Mafia Raj
Encyclopedia
Mafia Raj refers to an economic and political situation in India
where public good
s, 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). 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.
In the Indian and Pakistan
i 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.
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
. 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. 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. 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.
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.
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. Terrorist groups have also joined the nexus in militancy-affected areas such as Kashmir. Clear-cutting is sometimes covered-up by conniving officials who report fictitious forest fires.
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. 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 crore
s (abour US$ 230 million). 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
.
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
.
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. 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.
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. Although a CBI
investigative report after the assassination stated that there was no contractor mafia involvement in Dubey's murder, his family and supporters maintained that an attempt at a cover-up was being made.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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
, but efforts to extend it elsewhere have sometimes met with strong resistance by land mafias, manifesting itself as bureaucratic inaction.
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. 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.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
where public good
Public good
In economics, a public good is a good that is non-rival and non-excludable. Non-rivalry means that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce availability of the good for consumption by others; and non-excludability means that no one can be effectively excluded from using the good...
s, property
Public property
Public property is property, which is dedicated to the use of the public. It is a subset of state property. The term may be used either to describe the use to which the property is put, or to describe the character of its ownership...
and funds are controlled and systematically embezzled by a criminalized nexus (or "mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
") of government officials, elected politicians, business interests and other entities (such as law-enforcement authorities, non-governmental organizations, trade unions or criminal organizations). The phenomenon of Mafia Raj is highly prevalent in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
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.
In the Indian and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i 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.
Coal Mafia
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
(now Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
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
Dhanbad
Dhanbad features climate that is transitional between a humid subtropical climate and a tropical wet and dry climate. Summer starts from last week of March and ends in mid-June. Peak temperature in summer can reach 47oC. Dhanbad also receives heavy rainfall...
. 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. 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. 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.
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.
Timber Mafias
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
, Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...
, Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
and Jharkhand, are vulnerable to illegal logging by timber mafias that have coopted or intimidated forestry officials, local politicians, businesses and citizenry. Terrorist groups have also joined the nexus in militancy-affected areas such as Kashmir. Clear-cutting is sometimes covered-up by conniving officials who report fictitious forest fires.
Many studies indicate large losses of forest cover to indiscriminate logging by timber mafias, with over a million hectares in the environs of Chhotanagpur
Chhotanagpur
Chhotanagpur is an area including the tribal areas of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal states in India. Many residents of the area identify with the name even though there is no political recognition of the area. A local dialect of Hindi called Nagpuri is common in the area....
alone being illegally transferred by the forest department directly to industrial, mining and logging companies. 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
Rupee
The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...
1,000 crore
Crore
A crore is a unit in the Indian number system equal to ten million , or 100 lakhs. It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan....
s (abour US$ 230 million). Veerappan
Veerappan
Koose Muniswamy Veerappan commonly known as Veerappan, was a notorious dacoit, or robber bandit, of India. He was active for a period of years in a broad swath of land covering 6,000 km² in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu...
was a notorious bandit who, until his shooting death by state police in 2004, specialized in illegally logging sandalwood
Sandalwood
Sandalwood is the name of a class of fragrant woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods they retain their fragrance for decades. As well as using the harvested and cut wood in-situ, essential oils are also extracted...
in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
.
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
Chir Pine
The Chir Pine, Pinus roxburghii, named after William Roxburgh, is a pine native to the Himalaya.The range extends from northern Pakistan , across northern India and Nepal to Bhutan.It generally occurs at lower altitudes than other pines in the Himalaya, from...
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
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
.
Contractor Mafias
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
while submitting expenses for cement) result in roads and highways being dangerous, and sometimes simply washed away when India's heavy monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
season arrives.
In a widely covered case, Satyendra Dubey
Satyendra Dubey
Satyendra Kumar Dubey was a project director at the National Highways Authority of India . He was murdered in Gaya, Bihar after fighting corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction project.-Early life:...
, 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
Golden Quadrilateral
The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network connecting India's four largest metropolises: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, thus forming a quadrilateral of sorts. Four other top ten metropolises: Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Surat, are also served by the network...
project to the Prime Minister's office. Although a CBI
Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation is a government agency of India that serves as a criminal investigation body, national security agency and intelligence agency. It was established on 1 April 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941...
investigative report after the assassination stated that there was no contractor mafia involvement in Dubey's murder, his family and supporters maintained that an attempt at a cover-up was being made.
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
Audit trail
Audit trail is a sequence of steps supported by proof documenting the real processing of a transaction flow through an organization, a process or a system.....
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
Municipal Corporation of Delhi
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is a municipal corporation, an autonomous body that governs 9 Districts of Delhi, in the state of Delhi, India. It is one of three municipal corporations in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the others being New Delhi Municipal Council, and Delhi...
is responsible.
Land Mafias
In the very same way, inside Pakistan and specially in the largest city of Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, 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
Mehran Town
Mehran Town is located in Korangi Industrial Area in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Mehran Town is about 1150 acer in area and consist of 9 sectors 6A-6I. It has Malir River North-South, National Refinary in East and Korangi Industrial Area in North-West.Merhran Town Housing Scheme was announced in...
, 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. Eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
laws, intended to procure private land at relatively low prices for public benefit or redistribution to poorer people under social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
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.
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
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, but efforts to extend it elsewhere have sometimes met with strong resistance by land mafias, manifesting itself as bureaucratic inaction.
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
Noida
Noida , short for the New Okhla Industrial Development Area, is an area in India under the management of the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority . Noida came into administrative existence on 17 April 1976 and celebrates 17 April as "Noida Day". It was set up as part of an urbanization...
area, on the outskirts of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, was reported to have illegally begun carving out plots for commercial sale on land identified by the Central Zoo Authority of India
Central Zoo Authority of India
The Central Zoo Authority of India is the body of the government of India responsible for oversight of zoos. It is an affiliate member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums ....
as the site for India's first Night Safari park. 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
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
, which is expected to become quite valuable once the highway is inaugurated.
See also
- Vohra ReportVohra ReportThe Vohra Report was submitted by the former Indian Union Home Secretary, N.N. Vohra, in October 1993. It studied the problem of the criminalisation of politics and of the nexus among criminals, politicians and bureaucrats in India....
- RajRajRaj and Rajya mean "royalty" or "kingdom" in many Sanskrit and Hindu languages, and may refer to:- Indian history :*British Raj, the British Empire in India...
- Licence RajLicence RajLicence Raj, the Permit Raj, refers to the elaborate licenses, regulations and accompanying red tape that were required to set up and run businesses in India between 1947 and 1990....
- Indian mafiaIndian mafiaThe term Indian mafia refers to certain criminal organizations found in some of India's major cities. The "Indian Mafia" also refer to powerful families that have criminal aspects to it.- Mumbai underworld :...
- Corruption in IndiaCorruption in IndiaPolitical, bureaucratic, corporate and individual corruption in India are major concerns. A 2005 study conducted by Transparency International in India found that more than 55% of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices...