Jaya questions Umashankar’s suspension, says he is being victimised

Jaya questions Umashankar’s suspension, says he is being victimised

4 Aug, 2010 2305hrs IST TNN
CHENNAI: Rallying behind suspended IAS officer C Umashankar, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday alleged that the dalit officer was being victimised by the DMK government in Tamil Nadu for “exposing and questioning the atrocities” of chief minister M Karunanidhi’s family.

Reacting to the suspension of the 1990 batch IAS officer on the charge that he had entered the civil services using a bogus community certificate, she said it was the responsibility of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to vet the antecedents of every recruit and verify all their certificates. “When this is so, the Karunanidhi government suddenly claiming that Umashankar had entered the service using a forged community certificate gives room for speculation on the reasons behind this,” she said in a statement.

Jayalalithaa said Umashankar was appointed as managing director of Arasu Cable Corporation (ACC), which was launched in 2007 following a rift in Karunanidhi’s family. More than Rs 400 crore was invested in ACC for sophisticated electronic receivers and fibre-optic cable networking. However, once there was a reconciliation between Karunanidhi’s close family members and his grand-nephews, the Maran brothers, he was shunted out of ACC, she charged.

Earlier, in 2006, when Umashankar was MD of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), it floated a joint venture company with New Era Technologies Ltd called ELNET, she said and added that ELNET, in turn, launched a subsidiary company called ETL Infrastructure Ltd. “This company purchased 25 acres of land at Pallikaranai near Chennai and constructed an IT park of 17 lakh square feet. It also got IT special economic zone status from the Centre by projecting itself as a subsidiary of the state-owned ELCOT. But later, ETL became a wholly privately-owned company,” the AIADMK chief said. She alleged that the officer was shunted out from ELCOT after he raised questions about the disappearance of it subsidiary from records along with its Rs 700 crore assets.

Umashankar had fallen foul of the Jayalalithaa regime of 1991-96 too. He first came into prominence when he detected irregularities in construction of cremation sheds when he was an official in Madurai district. Later, a CBI investigation was ordered into the scam and the trial is still going on.

http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/6258486.cms

ACTION ON DALIT OFFICER SMACKS OF VENDETTA: JAYA

ACTION ON DALIT OFFICER SMACKS OF VENDETTA: JAYA

Chennai,

 
 

AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa accused the DMK government on Wednesday of victimising IAS officer C Umashankar, and alleged that the Dalit officer had been “targeted for expos ing or questioning the wrong-doings” of the family members of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
 
It “smacks of vendetta,” she said in a statement here, referring to the suspension of Umashankar, a 1990-batch IAS officer, on the “pretext” that he had entered the Civil Services using a bogus community certificate.
 
Jayalalithaa wondered why the government suddenly claimed that Umashankar had forged his community certificate when it was the UPSC that had appointed him after verifying his credentials and certificates. She recalled that Umashankar had taken action against Sumangali Cable Vision (of the DMK’s Sun TV Group) when he was MD of Arasu Cable Corporation. Also, he had raised certain questions as MD of the ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu).
 
http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2010/08/05/ArticleHtmls/05_08_2010_002_027.shtml?Mode=1

Umashankar’s suspension smacks of victimisation:: JAYA

“Umashankar’s suspension smacks of victimisation”
Special Correspondent News » States » Tamil Nadu
CHENNAI, August 5, 2010
 
AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa has alleged that suspension of IAS officer C. Umashankar smacked of victimisation by the DMK government.
In a statement here on Wednesday, Ms. Jayalalithaa questioned the powers of the State government to place an IAS officer under suspension on the pretext that he had entered the Civil Services using a bogus community certificate.
“All civil service appointments in the country are done by the Union Public Service Commission. It is the responsibility of the UPSC to vet the antecedents of every recruit and verify their certificates,” she said.
She said the DMK government’s claim that Mr. Umashankar, belonging to Dalit community, had entered the service using a forged community certificate had given room for speculation on the reasons behind this.
Ms. Jayalalithaa recalled the government’s decision to launch Arasu Cable Corporation and the appointment of Mr. Umashankar as its Managing Director, and said the real motive behind it was to pose a challenge to the Maran brothers’ Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV).
Scapegoat
Ms. Jayalalithaa said after an agreement was suddenly reached between the warring cousins of Mr. Karunanidhi’s family, the IAS officer was made the scapegoat and shunted out.
She alleged that though Mr. Umashankar was appointed as the MD of Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), he was removed from the post because he questioned the disappearance of ETL Infrastructure Ltd., a subsidiary of ELCOT, along with Rs. 700 crore assets.
Explanation sought
Demanding an explanation from Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on what happened to ETL and the fate of the Rs. 400 crore invested in Arasu Cable Corporation, she wanted to know why was a Dalit officer in government service being victimised.
 
Keywords: C. Umashankar, AIADMK, DMK
 
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article551957.ece

‘Karunanidhi family and government harassing me’

‘Karunanidhi family and government harassing me’
T S SekaranExpress News ServiceFirst Published : 27 Jul 2010 03:42:33 AM ISTLast Updated : 27 Jul 2010 09:30:35 AM IST

CHENNAI: Suspended IAS officer C Umashankar has moved the National Commission for SC/ST in New Delhi, to protect him from the illegal harassment by the Tamil Nadu government, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s family and the powerful Maran brothers, who are closely related to the CM.
In his complaint against the State government, Umashankar, who was suspended last week while holding the post of Commssioner, Small Savings, alleged that he was subjected to frequent transfers as he was honest and sincere in his duties and worked bearing in mind the public interest.
 
 
He said the TN government was free to institute any disciplinary proceedings against him in accordance with the provisions of the All India Service Act, Public Servant Enquiries Act, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure. But the government was not competent to conduct any enquiry against him on the allegation that he had produced a false community certificate. The CM was insisting on the police to register an FIR against him. “The State government, headed by the present CM, is intolerant and vindictive against me because I recommended penal action against the Maran brothers and made public the scam in ETL Infrastructure, where the hand of MK Alagiri, (CM’s son) and a central minister of the DMK is involved. Thus, the State power is being misused against me,’’ Umashankar contended in his complaint.
 
 
He also urged the Commission to ensure that enquiry, if any, regarding his caste certificate was conducted by the Central Vigilance Commission or the Central Bureau of Investigation or any other central agency not under the control of the TN government. Appropriate action might also be initiated to allow him to work under the central government or any of the agency of the central government not under the control of the TN government, the complaint said and also requested the Commission to ensure proper security to him and his family members through the central security force.
 
 
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/suspended-ias-officer-in-tn-alleges-harassment/193176.html

About n-Logue and Mr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor, IIT Madras

n-Logue and Mr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor, IIT Madras,

News is that Mr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala resigned from n-Logue Directorship ?

What is going to happen to all the FRANCHISEES ?

What happened to all the funds that were funded?

What happened to money given by Franchisees ??

Any one knows about this ??

What is the status of n-Logue now ?

Mr. Ashok Jhunjhunwla associated with MSSRF ??

M.S. Swaminathan
Research Foundation
3rd Cross Street, Institutional Area
Taramani, Chennai – 600 113, INDIA
Tel: +91-44-2254 1229, 2254 1698
Fax: +91-44-2254 1319
executivedirector@mssrf.res.in
http://www.nva-mssrf.org, http://www.mssrf.org

___________________________________

Cheating in the name of e-governance. The case of n-logue and Mr.Ashok Jhunjanwalla:

In the name of providing connectivity and internet to the rural masses, the women self help groups of TamilNadu and elsewhere are being deprived of their livelihood by a clever business plan played by Prof.Ashok Jhunjanwalla of IIT, Madras.

