In fact, a day before the Prime Minister's announcement, a minister in the state cabinet reportedly asked why his family members cannot be awarded a government contract if procedures are followed. His poser came in response to a media report which alleged that the minister awarded a deal to a firm owned by his daughter and daughter-in-law.

Corruption cases have become the staple diet of the state’s news media. And here is a sampling of just one week.

A report dated September 24 makes a sensational revelation that out of a total of 1,269 water supply schemes under the Bundelkhand Mitigation Package in the state, only 272 are functional, with 997 of them defunct, leaving the residents of six districts high and dry. The problem came to light when six teams of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHE) examined the developmental works undertaken by the department in the drought-hit region. And even the 272 operational schemes have failed to supply adequate water in the area.

The central government had awarded the mitigation package to the Bundelkhand area, which was hit by drought and poverty and consequently large scale migration. Under the project, the then UPA government had allocated Rs 3,680 crore to uplift the lot of people living in the region, including Sagar, Damoh, Chattarpur, Tikamgarh, Panna and Datia. A probe into the issue was ordered by the Jabalpur bench of the High Court after social activist Pawan Ghuwara moved the court saying that the officials of the PHE were not acting on his complaints about the poor implementation of the schemes.

Another report was about ponzy schemes and chit fund operators making merry as the government fails to check their operations. The report estimated that there were at least 125 chit fund frauds in the state, but FIRs have been registered only against 29. These fund companies have duped a large number of gullible investors, but multiple investigating agencies – regulating and monitoring these chit fund companies — are not able to estimate the total money duped by them. According to official sources, 127 non-banking financial companies are allegedly involved in the fraud and a total of 158 complaints have been received against them
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In a curious case of cocking a snook on the Prime Minister’s transparency dream, the Western Railway has asked an RTI activist to deposit a sum of Rs 1.07 lakh for providing information he has sought from the Chief Information commissioner (CIC). The authorities have asked the applicant to deposit Rs1,000 along with service charge per page of information, estimated to be running into 94 pages. The strange condition is seen as an excuse by the authorities to deny the information sought by Siddharth Khandelwal, an RTI activist from Sikh Mohalla.

According to a report, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has sought a response from the state government on the alleged irregularities committed by the Directorate of Medical Education relating to admission of students in private colleges. The court has given two weeks time to the state government to submit its response in a petition filed by aggrieved students. The petitioners’ advocate says that 11 students have filed the case in the court alleging irregularities by DME and giving undue advantage to private medical colleges. The DME is alleged to have declared the list of eligible candidates at 7 pm and closed the admissions at 11.59 pm on the same day, denying candidates staying at far-off places the opportunity to take admission. . “In the mop up round, 94 seats were filled and these seats were sold for up to Rs 80 lakh each by the private colleges disregarding merit,” the advocate alleged.

Another media report revealed that 50% of crop insurance claims in the state have gone to Vidisha, the constituency of Sushama Swaraj and the political hub of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who had also represented Vidisha in the Lok Sabha earlier. Crop damage insurance is causing a lot of heart burning for the farmers of Madhya Pradesh, with some landing a bonanza while some others getting only a pittance. Vidisha district is the top recipient of claims, with Rs 390 crore, way ahead of Raisen in the second position with Rs 90.91 crore. Bhopal is at the bottom. Crop insurance for MP farmers is provided by three firms – Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited (AICIL) covering 31 districts and ICICI Lombard and HDFC having 10 districts each. Out of AICIL's payouts for crop losses suffered in 2016, a whopping 54% has gone to Vidisha. In Sehore, a farmer received just Rs 17 for 0.8 hectare while another farmer received Rs 1.9 lakh. AICIL officials told the media that they have no role in deciding the claim, which is disbursed according to the assessment of the state government. So far, 2016 kharif crop damage claims to the tune of Rs 590 crore have been disbursed in eight districts against a cumulative premium of Rs 558 crore, AICIL regional manager Anupama Thakur was quoted as saying.

According to sources, the assessment by the state government is abysmally low compared to the premium paid for crop insurance. The insurance company received more than Rs 1,100 crore as premium against crop insurance but the estimated claim amount based on the data provided by the state government is only Rs 720 crore, said a source, pointing out that farmers in MP need to pay only 2% of the total amount insured while the remaining premium and around 13% of the sum insured are borne by state and central governments.

Misuse of government funds for renovation of the official residences of ministers and high officials is the theme off yet another report, which states that a sum of Rs 200 crores is allotted for this purpose. Out of this, about Rs 100 crores are spent in Bhopal alone.

The other day the state Lokayukta police raided three premises of a senior woman official of the town and country planning (T&CP) department and unearthed assets worth crores of rupees, which were disproportionate to her known sources of income. In the wee hours, sleuths swooped down on the establishments of Anita Kurathe, who is posted as deputy director of the department in the neighbouring Dewas district, following a complaint of unaccounted assets. She was earlier posted at Indore. During the raid, the sleuths discovered that she and her family members owned immovable properties at many places in and around the city of Indore, including six posh apartments and a farmhouse, three offices, two shops and seven acres of agriculture land in Mhow, apart from a house in Old Ashok Nagar, Bhopal. (IPA Service)