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Will UK’s £1billion aid get to the poor of India... or corrupt politicians
Best of intentions ... homeless of Madhya Pradesh need aid, but how much of the promised £1bn will get to them?
By TIM SPANTON
Published: 18 Feb 2011
MUCH of Britain's promised £1billion aid to India will be administered through a political system mired in corruption, a Sun investigation has discovered.
The controversy affects dozens of MPs and government ministers in the three states targeted for help by the UK.
Charges police have accused them of include attempted murder, banditry, forgery and deception, along with many other crimes.
The national Indian parliament has a staggering 161 MPs out of 545 facing criminal charges.
Official figures from India's independent National Election Watch show individual states are riddled with corrupt politicians.
This week there was uproar when Britain's Department For International Development (DfID) said it would give more than £1billion to India over the next four years.
The decision came despite India being an emerging superpower that has nuclear weapons and is running a £1.25billion space programme.
And evidence uncovered by The Sun will fuel fears that the money may not end up reaching the poor.
Delhi underbelly ... people protest against corruption in India's capital city
On Monday international development secretary Andrew Mitchell said Britain's aid would concentrate on three deprived Indian states - Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa.
In the country itself the three states have become bywords for corruption.
Madhya Pradesh, a central state with 69million people and known as the Heart Of India, is already receiving £103million from Britain for a health programme.
That may sound a lot but it is small change to the man in charge, health secretary S R Mohanty.
He is accused of a £98.8million scam involving giving "soft" loans not backed by guarantees. The result is defaulters owe the state more than £302million, including interest.
A big headache ... the Indian PM Manmohan Singh speaks of 'a scam-driven country'
His predecessor, Ajay Vishnoi, was forced to resign after hospitals paid way over the odds for medicines in an alleged kickback scam.
The state's Mahatma Gandhi rural employment scheme, aimed at helping the poorest, is also under investigation after police found two officials had helped themselves to more than £40million.
Last year a former revenue minister was arrested and accused of destroying evidence in a murder case. That followed the arrest of the tourism minister for allegedly threatening an election official.
The situation in Bihar, an eastern state with more than 100million residents, is even worse.
No fewer than 14 members of the 31-strong cabinet have criminal charges pending against them.
Accusations include attempted murder, forgery, cheating, assaulting a public servant and criminal conspiracy.
Some of the ordinary assembly members, such as Sarfaraz Alam, are no better. Outstanding charges against him include attempted murder, kidnap with intent to murder and banditry.
Meanwhile, politician Jagdish Sharma, who represents Bihar in India's national parliament, has faced 17 serious charges but never been convicted.
Bihar sends 40 MPs to the national parliament - and 17 of them have admitted they are facing criminal charges.
In Orissa, an eastern coastal state with more than 40million, the regional government of chief minister Naveen Patnaik faces what the respected Times Of India newspaper this month called "a barrage of corruption charges".
http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/Scandal ... Ajay Vishnoi, left, and Pramila Mallik were sacked, while Naveen Patnaik faces a 'barrage of corruption charges'
One scam involved feeding rotten and infected lentils to children and mums-to-be. Pramila Mallik, minister for women and child development, resigned over the scandal.
Meanwhile, the urban development and education ministers have been accused over a scam involving selling subsidised coal worth £300,000 to imaginary companies.
Figures from India's independent National Election Watch show 23 per cent of Orissa's MPs in the national parliament face criminal charges. And critics say it will get worse before it gets better - India's Supreme Court wants some of the country's biggest industrialists investigated too.
Last Friday the court called for more arrests, warning: "Merely because a person is in the Forbes List of millionaires and billionaires does not matter."
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on live TV: "An impression has gone round that we are a scam-driven country and nothing good is happening.
"I wish to assure the country that our government is deadly serious in bringing to book all the wrong-doers, regardless of the positions they may occupy."
That sounds like a full-time job, according to Pratyush Sinha, who is retiring as Central Vigilance Commissioner, or head of India's corruption watchdog.
He says one in three Indians is "utterly corrupt" and just one in five totally honest.
Incredibly, India is so rich it almost REJECTED Britain's aid. A leaked memo written last year by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao appeared to suggest no more aid would be accepted after this April.
Mrs Rao later said her comments were quoted out of context - but she admitted there was a debate within government over whether foreign aid was still needed.
In Britain a spokesman for the DfID said: "UK aid will only go to the poorest and most vulnerable people in India, not politicians. We have tough safeguards in place to ensure British aid is not misused."
But Emma Boon, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is hard to justify huge aid payments from the UK at a time when we are making spending cuts at home."
And Tory MP Philip Davies said: "It is extraordinary to be giving aid money to a country that could end up lending it back to us."
Will UK money go to India’s poor or corrupt politicians? | The Sun |Features