This scam is targeted at the subsidy money received by the women self help groups from Government of India. Though the said IIT Professor knows that a 32 kbps outdated wireless system is not good enough for video conferencing, he has been promoting falsehood only to gain income though business.

Mr.Jhunjanwalla is a Director in the company which markets this outdated wireless product. It is to be noted that every district has a District Blindness Control society headed by the respective District Collectors which monitors and supports blindness control.

The entire funding comes from international agencies. Thousands of poor people get 100% financial assistance every year through this exercise.

Whereas Mr.Jhunjanwalla has been promoting falsehood by stating that his outdated wireless system could provide a solution to the blindness of the people through video conferencing (Tele medicine).

What could never be accepted in urban India is being sold to the rural women self help groups using Government contacts/orders with no benefit accruing to the poor women.

The Govt may look into this affair and stop the cheating that goes in the name of e-governance.

_______________________________________________________

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[PDF]

Mission 2007

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
Information Village project of MSSRF, ITC’s e-choupal, Drishtee’s Info Kiosks, n-Logue’s ….. (Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala,. Faculty IIT, Chennai) …
http://www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org/marketofopportunities/common/index.cfm?fuseaction=download&documentid=268

`This year 24 Indian cities will deploy CorDECT’

But Mr Ashok Jhunjhunwala, the father of CorDECT Wirelss in Local Loop (WLL), … Recently, the TeNeT Group has participated in the formation of n-Logue, …
http://www.financialexpress.com/old/fe/daily/20010205/fco05007.html – 21k –

Project floated to provide Net, voice connectivity to villages

… will be formally launched on January 25, said Mr Ashok Jhunjhunwala, professor, IIT Madras. Meanwhile, n-Logue Communications, a company, which has been …
http://www.financialexpress.com/old/fe/daily/20010116/efe16006.html –

ARTICLES WRITTEN ABOUT C. UMASHANKAR’s Achievements in eGovernance in Tamilnadu.

ARTICLES WRITTEN ABOUT C. UMASHANKAR’s

Achievements in  eGovernance in Tamilnadu.

An IAS officer who established first e-district in the country in 1999,
Please look into this and question yourself !!

Tiruvarur e-Governance Project – YEAR 1999 – 30 pages in detail.
Transformation of the India’s first e-district by tech. savvy I.A.S. officer Mr. Umashankar.

https://egovindia.wordpress.com/2006/07/19/process-automation-based-e-governance-implementation-in-core-government-functioning-in-tiruvarur-district-of-tamilnadu-india-2/

India E-district :: Process Automation based e-governance implementation

http://egovernance.wordpress.com/2007/01/06/india-e-district-process-automation-based-e-governance-implementation/_________

An IAS officer who established first e-district in the country, possibly the first in Asia. His e-governance made procedures simpler for the public and introduced transparency in the administration.

No entry for professionals

ANIL DHARKER Sunday, Jun 15, 2003

http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2003/06/15/stories/2003061500170200.htm

Is there any merit in the argument that doctors and engineers need not apply for the IAS?

————————————————————-

Umashankar still cooling his heels

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/07/26/stories/04262232.htm

By Radha Venkatesan July 26th, 2001.

—————————————————————–

Land record systems revisited – October 2003,

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/magazine/gisdev/2003/october/landsr.shtml

C Umashankar
IAS, Commissioner, Disciplinary
Proceedings Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
umashankarc@yahoo.com

An integrated computerised land administration system is still at dream level all over India. The need of the hour in India is to formulate a scheme to integrate the text based land record data with the graphic (map) data. There are serious issues arising out of the above proposition due to the enormity of the task involved.

___________________________________________________________

What is e-governance? Why Bangalore One cannot be considered e-governance? By Mr. C. Umashankar IAS

What is e-governance? And why Bangalore one is  not e-governance?

 

Author: C.Umashankar IAS.,

Date: 17-3-05

 

What is e-governance? And why Bangalore one is  not e-governance?

