[FSFTN] Umashankar I.A.S, a victim of Crony Capitalism

[Shashank Jain]

C.Umashankar IAS, an honest and efficient officer joined the Indian
Administrative Service in 1990. He started his journey as an assistant
collector in 1992 in Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu. He
questioned irregularities in cyclone relief work taking place in the area
and was promptly transferred to Seiyar, Thiruvannamalai district. This is
indeed is part of the vicissitudes in the professional life of an honest
official.

When Umashankar was an additional collector in Madurai between February 1995
and October 1995, he filed corruption cases against then AIADMK minister
Selvaganapathy in the “cremation ground shed” case. Thanks to this he was
transferred and appointed as an additional director of the South Asian
Federation Games in October 1995. The 1996 assembly election in Tamil Nadu
resulted in regime change in Tamil Nadu and the DMK formed the next
government. In June 1996, Umashankar was appointed as the Joint Vigilance
Commissioner. He recommended the DMK government to take action against the
former chief minister Jayalalitha and former ministers in the AIADMK
government who were connected to various corruption cases. The DMK was more
interested in reaping political benefit rather than really trying the
culprits. He was disappointed with the government's response and sought to
be relieved from the position. Umashankar was appointed as district
collector of Thiruvellur district in February 1999. During this period he
implemented e-governance project in Thiruvellur and Thiruvellur is the first
e-governance district in Tamilnadu. This project got an international
attention. Umashankar in Tamil Nadu, Sonal Misra in Gujarat and Sanjay Saju
in Andra Pradesh are pioneers in e-governance.

                Umashankar groomed himself as an IT and e-governance
specialist and he brought many important discussions in e-governance's
platform. He strongly argued that developing countries like India should
adopt Free Software in e-governance implementation and other government
funded projects. In his speech in the National Conference on Free Software
which was held in Bangalore on March 20&21, 2010 he reiterated the above
points which inspired the audience and injected into them the national
importance of using Free Software in government funded project and embracing
open standards in such projects. He continued as Thiruvarur collector in
June 2001. In 2001 assembly elections the ADMK was voted back to power and
Umashankar was transferred as Commissioner of Disciplinary Proceedings to
Selam. It was a sort of punishment post.

                Between 2001 and 2006, when he was working as commissioner
of Disciplinary Proceedings he sharply observed what is happening in IT and
e-governance and made necessary contribution as well as intervention to his
capacity. One incident is worth quoting now. On April 27 2005, Umashankar
wrote an e-mail to Satyanarayan who was then the CEO of NISG(National
Institute of Smart Government), the subject line is 'Mr. Satyanarayan are
you corrupt?'. The allegation that Umashankar levelled against Satyanarayan
was that when the latter was the principal secretary of Communication and
IT,he granted many projects to one particular corporation (Price Water House
Coopers). Umashankar alleged that there could be an unlawful connection
between Satyanarayan and the particular corporation and asked him to reply
in 7 days. Srivasta Krishna IAS replied to that by saying that it's
unacceptable to level such allegation against an IAS by another fellow IAS
officer. Then Srivasta Krishna was working in World Bank, Washington DC, USA
in deputation. In the reply Srivasta Krishna mentioned another important
information about Umashankar that when Umashankar worked as deputy collector
in Trichy between July 1994 and January 1995, he deposited the money that
was allocated for ( DRDA - District Rural Development Agency) in the bank
where his younger brother was working. This reply looks like 'Are you Mr.
Perfect?'. Umashankar replied to Srivasta that he did not deposit the money
in the bank where his younger brother is working. He stated that his brother
was working in Trichy SBI and the money is deposited in Chennai SBI and he
added that he deposited the money in Chennai SBI since the bank offered more
interest ie between 11.5% and 13%. This deposit allegation against
Umashankar was taken in 2004 by the ADMK government. We have already seen
the relation between the ADMK and Umashankar. In the same reply Umashankar
mentioned that Srivasta was trying to divert the allegation against
Satyanarayan by replying something else and he questioned that when the
benefits of e-governance reaches widows, pensioners, the poor and socially
marginalized scheduled caste and scheduled tribes? If corruption is
tolerated in e-governance, the benefits of e-governance reaching such people
will be further delayed.


                In May 2006, the DMK came back to power in Tamil Nadu.
Umashankar's fame and experience in IT helped him in being appointed as the
MD of ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu). He burned his mid night
oil in executing important tasks. He worked as a software engineer by
extending working hours and sometimes stayed in office. He proved that the
government can save between 10% and 20% money when it goes for Free Software
such as GNU/Linux and Open Office instead of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft
Office. He not only recommended Free Software to the government employees
but also organized the training for them in Free Software. Besides that he
developed a model of an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) which runs on Free
Software coasts only 1.5 lakhs where the proprietary alternative costs
between 6 and 7 lakhs. Umashankar introduced ORCA,a Free Software screen
reader to the visually challenged people where the proprietary alternative
is Rs.20,000/= and more. He organized a training class for such people by
Krishnakant Mane, a visually challenged person working for TIFR( TATA
Institute of Fundamental Research – Mumbai).

