pranab Mukherjee’s latest Budget has been described by experts as the second worst in Indian history because it is so retrograde. The worst Budget ever being the one Mrs. Gandhi came up with more than three decades ago in which rich Indians were made to pay 97% taxes. Mr. Mukherjee’s recent attempts at retrospective taxation is in keeping with this philosophy and has succeeded mostly in driving foreign investors away. Last week he made a feeble effort at luring them back by deferring some of his tax propasals but it may end up being too little too late.
Meanwhile, to end on a happier note. During my day spent reveling in the new India I worked out on the Milon machines and in seventeen minutes felt more impact than I do in an hour spent on a treadmill. As someone who works out nearly every day and works out hard I was more than a little skeptical when Jeevan told me that I needed to spend no more than a minute on each of the six weights machines and a mere four minutes on a cycle and a cross trainer. I thought this would be for me no more strenuous than a slow walk in the park. Imagine my amazement when at the end of seventeen minutes I nearly collapsed with exertion. Milon is a new German invention that is just beginning to enter the Indian fitness market. Will it spread and thrive? Only if the new India continues to spread and thrive. It is too depressing to think that we could go back to the way we were.
In the aftermath of Antony’s report on the causes of Congress debacle in assembly elections in UP, Punjab and Goa, Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi has put her finger on factionalism as a serious cause of party’s disappointing performance. She has called for discipline and dedication on the part of party men. Factionalism is nothing new to Congress or for that matter to any other mainstream political party in this country. Emergence of Congress (I) was in itself the sequel to factionalism in Congress. As such it cannot be the real reason for poor performance of the party in recent assembly elections. Nevertheless discipline and cohesion are the pillars on which the strong structure of a political party rests. Sonia Gandhi has to plug all loopholes that have been underscored by Antony Report. But at the same time, evidently, she will have to think deeper and act more earnestly to infuse new blood and vitality into the veins of Congress party. Hindsight shows that in recent years Congress has distanced from many fundamental issues facing the country and has got mired in competitive politics and more sadly in BJP bashing exercise. Criticism of a political opponent is welcome and is considered a healthy sign of democracy, but this cannot be done at the cost of serious and persisting national issues. Congress needs to be true to its great and historical tradition. It is right that party men should disseminate among broad masses the achievements it has made in recent days. That should be left to the judgment of ordinary people who will be required to play the final dice in 2014 parliamentary elections.
Some time back State government took the decision of facilitating disillusioned Kashmiri youth desirous of returning to the mother land. More than once, Chief Minister expressed his government’s support to the decision. After the elections to Legislative Assembly in 1986, separatists groups, mostly the remnants of the erstwhile Plebiscite Front and of defunct Al Fath organization put up a joint front by the name of Muslim United Front (MUF) to challenge the results of just concluded elections to LA. ISI seized upon the opportunity and chalked out the plan of alluring disgruntled and indoctrinated Kashmiri youth to the terrorist training camps which the ISI had established for conducting the proxy war in Kashmir. The route adopted by the drafted Kashmiri Muslim youth was Srinagar-Sopor-Kupwara and the other side of the mountains. Taking advantage of ineffective or promiscuous state government and ambivalent intelligence and security establishment, Kashmiri youth, in drones, headed towards numerous terrorist training camps across the LoC established and run by retired Pakistani army officers. Travel mode was set forth in the Kashmiri slogan “Sopor-Kupwor teh apor” meaning Sopor-Kupwara and the other side. Hundreds of youth, keeping their arms training adventure a closely guarded secret, even from their parents, came to these camps to the great delight of Pakistani mentors who had successfully managed procurement of easy fodder for the Indian guns. Alongside training in terrorist tactics, they were brainwashed to remove even the smallest traces of Kashmiriyat. Obviously, these young boys were meted out king size treatment in the beginning to fuel anti-India flames burning within their breast. Such was the level of brain washing that some of them captured by Indian security forces in encounters, confessed that they would have gunned down even their parents and family members if the organization so demanded of them. Recollect Bitta Karate’s televised interview.
But when the ISI found that its conspiracy had begun to boomerang, and the Kashmiri youth lured to training camps were proving ineffective in making slightest headway in Kashmir operations, they began to withdraw their feet and gradually left them to their fate. At the same time the disillusioned youth also began to understand how their precious lives were being sacrificed for no real purpose. Many of them, after crossing the LoC clandestinely surrendered to the Indian security forces and explained the atrocities to which the ISI and Pakistani establishments subjected them. At the same time, those erstwhile Kashmiri militants stranded in PoK and Pakistan, owing to their refusal to carry fire and brimstone to their homeland and compatriots in the alley, brought out public demonstrations and rallies against Pakistan government and demanded that they be repatriated. Through their relatives back in the valley they appealed to the State government for amnesty. The State government considered the issue in its entirety and decided that on humanitarian grounds and on the basis of bringing relief to the affected families, took a very humanistic view and got the approval from the cabinet to the rehabilitation of the disillusioned youth with certain conditions. The conditions are mostly pertaining to legal and juridical aspects of the case. The Union Home Ministry gave its nod to the Rehabilitation Policy and things were set to become easy for resolving the issue. But then Pakistan government put a spoke in the wheel and raised a number of issues that created strong hurdles in the path of normalizing return of the misguided youth to their native place in Kashmir.