Under e-governance scenario, the Government and its citizens/business houses should be able to transact all their activities or at least majority of activities without meeting each other using Information technology tools such as internet, public kiosks etc.

For example, when a citizen wants to get a ration card, he/she should be able to apply and get the ration card without physically going to the Taluka office. Similarly, when a widow wants to get a widow pension she should be able to get it by applying through the village or block level internet centre.

Or, a farmer wanting to get a land extract / cultivation extract should be able to do it without going to any government official through the internet or public kiosks.

Going to the Government offices and waiting there to get these services should be only an optional one. The citizens should have a choice of going to the internet centres or the government offices to get their works done with the Government.

 

This can be achieved only through the following steps:

1. Government offices should be computerised using online workflow procedure. That means all the paper based registers have to be given up and all government works have to be carried out only through computers.

2. All Government employees working in the areas where e-governance is proposed have to be computer trained and each one should be given user ID and password to operate the system.

3. All these government employees have to be trained in their area of operation in the software.

4. The Government servers should be connected to the internet so that the citizens   and business houses are enabled to access the Government information at any time and also enabled to file all their requests/applications online. The scope for meeting government officials should be reduced to the  extent that only where statutorily  such physical presence is required they  should be asked to meet the government officials.

5. All applications or requests from citizens/business houses should be received only through online procedure using internet as medium.

6. STD booths or similar public kiosks should be authorised to intermediate between the citizens and the government. This includes online remittance facility too.

 

A similar facility should be made available to the business houses too.

Why Bangalore One cannot be considered e-governance?

 

None of the above 6 parameters mentioned above are proposed to be built in Bangalore One.

1. Bangalore one does not offer any e-governance service. It is a mechanism to do collection of various remittances such as BSNL telephone bill, electricity bill, water taxes, property taxes etc. No citizen can file his/her application for any government services online. Bill collection and e-governance are two different areas.
2. Bangalore one does not intend to bring computers to government offices. Nor does it want to bring in online automation in government offices.
3. Bangalore one does not look at Government servants to get involved in the project. It relies only on private partners to do bill collection.
4. Bangalore one does not have any scope to provide service to the poor people.
5. Bangalore one does not have scope to provide service to the rural/urban women self help groups.
6. Bangalore one has nothing for the farmers and people living in rural areas.
7. Bangalore one does not aim at reducing corruption in Government offices.
8. Bangalore one does not envisage empowering the citizens, women or socially oppressed classes such as dalits.
9. A typical e-governance project should free the citizens from the corrupt government officials and make them feel free and empowered. Bangalore one does not have any scope for reducing corruption or empowering women, rural citizens, dalits, farmers and SHGs.
10. The user charges payable to the private company will be on permanent basis. The Government neither owns the bill collection software nor will it ever own it. It is a fraud on the people of Karnataka.
11. Bangalore one is intended to benefit only the private partners and possibly for the officials who have master minded it. There is a distinct possibility that the officials involved in Bangalore one might have agreed to promote it for a  percentage of commission from the Bangalore One revenue. For this commission they seem to claim that Bangalore one is an e-governance project whereas it is not an e-governance project.

 

Bangalore one is a fraud that is being imposed on the people of Karnataka.

__________________________________________________________

Mr. C. Umashankar IAS as MD of ELCOT achieved..

ELCOT – Electronic Corporation of TamilNadu, … on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_g72GcaIdc

It is great to see how staff have adopted to the new system. It is a commendable job to get them trained and make them accept, given the fact that motivation to do so would have been very low. Kudos to ELCOT and the Leadership to have taken this forward. Hope ELCOT can arrange for a fair or seminar to promote this in other states.

