Non-corporate affairs ministry?

...by the way

 

Non-corporate affairs ministry?

 

call it a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. But, the ways of our Government are mysterious, with one set of officials hell bent upon killing the ambitious investor education programme that was started with much fanfare through a wide network of Investor Associations empanelled with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Securities Exchange Board of India. As a result, today the entire funding for the programme is now distributed to various industry-sponsored organisations and professional institutions having no direct contact with the investors while investor associations are being shooed away. A case in point is of an investor association that worked on a MCA-sponsored project way back in 2009. On completion of the project, the body submitted a duly compiled report with a statement of accounts, enclosing all original bills and required certificates for release of funds. But submission of a project report does not necessarily mean release of funds as this association found out. Mr B P Bimal, Under Secretary in the Ministry, sat on the report for years together despite several written reminders. Waking up one afternoon, he informed the concerned investor association that the original file had gone missing and they would have to resubmit the same. Assuming his contention to be true, the association complied only to see Mr Bimal sit down once again on the file. After a considerable lapse of time, when an official of the association called upon Mr Bimal to remind him of the release of funds, he was curtly told that the wheels of change take time to move and he should “not disturb me in this regard, otherwise the payment will never get released”. Such delays are not limited to one investor association alone; many sulking bodies are refusing to take up new projects at the grassroots level due to the uncalled-for behaviour of junior officials. Will the Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Naved Masood, take any action or will all complaints be consigned to the dustbin?...Read More