Kolkata: Kolkata continued to play with fire when the record room of the West Bengal government-run Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) was destroyed in a blaze on Sunday. A state minister later called it a case of sabotage.
"At a time when the government is trying to revive the loss-making transport corporation, comes this fire. This is a clear case of sabotage. During the previous regime, a huge amount of money had been siphoned off from the CSTC, and to prevent this scam from getting known, this blaze has occurred," said Transport Minister Madan Mitra.
The minister has also announced setting up of a three-member probe team to look into the matter.
"The record room is just beside the CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) office and the day we were to make a surprise visit here comes this fire. A three-member team has been ordered to probe the matter and submit its report within 72 hours," added Mr Mitra.
He also said that no union office will be allowed within the vicinity of a transport corporation office or depot.
The fire which broke out at the CSTC depot in Belghoria in the north of the city was doused after an hour. Four fire tenders were pressed into service. No injury has been reported. A large portion of the record room was damaged. The CITU office was also partially burnt.
Sunday's incident is the latest in Kolkata. On March 21, a blaze broke out at the emergency department of the SSKM Hospital - the largest state-run referral hospital in West Bengal.
Kolkata has also witnessed two big fire tragedies in the past two years. Ninety-four people died when a fire broke out at the AMRI Hospital in the city Dec 9, 2011. On March 23, 2010, a fire broke out at the 150-year-old Stephens Court building, in which 24 people were killed -- another 13 yet remain untraced.
"Where does the political party gets its funds from? Come on, I've been in Parliament for four years. Its not cheques, its not by small members. All money comes in through black money. Black money doesn't come from heaven," Bajaj Auto Chairman said addressing a CII conference here.
However, he maintained that the Bajaj family does not fund parties in cash and pays only through cheques to ensure accountability.
He further hinted that promoters of companies also indulge in diverting some of the company's money illegally turning it into black money in the economy.
"Corporates do take it out from the company. Most of us know some of the ways of taking that money out ... taking out black money from a company is cheating minority shareholders," he said.
Bajaj's comments come even as a debate rages nationally over black money of Indians stashed in Swiss Bank accounts, with demands being made to get the money--quantum of which is unknown but speculated to be huge--back to India.
Bajaj said principles of corporate governance cannot help if the top management of a company, including its promoters, chairmen and CEOs, is corrupt and further expressed regret that nobody likes to talk about this facet.
The ex-president of industry body CII also made public his reservations clear about the role of industry associations, naming CII and FICCI. He said they take no action against its members indulging in corruption and do not even censure the wrongdoers.
However, he also spoke against the prevailing "presumption" in Government to see every promoter as a "crook" and asked for better legislative systems to boost the economic climate.
"One bad egg should not mean that you shackle the entire corporate sector. The 95 per cent who do business well should not suffer," he said, pointing out to the Satyam case involving R Raju and the company's external auditors PricewaterHouse Coopers.
"Raju shamed us, PwC shamed the auditing fraternity. That (PwC's misdoings) was either corruption or downright incompetence," he added.
On independent directors, he said, many-a-time, they are cronies appointed by the promoters themselves. Independent directors should decide whether "to be led or to lead", he said.
