Scam stench in infotech boom

The IT boom has bred millionaires, sent cash registers ringing at bars and laid the foundation for a construction blitz, but it has also fanned forex (hawala) scams.

Sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate and officials of the Software Technology Park of India stumbled on 50 bogus software firms — some of them reportedly linked to Pune horse trader and infamous tax evader Hasan Ali Khan.

ost of these companies shut down after cutting a big deal. The modus operandi of the hawala operators was simple: float a company, win a big overseas order (mostly) through email, deliver the software (through CDs), accept payment through account payee cheques and vanish.

ED sources say that of 1,300 software companies that set up shop in the city in 2000, only 500 are around. Now, investigators are trying to find the link between the countless closures and mushrooming housing projects. No one builds castles in the air, after all.

CM in mystery temple tryst

H.D. Kumaraswamy is a religious man, making it a point to frequent various shrines in the south, family in tow. But of late, the temple-hopping has become irksome for the Opposition.

This week, during an Assembly debate on a mining deal, the chief minister was nowhere to be seen. The chief minister, along with his personal secretary, had boarded a flight to Mangalore.

He walked out of the airport and drove off like a commoner. Two MLAs on the flight were surprised the chief minister didn’t speak to them. They were also shocked there was no protocol in place to welcome him at Mangalore. Apparently, the police were told not to throw a security ring around Kumaraswamy as he was on a private visit to a temple in Kerala.

As curiosity about his whereabouts peaked, the chief minister came to take his flight back to Bangalore, but, with no seats available, he was forced to spend the night at a Mangalore guesthouse and return the next morning. It is a mystery why the chief minister chose to travel like a commoner, even if it was a private visit.

Flyover hits right note

This is one discordant note that has fallen silent. A flyover to ease traffic woes in the city’s upscale Peddar Road was believed to be causing Lata Mangeshkar a lot of anxiety.

The singer, who feared an increase in noise pollution from vehicles on the flyover, had reportedly threatened to quit the city if the government didn’t halt the plan in its tracks. Early this week, the minister for public works, Anil Deshmukh, said the delay in starting the flyover wasn’t due to opposition from Lata.

“Only some technical clearances are awaited. Lata didi’s objections are not a technical matter. I would like to assure the house the government is serious about constructing the flyover to reduce road congestion,” he told Opposition MLAs who felt the government was giving in to the unreasonable demands of the legendary crooner.

Disc demolition

The customs department requisitioned a roadroller to Chennai airport last week, not to flatten an uneven runway — but to smash a mound of 34,000 pirated DVDs and CDs.

he discs, smuggled from Malaysia in recent months, crackled as the wheels of the monster vehicle rolled over them in full view of airport officials and the police. According to commissioner of customs, C. Rajan, the action was in line with the World Customs Organisation’s theme this year: “No to counterfeiting and piracy”.

The smashed remains were carted to a recycling unit at the Madras Export Processing Zone in Tambaram, recently upgraded into a special economic zone.

Delhi: This Monday, watch Taj Mahal, a National School of Drama production that has a tech-savvy Aurangzeb fighting brother Dara Shikoh — portrayed as a Sufi mystic — for the Mughal throne.
Tickets cost Rs 10, 20 and 30. The venue is NSD auditorium. Time: 7 pm.