                An honest officer and a government indulged in rampant
corruption, contradiction starts here! Honesty is the most hated word for
the bourgeois politicians. For probing financial irregularities of
Thiagaraja S Chettiar while in ELCOT and for condemning and recommending
actions against the Arasu cable for it's unlawful actions, Umashankar has
been taken revenge by the capitalist-political nexus.

                ELCOT is a government of Tamil Nadu enterprise before
Umashankar has been appointed as an MD, New Era Technologies (NET) of
Thiagaraja S Chettiar and ELCOT jointly started a company called ELNET
Technologies Ltd (ETL). ELCOT and NET owned 26% and 24% stack respectively
the rest owned by the public. In 2004 ETL started a company called ETL
Infrastructure. ETL Infrastructure is an 100% subsidiary company of
ETL. Thiagaraja S Chettiar and his wife Unnamalai Thiagaraja were the
chairman and the MD of ETL Infrastructure respectively.   ETL Infrastructure
availed a huge sum of loan by showing the ETL property. ETL Infrastructure
owned 1,800,000 square feet land at Pallikarunai worth Rs.700 Cr. Umashankar
wondered how ETL lost the control over a company, which started with the
fund of ETL and availing huge loan in ETL's name. On July 28 2008, he went
to ETL Infrastructure office at Tharamani in searching the documents related
to ETL and ETL Infrastructure and retuned without success. As per
regulations the MD of ELCOT would be the Chairman of ETL. Umashankar as the
Chairman of ETL circulated a special resolution through ETL company
secretary in ETL's Annual General Body Meeting on 30th July 2008, to remove
Unnamalai Thiagarajan from the MD post. Thanks to that Umashankar was
removed from ELCOT by the Tamil Nadu government.

         Umashankar was appointed as an MD of Arasu cable on October 30
2008. He condemned the Sumangali Cable Vision's(SCV – a part of Sun Network)
unlawful actions against the Arasu cable. In December 2008, He wrote a
detailed letter to the office of Tamilnadu Chief minister and the Inspector
General of Tamilnadu about Sumangali cable unlawful action and the dying
necessary to take action against Sumangali TV. It's alleged that to
interrupt Arasu cable telecasting, the cables of Arasu cable were cut by
unidentified persons all over the state as per Sumangali's direction. It
completely paralyzed the Arasu cable's telecasting. On January 7, 2009,
Umashankar wrote to Karunanidhi that the only way to save Arasu cable is to
nationalize the Sumangali cable. In order to divert this issue the Tamilnadu
government gave a memo to Umashankar which alleged that Umashankar misused
his power by granting some benefits to a company called Tessolve through his
wife who was then working for Tessolve. Umashankar refuted this allegation
with proper explanation. He said that 2.5 acre land allotted to Tessolve in
Madurai IT park has been allotted to the company after the cabinet approval
on September 28 2008. In October 2008, when Tessolve approached the TIIC
(Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation) for a loan, he rightly
intimated the government about his wife's employment with the concerned
company and the loan was rejected . Such politically motivated actions
against Umashankar had an adverse impact on his promotions. He was
transferred as Commissioner of Small Savings on January 23 2009.

         On May 6, 2010, Karunanidhi government started an inquiry against
Umashankar without filling any case. On June 6, 2010, Umashankar filed an
affidavit in Madras high court under the article 226 of constitution of
India, challenging the inquiry. In the affidavit he mentioned that it's
unconstitutional to inquire an IAS by an officer in the rank of DSP without
registering a case. The court's judgment came in favor of Umashankar on June
16, 2010.

                We've to wait and see the cases that will be filled against
Umashankar and to see how the corrupted politician and the business class in
forming an unholy alliance and the public and media's on this issue.

                Karunanidhi is known for playing caste cards on sensitive
issues. In 1999 Karunanidhi rejected action against the district collector
and the police commissioner and other officials connected with Tirunelveli
massacre in which 17 people were killed( and 11 of them were Dalits) by
stating shamelessly that if the government take action against the officials
“people belonging to the backward classes” would object to it. In
2010, Karunanidhi is taking action against an IAS officer by alleging that
he produced fake community certificate. Many know that Umashankar was a
Hindu when he was selected to the Indian Administrative Service and a few
know that he embraced Christianity later. Every citizen has a right to
practice the religion he/she likes and to change that as they wish. The
problem for Karunanidhi is not that Umashankar produced fake community
certificate, the real problem for Karunanidhi is that Umashankar may unearth
many fraudulences in ELCOT and other areas which may unearth nexus between
the bourgeoisie politicians and the business men.

-- 
   Regards
Shashank Jain
   FSFTN
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