The Rot In The Assam Rifles

All is not well with the Assam Rifles. A Tehelka exposé shows how corruption has spread its tentacles to the very top of the country’s largest paramilitary force. By Shyju Marathumpilly

 

An insurgency or a low-intensity war is not new to the Seven Sister states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura – in northeastern India. The people in these states have suffered it for a long time now. However, TEHELKA brings to you a different story from the hill states. This is a story about a war that needs to be fought from within.

The malaise of corruption, which runs deep in our society, has spread to matters concerning national security. This should be a rude wake-up call for the Central government, the armed forces and the public alike. Corruption is eating into the vitals of the Assam Rifles, a force spearheading counter-insurgency operations in India’s Northeast. And as it assumes alarming proportions, Assam Rifles is turning out be a bad advertisement for India’s paramilitary forces.

In the past, there were certain allegations made against India’s oldest paramilitary force with regard to the use (and misuse) of the discretionary funds. However, Tehelka reveals a clear and present danger in the organised manner in which some Assam Rifles personnel are taking cuts from contractors for the smooth passage of tenders, thereby tarnishing the organisation as a whole. The bribes are openly taken by the men in uniform sitting inside their respective offices.

TEHELKA penetrated the Assam Rifles and the unseemly activities we uncovered would make you cringe with shame. On the one hand, we see innocent jawans dying for the nation. On the other hand, there are uniformed officials taking a bribe. It poses a serious threat to national security and could affect the morale of the jawans.

Many officials in the Assam Rifles are appointed on deputation from the Indian Army. TEHELKA’s investigation finds that most of them, after their stint at the Assam Rifles, return to their home unit with a huge amount of illicit wealth. Shockingly, the corruption is institutionalised; it happens in an organised manner and the well-planned racket includes clerks and high-ranking officials alike.

Tough battle While the soldiers of the Assam Rifles are fighting rebels, some officers are busy minting money

How It Is Done 
Every financial year, the Central government makes budgetary allocations for the security forces. In this year’s budget (2014-15), the Assam Rifles has been allocated Rs 3,580 crore. (The corresponding budgetary allocation for the Assam Rifles for 2013-14 was Rs 3,358 crore and Rs 2,966 crore for 2012-13.)

Construction projects envisioned under the annual budget are implemented through tenders. Officials at every level make sure that they get their share of money every time a proposal moves from one table to another. The contractors who pay bribe reveal that for any project, 30 percent of its cost goes straight into the officials’ pockets. This adversely affects the quality of the construction activity. Such is the extent of the rot in the Assam Rifles that officials openly accept money in their offices.

The modus operandi is simple. A contractor, who floats a tender for any construction activity in the area administered by the Assam Rifles, is supposed to go through a particular network to disburse cash at every level. The booty is shared by lower-level clerks as well as the director-general, who is of lieutenant-general rank. The high-ranking officials do not take cash directly; their subordinates do it on their behalf.

A senior contractor who has been in this business for the past seven years rues the day he decided to take up this profession. His grouse is quite valid. If a tender is worth Rs 1 crore, then 30 percent of it (Rs 30 lakh) needs to be spent on ensuring that there are no bottlenecks in the smooth execution of the project. In other words, that 30 percent disappears without even the project getting started.

“Thirty percent of a proposed tender has to be given to various officers in the Assam Rifles. Sometimes it can go up to 35 percent. We have to manage with the money left for arranging for raw materials, labourers and, of course, the profit,” says the senior contractor. Consequently, quality suffers.

“First you float a tender and in order to get that passed, it has to go to Shillong (Meghalaya). There you have to pay 5-8 percent. If you don’t pay, then the tender will not move an inch from there. Your project will be over before it can be launched. The bottom line is that this 30 percent has to be given at any cost,” the senior contractor explains.

“The total expense is 30 percent, but the bribe money is not paid in one go; it moves in a phased manner, first at the tendering stage, then at the billing phase and so on. A major share of it is cornered by SO1 (Special Officer 1), where a tender originates.”

The Contractors 
In all, there are 543 contractors registered with the Assam Rifles. Basically, there are five types of contractors. They are categorised as: Special, A,B, C and D classes. The classification is done on the basis of money involved. Those in the Special class can take up projects involving unlimited sums of money. The contractors in the A and B categories are eligible for projects worth Rs 2 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively. Those in the remaining two categories (C and D) are into projects with even less money. New contractors automatically fall in the D category; according to their performance, they are promoted to the higher categories.

How The Booty Is Shared 
The procedure for sharing the ill-gotten money is very systematic. Five percent goes to the sector where the work is allotted. In some cases, it could go up to 10 percent. Another 5 percent goes to the DGR (Director General Resettlement). Then the unit where the bill goes to, comes into the picture; it gets another 5 percent. When the bill returns to the sector, 3 percent has to be given to the officials and another 5 percent to the DGR. And, finally, there is a 7 percent VAT(value added tax), which brings the total to 30 percent. This is how the gravy train runs. Apart from this, 1 percent has to be given to the accounts department, from where payments are released.

Operation Hilltop
Tehelka followed a contractor as he paid money to the officials of the Assam Rifles. Last year, the contractor erected a pre-fabricated shelter at the Tamanglong district headquarters in Manipur at a cost of Rs 24 lakh, for which he had already paid 16 percent of the project cost as bribe to various officials to acquire the tender. Now, he gives another 18 percent of the cost as bribe to officials to get the bill passed. This time, TEHELKA followed him and for the first time in the history of India, officials in combat uniform are caught red handed — on camera — accepting money! It included a colonel and two lieutenant colonels. Shockingly, the chief of the Assam Rifles also took his share in the deal, indirectly through his subordinates. Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) H Deb received the money on behalf of his superiors, including the DG, ADG and the Chief Engineer.

 

http://www.tehelka.com/tehelka-expose-sting-operation-hilltop-assam-rifles-bribery-corruption/#.VC48ur4k8UV