Mafia Raj

Mafia Raj (Hindi-Urdu: माफ़िया राज, مافیا راج, mafia regime) refers to an economic and political situation in India where public goods, property and funds are controlled and systematically embezzled by a criminalized nexus (or "mafia") of government officials, elected politicians, business interests and other entities (such as law-enforcement authorities, non-governmental organizations, trade unions or criminal organizations).^[1][2] The phenomenon of Mafia Raj is highly prevalent in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well, countries which share a similar culture to that of India.

In India (where the term originated) it can refer to cities, states, government departments, public sector businesses or entire sectors of the economy that are subject to these conditions. Due to the ability of these mafias to operate their illegal activities in a sustained fashion, sometimes openly and with the use of violent intimidation, terms like Goonda Raj (rule of the goons), Jungle Raj (law of the jungle) and Anarchy are used to refer to the same phenomenon.^[3]

In the Indian and Pakistani media, the mafias are usually mentioned by the name of the economic sector in which they are involved. Terms such as coal mafia, timber mafia (sometimes, forest mafia), contractor mafia (sometimes, road construction mafia or road contract mafia) and land mafia are commonly used.

Contents 1 Coal Mafia 2 Timber Mafias 3 Contractor Mafias 4 Land Mafias 5 See also 6 References

Coal Mafia

The state-owned coal mines of Bihar (now Jharkhand after the division of Bihar state) were among the first areas in India to see the emergence of a sophisticated mafia, beginning with the mining town of Dhanbad.^[4] It is alleged that the coal industry's trade union leadership forms the upper echelon of this particular arrangement, and employs caste allegiances to maintain its power.^[5] Pilferage and sale of coal on the black market, inflated or fictitious supply expenses, falsified worker contracts and the expropriation and leasing-out of government land have allegedly become routine.^[6] A parallel economy has also developed with a significant fraction of the local population employed by the mafia in manually transporting the stolen coal for long distances over unpaved roads to illegal mafia warehouses and points of sale.^[7]

The coal mafia has had a negative effect on Indian industry, with coal supplies and quality varying erratically. Higher quality coal is sometimes selectively diverted, and missing coal replaced with stones and boulders in railway cargo wagons. Once, even a human corpse has been discovered in a sealed coal wagon.^[8]

Timber Mafias

Protected forest areas in several parts of India, such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand, are vulnerable to illegal logging by timber mafias that have coopted or intimidated forestry officials, local politicians, businesses and citizenry.^[9][10] Terrorist groups have also joined the nexus in militancy-affected areas such as Kashmir.^[11] Clear-cutting is sometimes covered-up by conniving officials who report fictitious forest fires.^[12]

Many studies indicate large losses of forest cover to indiscriminate logging by timber mafias, with over a million hectares in the environs of Chhotanagpur alone being illegally transferred by the forest department directly to industrial, mining and logging companies.^[13] Besides the environmental degradation, public financial losses can be substantial, and one 1994 estimate of stolen timber in the state of Karnataka amounted to Rs 1,000 crores (abour US$ 230 million).^[14] Veerappan was a notorious bandit who, until his shooting death by state police in 2004, specialized in illegally logging sandalwood in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.^[15]

As with coal, there have also been incidents of substitution of low-grade wood for high-quality timber when the procurement of wood is, in fact, authorized for government use. In an incident in 2005, officials determined that high-quality deodar wood meant for military and railway use had been substituted with lower-quality chir wood in Jammu and Kashmir state, and the higher quality wood was intercepted in the process of being smuggled across the state border into Punjab.^[16]

Contractor Mafias

Many state-funded construction activities in India, such as road building, are dominated by construction mafias, which are groupings of corrupt public works officials, materials suppliers, politicians and construction contractors.^[17] Shoddy construction and material substitution (e.g. mixing sand in cement while submitting expenses for cement) result in roads and highways being dangerous, and sometimes simply washed away when India's heavy monsoon season arrives.^[18]

In a widely covered case, Satyendra Dubey, a project director with the National Highways Authority of India, was murdered in 2003, allegedly because he had written a letter exposing deep-seated contractor mafia involvement in the construction of a section of the prestigious Golden Quadrilateral project to the Prime Minister's office.^[19] Although a CBI investigative report after the assassination stated that there was no contractor mafia involvement in Dubey's murder,^[20] his family and supporters maintained that an attempt at a cover-up was being made.^[21]

Attempts have been made to reduce mafia influence by making construction tendering processes more transparent, sometimes by attempting to move them online, so that a complete audit trail of bids and activity is maintained. Construction mafias are alleged to have used their political influence decisively to frustrate many such attempts, for example in the public works for which the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is responsible.^[22]

Land Mafias

In cities and villages throughout India and Pakistan, mafias consisting of municipal and other government officials, elected politicians, judicial officers, real estate developers and law enforcement officials, acquire, develop and sell land in illegal ways for profit.^[23] Sometimes, government land or land ostensibly acquired for some legitimate government purpose is then handed over to real estate developers who build commercial and residential properties and sell them in the open market, with the connivance of administrative and police officials.^[24]

In the very same way, inside Pakistan and specially in the largest city of Karachi, there are different groups of Land Mafias active. Some are alleged to be supported and backed by different political parties in power. They are encroaching different areas and housing schemes in city, like Mehran Town, Bin Qasim Town, Baldia Town, Guddap Town Layari Town to name a few. These gangester groups are equipped with weapons and have got the support of government officials due to their afficialiation with different political parties.

In one set of allegations in Karnataka, a lake was filled in and government buildings torn down after illegal transfers to a developer by mafia-connected officials.^[25] Eminent domain laws, intended to procure private land at relatively low prices for public benefit or redistribution to poorer people under social justice programs, are abused to pressure existing landholders to sell land to a government entity, which transfers the land to developers at those low prices, and who in turn sell it back on the market at much higher prices.^[26][27]

Computerization of records relating to the classification of tracts and land ownership is a key tool in countering the illegal activities of land mafias, since it creates transparency on all information relating to a given parcel of land. This approach has been effective in Bangalore,^[28] but efforts to extend it elsewhere have sometimes met with strong resistance by land mafias, manifesting itself as bureaucratic inaction.^[29]

Focused vigilance in specific areas by government agencies has also acted as a deterrent to land mafia activities. For example, the land mafia in the Noida area, on the outskirts of Delhi, was reported to have illegally begun carving out plots for commercial sale on land identified by the Central Zoo Authority of India as the site for India's first Night Safari park.^[30] Subsequent to coverage in the press, vigorous legal action by the Greater Noida Authority reportedly led to this mafia alliance backing away from this theft, although it may have shifted its attention to illegally encroaching on land along the planned Taj Expressway, connecting Delhi and Agra, which is expected to become quite valuable once the highway is inaugurated.^[31]

See also

• Vohra Report
• Raj
• Licence Raj
• Indian mafia
• Corruption in India

References

Corruption in India Politics List of politicians in India charged with corruption Protests 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement Indian anti-corruption laws and enforcement Jan Lokpal Bill  · Right to Information Act · Right to Public Services legislation  · Whistleblower protection in India · Lokpal · Lokayukta International anti-corruption instruments and efforts United Nations Convention against Corruption · International asset recovery List of scandals List of scandals in India Prominent anti-corruption NGO's India Against Corruption Other Indian black money · Corruption Perceptions Index · Mauritius route · License Raj · Mafia Raj · Corruption in Mumbai