Linux free software for the blind,ELCOT’s efforts News clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eqtkJYtWKE

True Vision – Ubuntu Linux and ORCA for visually challenged ELCOT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzLIKxpZV0U&feature=related

ELCOT’s success story of Suse linux migration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_g72GcaIdc&feature=related

Mr. Umashankar, IAS, MD of ELCOT, Interview on OSS by Hindu Businessline dated 19th Feb 07
http://www.thehindu businessline. com/ew/2007/ 02/19/stories/ 2007021900130400 .htm

Can Tamil Nadu Live Without Microsoft?

http://egovernance.wordpress.com/2007/01/06/can-tamil-nadu-live-without-microsoft/

Tamil Nadu spruces up Tier II cities��

Tamil Nadu spruces up Tier II cities��

To project Maduari, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, Salem, Tirunelveli and Hosur as next IT destinations

Thursday, January 11, 2007

http://www.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle1.asp?artid=93372

HYDERABAD: The Tamil Nadu government is sprucing up its Tier II locations with an intention of pumping in more IT investments to the State.

The State already has commenced the work to set up IT parks in Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, Salem, Tirunelveli and Hosur.

The onus of promoting these IT parks has been bestowed upon the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT). The IT parks would eventually be converted into SEZs.

“Tamil Nadu is having a growth of 32 per cent year on year. The growth could be more in the future,” said C Umashankar, managing director, ELCOT.

Software exports from Tamil Nadu for the year 2005-2006 was $3144.4 million.

Tamil Nadu is betting on its highly skilled manpower, continual power supply, proper law and order situation and flight connectivity.

The State has given its nod to increase the power generation to 6000 MW of power for the next three years, said Umashankar at a press conference here today.

He also informed that Tamil Nadu has a surplus power availability of 3000 MW. “We try not to give any power problem to the IT industry. The government provides a dual grid power supply to the industry. Power trigging is zero in Tamil Nadu.”

Umashankar also revealed that the state is looking at more software imports to Japan. ELCOT would soon roll out a Japanese learning course.

© CyberMedia News

Small town boy reboots Microsoft

Small town boy reboots Microsoft

GC Shekhar

Chennai, August 6, 2006

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1761926,0008.htm

He’d wanted to be the next Dhanraj Pillai, but the vista that destiny opened up for A Mahesh led to greener pastures in the world of technology.

The 24-year-old from small town Tamil Nadu has created a software that will add considerable muscle to Vista, Microsoft’s brand new operating system due for launch next year.

In all probability, Vista will incorporate Mahesh’s creation, which is an image browser, image editor, web browser, system tools and disk manager rolled into one.

In fact, Microsoft has already validated and awarded the product BETA2 iBRO.NET a patent protection certificate.

This means anyone may make use of Mahesh’s product using the validation key but would need to pay Microsoft a royalty a part of which would reach this shy lad from Palayamkottai in southern Tamil Nadu.

The first member of his family to reach the post-graduate level, Mahesh developed the BETA2 iBRO.NET as the fifth-year project for his integrated M Sc course in computer science. He chose Vista’s developer platform, where individuals are invited to contribute features for Vista.

“For sheer conceptualisation and acumen, his creation shows enormous scope and maturity. It’s a full fledged tool that would not only remove deficiencies in Vista but add never-seen features in the OS,” explained Dr Krishnan, professor of computer science at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, who helped fine tune Mahesh’s creation.

For example, why a computer hangs remains a mystery to most. But Mahesh’s product can display the reasons. It can also optimise the download speed of a broadband connection when needed.

Unlike other OS, it can also display properties of all the drives in the computer simultaneously. “Before Vista is launched, I plan to add more features to make my product more comprehensive,” said Mahesh, whose father is a retired peon.

“Such a product would take a team of at least 10 people in a top IT company months to develop. But for a student from a rural background to do all this in just 5 months on his own is amazing,” observed N Chokkan, a columnist on computer.

Mahesh, who will soon join IBM at Bangalore, is unfazed by the recognition and remains grateful to his parents and R Panneerselvam, chairman of his school who waived his fees for the five-year course.