Pakistan’s problem is that the Kashmiri youth returning home will expose all the conspiracies and canards hatched by the ISI and Pakistani establishment in regard to their proxy war in Kashmir. This would immensely harm and discredit Pakistan’s Kashmir stand, which, however, after Faigate has met with sharp downslide. Their expositions after return would further distance the Kashmiri youth from pro-Pak propensity. Having spent a long time in self-imposed exile, these people have married Pakistani girls and fathered kids but they want to return along with the families they have raised. This is also a part of the problem that surrounds their return. In any case, notwithstanding these angularities, the Home Ministry has recommended to the MEA to take up the issue with Pakistan at proper platform and find a solution to put the long wait of these deluded persons to an end. It is but natural that the government at various levels will verify fully the antecedents of the returnees because it is also a security issue. Neither the State government nor the Home Ministry can take things for granted. The returnees are to be treated with sympathy but not at the cost of national security. This much has to be made clear to them.
NEW DELHI, May 10:The Supreme Court today refused to direct the Centre to recommend a Presidential reference against NHRC Chairman and former CJI K G Balakrishnan for his alleged misconduct during his tenure as a judge in the apex court.
The apex court, however, asked the competent authority of the Centre to look into the allegation of judicial misconduct against the former Chief Justice of India (CJI).
A bench of justices B S Chauhan and J S Khehar said if there is any truth in the allegations, then it is for the President to make reference to the Supreme Court, on the advice of Council of Ministers, for inquiry against the former CJI.
The court passed the order on a PIL by civil society Common Cause, which had sought directions from the court to the government to make a Presidential reference to the apex court for removal of former CJI Balakrishnan as the chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
The NGO had alleged that the ex-CJI and his relatives amassed wealth far exceeding their legal income during Balakrishnan’s tenure as an apex court judge.
Justice Balakrishnan had been elevated as a Supreme Court judge in June 2000 and was appointed the Chief Justice of India on January 14, 2007. He retired on May 12, 2010 after which he was appointed NHRC chairman.
The NGO had also sought directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for making a reference to the apex court under the Human Rights Act to look into the allegations of “misbehaviour” against Justice Balakrishnan.
The court had reserved its verdict on the NGO’s plea on May 7.
A provision under the Human Rights Act says the NHRC chairperson or its members cannot be removed from their offices unless the President of India orders it on the ground of proved misbehaviour, ascertained by the Supreme Court after an inquiry on the President’s reference for the probe.
Common Cause, in its petition, had annexed media reports as documents to buttress its allegations that ‘benami’ properties were acquired by Balakrishnan’s kin during his tenure in the Supreme Court.
On an earlier date of hearing, the Centre had told the apex court that it is probing into the allegations that Balakrishnan and his relatives had amassed disproportionate assets during his tenure as a judge and had submitted a probe status report to it in a sealed envelop.
The court after going through the report had asked the Government to tell it as to what further action it intended to take on the allegations against the former CJI and apprise it about it. (PTI)
LUCKNOW, May 10: Senior IAS officer Pradeep Shukla was today detained here and questioned by the CBI in connection with the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.
A 1981-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, 55-year-old Shukla was detained while on his way to the airport, official sources said, adding the CBI had repeatedly summoned him to appear before the agency for questioning.
Though CBI officially maintained that he had neither been detained nor arrested, agency sources said that Shukla may be placed under arrest.
Shukla, who was Principal Secretary Family Welfare in the state government during the tenure of former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, has been named in three new cases registered by the agency in its probe of alleged irregularities in Central funds meant for NRHM, the sources said.
The total cost of projects in which these three cases have been registered is over Rs 250 crore and mainly deal with the construction and upgradation works in hospitals across UP.
Besides Shukla, the agency has named former DG Family Welfare S P Ram and General Manager UP Small Industries Corporation Abhay Kumar Bajpai in the new cases.
Kushwaha, who is already lodged in the jail for his alleged involvement in the scam, has levelled allegations against Shukla for being among the officials who have signed the papers for fictitious payments. (PTI)
