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Govt compulsorily retires tax officers over extortion, bribe, sexual harassment

Agencies
June 11, 2019

New Delhi, Jun 11: The government has compulsorily retired almost a dozen senior tax officers on charges ranging from extortion, bribe and sexual harassment.

The axe has fallen on about 12 senior officers of the rank of chief commissioners, principal commissioners, commissioners of income tax department under rule FR (fundamental rule) 56 (j) of central civil services (pension) rules.

The officers include Ashok Agarwal, joint commissioner of Income Tax and former deputy director, ED; S.K. Srivastava, commissioner (Appeal, NOIDA; Homi Rajvansh, IRS 1985 batch; B.B. Rajendra Prasad; Ajoy Kumar Singh; B. Arulappa; Alok Kumar Mitra; Chander Saini Bharti; Andasu Ravinder; Vivek Batra; Swetabh Suman and Ram Kumar Bhargava.

This is major crackdown by Modi government 2.0 on bureaucrats and officials indulging in alleged corruption practices.

Among the key tax officials shown the door is Ashok Agarwal who has remained suspended from 1999 to 2014. He faced serious allegations of corruption and extortion from businessman accused of helping late 'godman' Chandraswami. Agarwal was found to have acquired ill-gotten wealth to the tune of Rs 12 crore and faced a CBI enquiry.

The 1989-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer has also been retired prematurely as he faced charges of alleged sexual harassment.

Some of the tax officers forced to exit the service acquired movable and immovable properties without obtaining required approvals.

One of the disgraced officer Homi Rajvansh had illegal acquired assets worth Rs 3.17 crore. Finance Ministry sources said Rajvansh was arrested by CBI after absconding from his headquarters to evade arrest.

Another officer B.B. Rajendra Prasad was arrested by the CBI on allegations of passing favourable order for illegal gratifications while S.K. Srivastava, Commissioner (Appeal), NOIDA is accused of sexual harassment to two women IRS officers of Commissioner rank.

In the case of Ajoy Kumar Singh, sources said that CBI, ACB, Mumbai, had registered a disproportionate assets case when Singh was Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Mumbai. He was also arrested by the CBI in connection with the case and placed under suspension w.e.f. 25.10.2009.

Officers have also been compulsorily retired for incompetence as in the case of B Arulappa. He allegedly proved to be ineffective as a supervisory officer and failed to ensure assignment of important cases having large tax implication to senior and experienced officers. But, ministry sources said that Alok Kumar Mitra is allegedly involved in many cases of corruptions and extortion and passed many wrong and malafide assessment orders which were later on reversed by the appellate authorities.

On the other hand, Chander Saini Bharti was apprehended by CBI in connection with a trap case and the bribe money of Rs 30 lakh was recovered from 'angadiya' (courier) used by him. He was allegedly found using hawala channels for transferring the ill-gotten money.

Swetabh Suman was arrested by CBI in New Delhi on April 13, 2018 for allegedly demanding Rs 50 lakh for giving relief in a shell company matter to a businessman. The amount was recovered from a middle-man and searches were carried out by CBI on the premises linked to Shri Swetabh Suman in Guwahati, Jorhat, Shillong, Noida and Delhi.

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News Network
July 26,2020
Bhopal, Jul 26: BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur on Saturday appealed people to recite the Hanuman Chalisa five times a day till August 5, which she believes will rid the world of the coronavirus pandemic.
`Bhoomi pujan’ or the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya is to take place on August 5.
“Let us all of us together make a spiritual effort to wish people good health and end the coronavirus epidemic.
Recite ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ five times a day at your home from July 25 to August 5,” the Bhopal MP tweeted.
“Conclude this ritual by lighting lamps on August 5 and offering ‘aarti’ to Lord Ram at home,” she added.
She also shared a video on Twitter, in which she said the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is making efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus by imposing lockdown in Bhopal till August 4.
“Though the lockdown will be over on August 4, this ritual (recitation of the Hanuman Chalisa, a hymn in praise of Lord Hanuman) will end on August 5, when ‘bhoomi pujan’ for Ram temple in Ayodhya will be performed. We will celebrate that day like Diwali,” she added.
“When people... Hindus from across the country recite the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ in one voice, it will definitely work and we will be free from coronavirus...This is your prayer to Lord Ram,” said Thakur.

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News Network
June 1,2020

New Delhi, Jun 1: India's COVID-19 tally on Monday witnessed its highest-ever spike of 8,392 cases, while 230 more deaths related to the infection were also reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 1,90,535 including 93,322 active cases, 91,819 cured/discharged/migrated and 5,394 deaths.

COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra continue to soar with the number reaching 67,655. Tamil Nadu's coronavirus count stands at 22,333 while cases in Delhi the number has reached 19,844

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News Network
July 16,2020

New Delhi, Jul 16: With India's economic growth sputtering, the Reserve Bank of India was expected to maintain a rate-cutting cycle, but an uptick in near-term inflation could give the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee reason to pause for now.

Having cut its key lending rate by an aggressive 115 basis points (bps) in 2020, on top of 135 bps cuts in 2019, the RBI so far has had little success in spurring credit growth amid varying degrees of lockdowns across India.

Some economists and market insiders argue it may be prudent for the MPC, the policy committee, to hold its fire when it meets early next month.

"It's probably too early to administer a demand stimulus. The RBI still has room to cut rates, but we probably want to be more cautious of the timing," said Venkat Pasupuleti, portfolio manager at Dalton Investments.

"Maybe they should wait a quarter to see how things pan out once the lockdown situation is eased further."

Market participants have factored in at least a 25 bps rate cut by the MPC on August 6 while analysts are predicting a total 50-75 bps cuts over the rest of the fiscal year that runs to March 31.

The spike in the retail inflation rate above the RBI's mandated 2%-4% target range is another reason for the central bank to take a breather, analysts say.

Annual retail inflation rose to 6.09% in June, compared to 5.84% in March and sharply above a 5.30% median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

Rahul Bajoria, an economist at Barclays, said the spike in both consumer and wholesale prices "could lead to a tempering in enthusiasm for material front-loaded policy support from here on."

Almost all economists however agreed the RBI cannot move away from its accommodative stance or call an end to the rate cutting cycle just yet.

India's economy grew at 3.1% in the March quarter - an eight year low - and some economists have predicted a contraction of more than 20% in the June quarter and a contraction of up to 5% in the fiscal year.

"Even in the event of a pause, we think the RBI and MPC would want to hold out the promise of more cuts," said A. Prasanna, economist with ICICI Securities.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a recent speech the need of the hour is to restore confidence, preserve financial stability, revive growth and recover stronger, suggesting inflation concerns are unlikely to deter the downward trajectory for rates too soon.

"The August policy decision would boil down to a judgment call over whether RBI can maintain easy monetary and financial conditions without the aid of a token rate cut," Prasanna said. 

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