All the big scandals have roots in real estate and politicians

[Arvindc]

Satyam scam is all about real estate and original whistleblower is metro-man Sreedharan

It all started in September 2008, when Sreedharan, referring to the Hyderabad Metro Rail project that was awarded to a consortium of companies led by Maytas Infra Ltd, wrote a letter to the then Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia that the Andhra Pradesh government’s action of making “available 296 acres of prime land ... to the developer for commercial exploitation was like selling the family silver.”

In the said letter, he had added that it could lead to a “big political scandal some time later.”

Maytas Infra was promoted by Teja Raju, son of Ramalinga Raju, and other members of Raju’s family.

“It seemed as if it was pre-planned and that the company knew about the metro rail project well in advance. It was then brought to our chief’s knowledge. It was the classic example how a company that later got the job of the project, had access to the inside information on planning much before its conceptualisation. It helped the company to buy vast stretches of land at a much lower price around the metro route, so that it could be sold at a price multiple times higher and make huge profit.”

“The money he had invested in buying land got stuck up. In fact, it’s said that a few politicians had invested in this real estate project. But, when they wanted it back to fund the 2009 election, Raju failed to return the money. And, that was the beginning. A web of 356 investment companies was used to allegedly divert funds from Satyam Funds and accounts were fudged. Instead of a windfall, it became Raju’s downfall,” an expert said.

Sometimes, it occures to me to put all politicians on a rocket and blast it to Mars. This would solve 80% of the India's issues. Making all the land a property of the government and and making the ownership on lease hold basis (just like Singapore) would solve the remaining 18% of the issues.