Prime Minister's Advisor Caught in a Land Scam

BEML stands for Bharat Earth Movers Limited. It is a public sector undertaking and haS its headquarters in Bangalore. BEML has been recently caught up in a land scam with its top officials and their relatives accused of seeking benefits from an out-of turn allotment of 63 sites. BEML Employees Co-operative Society has irregularly allotted housing sites to T.K.A.Nair's niece A. Preethy Prabha and Uma Devi, a friend. T.K.A.Nair is the adviser of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

When the whistle-blowers of the company questioned the role of V.R.S Natarajan, BEML chairman and Managing Director in the supply of Tata Trucks to the army, the plots were being allotted in South Bangalore at throw-away prices. The allegations made by a whistle-blower reveal that a third plot was also allotted to a person related to T.K.A.Nair. During the time of the allotment, T.K.A.Nair was the Principle Secretary of Manmohan Singh. Surprisingly, a senior officer in Mr. Natarajan's office has signed as a witness on the land transactions documents. BEML land scam has caused a violation of section 10 (b) of the BEML society's by-laws by allotting the land to the outsiders.The law states that land allotted to the society by the state government should be given only to the employees of the company at the subsidized rates. BEML Management denied any role in BEML land scam. N Munnagappa, the President of BEML Employees Co-operative Society said in their defense that not a single allotment has been made illegally and by violating the laws. Some high officials had been allotted few housing sites under the 5% of discretionary quota. As per the law, even associate members are been allotted with the sites under the associate membership rule. BEML land scam became more interesting when the list showed only the number of sites that has been allotted and not the name of the person to whom it is allotted. T.K.A.Nair rubbishes all the claims about the irregular allotments of the housing to his kins. He told the media that there was no illegal allotment made to the best of his knowledge and that all the allegations were baseless.

Some of the inside sources reveal that the deal of the allotment of land between the society and Nair's niece was cancelled recently. The BEML land scam has given opposition a chance to raise questions about the government and they would corner the Congress in the parliament.