Let me come to brasstacks. Let me not talk of kings and cabbages or shoes and shoes laces. For fun, let me talk of rats and termites.
PTI had reported a couple of days back the loss of Rs. one crore to the State Bank of India (SBI), Barabanki branch in UP, as if it was a scam like the Commonwealth Games (CWG) or 2G spectrum, though not of that magnitude. In all these cases of “eating money” the government exchequer was the loser. However, the only difference is that in the case of CWG and 2G spectrum, the money was eaten by humans like Kalmadi, A. Raja and others while in the case of SBI, it was eaten by termites!
The Report:
Barabanki (UP), Apr. 22 - Currency notes worth Rs. one crore kept in a chest of State Bank of India's Barabanki branch have been damaged and the suspect is none other than the mighty termite.
The information regarding damage to currency notes by termites has been given to the RBI, Geeta Tripathi, SBI Regional Manager, told reporters here.
The damaged notes, gnawed by the termites, were found in the chest on Wednesday.
It is not yet known, if the authorities have caught hold of the suspect who was the mighty termite or he was allowed to escape to a foreign country, like it happened with Quattrocchi of Bofors fame.
The PTI report does not say if a high - level committee headed by a retired Chief Justice has been constituted to enquire into the incident and submit its report after one year, with scope for extension of the period to submit the report.
According to another report, one former Chief Justice, who was admired during his term on the Bench for his good sense of commitment to the government cause (and cases), when approached to head the Committee, had said that he would certainly serve the motherland but on condition his status should be that of the Minister of State at the Centre with all the benefits and protocol that accrue to that position, including the pennant of tricolour and the beacon light on the roof of his car, pilot vehicles and guntoting security. The government is said to be inclined to agree considering his service to a Cabinet Minister while on the bench.
Whatever it be, money is money. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's. Therefore, no matter the cost of recovery is more than the money eaten, the money must be recovered or those who ate the money must be sent to Tihar jail. Let us now wait for a follow - up report from PTI.
As I was musing on the mighty termite which has infested the SBI branch as also all branches of our administration, I was reminded of what I read in a book titled “The Honest Always Stand Alone” by a former Central Government bureaucrat C. G. Somiah. While serving in Mayurbhanj district in Orissa, Somiah too was faced with a similar problem, though slightly different from the SBI branch of Barabanki in UP. Here the culprit was caught red - handed — the rats. I had mentioned about it in this column last year but I shall recount it here for the benefit of those who might not have read it. Somiah narrates this incident in detail with an undercurrent of humour and let me reproduce it with needed editing to make the narration brief:
"One Sunday morning, while I was relaxing in my house, the Additional District Magistrate, who was my deputy, came to my residence in an agitated manner. He told me that, on opening the treasury strongroom for his monthly inspection, he saw that rats had got into the room and had damaged the revenue stamps stored there. I asked him about the safety of the currency and he replied that it was safe as it was locked in the currency chest. I told him to consult the treasury code and inform all concerned about the damage to the stamps, as prescribed in the code.
The next day he told me that he had made an inventory of the damage in the prescribed form in triplicate, sending one copy each to the Commissioner of the Division, the Finance Department and the Accountant General (AG), Orissa. I forgot about this incident in the rush of work until I got a letter from the AG's office two months later asking for a clarification as to why the rats had attacked only the higher denomination stamps and not the lower, although they were stacked alongside. I initialed the letter and sent it down to the officer for putting up a suitable draft reply. Two reminders followed from the AG's office and both of them were sent to the officer for action. Finally, I got a demi - official letter from the AG, chiding us for the delay in furnishing a reply and threatening to include the item as an audit para if an immediate reply was not forthcoming.
In the old days, officers were generally afraid of an audit para against them and I sought the explanation of the Additional Collector for the delay in replying. He appeared before me scratching his head and he said that he had no adequate answer to the query raised by the audit. I smiled, appreciating his difficulty and calling for my stenographer, I proceeded to dictate a reply to the AG. I expressed regret for the delay in replying to the audit query and then, tongue – in - check, I wrote that on receiving his irate reminder, I had gone to the treasury strongroom, called a meeting of the rats who had damaged the stamps, and the king rat had replied that they nibbled only the higher denomination stamps since they found the gum behind these stamps to be sweeter! I later learnt that, on receiving the reply, the AG's office exploded in laughter and that was the end of the audit objection."
Now let us keep our fingers crossed to see if like the rats' case that ended in laughter, how the termites' case would end — with laughter or at Tihar jail.
