Indian Whistle Blowers Who Took On the Rich and Powerful

Bangalore: Corruption has plagued our country but there still are a few who had the courage to raise a voice against corruption. These whistle blowers took on the rich and powerful. They exposed corruption at the cost of becoming targets, being routinely threatened or even murdered. Here are India’s whistle blowers to the corruption scams, as listed by Aditya Menon for India Today.

Hansraj Ahir (Exposed coal scam):

Hansraj Ahir, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Chandrapur, is the man who brought the coal scam into light.  Ahir's story begins in the early 1990s, when he was a municipal corporator in the Chandrapur district in Eastern Maharashtra, which had vast coal reserves. PV Narasimha Rao government at the Centre had started distributing blocks of coal to private companies as part of its efforts to dismantle the country's socialist economy. Ahir was quoted telling India Today "The state-owned Coal India began shrinking due to government apathy and hundreds lost their jobs in Chandrapur."

He added "There are 27 coal mines in Chandrapur. Coal blocks were being given away for free". After Ahir became part of the standing committee of Parliament on coal and steel in 2004, he wrote to the prime minister and finance minister in 2006 asking for the allocation of coal blocks via auction. He said "Initially, they were positive. By 2009, I realised that the government only wants to help private companies," as reported India Today. In November, 2010, Ahir informed the CAG that coal from the blocks allotted to private companies were not being used for production and was finding its way to the market. This complaint eventually blew cover over one of the biggest scams in India. Ahir said"Even the 1.86 lakh crore projected by the CAG might be an underestimation. The actual loss could be as much as 50 lakh crore.”