Water projects in Rayalaseema and for Chennai

SATHYA SAI BABA AND THE WATER PROJECTS
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Note: The water projects in Rayalaseema, Andhra Pradesh, Medak and Mahabubnagar, and the canal repair for Chennai financed by followers of Sathya Sai Baba and named after him are no doubt admirable for those who suffer water shortages and now receive more than before. Much was achieved, while much went wrong, and no one connected with Sathya Sai Baba is allowed to mention anything negative about these projects, which are widely promoted as 'Divine Miracles'. This article is therefore simply to help correct some of this totally one-sided propaganda. I repeat, this is not to denigrate the good intentions of those who donated (including myself!) nor whatever positive results have been achieved. (See here) Rather, it is simply to counterbalance the mendacious aspects of Sathya Sai baba projects and what most of the Indian media have become afraid to publish concerning anything critical of what government-protected Sathya Sai Baba says or does and so contributes to many public misconceptions.

Major deficiencies and wastage:
Sathya Sai Baba initiated the Rayalaseema Water Project, and though it was a huge and well-intentioned affair, it was nevertheless also seriously flawed and soon broke down all over the place. The water table fell during the planning (despite the repeated claims of Sai Baba that he is omniscient, omnipotent and that nothing to which he puts his will can ever fail!) As reported here: "However, the declined water table has rendered the infrastructure built for the scheme worthless. The work on Chitravati balancing reservoir going on at a snail's pace resulted in this situation. The irregularities and subsequent enquiries on the works have affected the Satya Sai Scheme." Nonetheless, Sathya Sai Baba had to ask the Andhra Pradesh state authorities (his devotees among them) to take over the entire running and further financing of the project at the taxpayer's expense. Sai followers around the world supported his call for a Water Project in Rayalaseema – donating quite huge sums (Rs. 3000 crores by 1998) and the original project involved river dams, reservoirs, wells, boreholes and over 2,500 kms of pipeline. Though he claims to have no money or property, he speaks of this project virtually as being at his own expense “If there is constraint of finance, I am prepared to meet the cost even if it is 100 or 200 crores for fulfilling this dire need of the Rayalaseema people.” (Sanathana Sarathi, 12/94, p. 323.) It is a fact that several major drinking water projects are now funded by The Sathya Sai Trust, like "Sathya Sai Ganga Canal" 200 crore water project which brought water from the River Krishna in Andhra Pradesh to Chennai, , on the Godavari River for the five hundred villages in East and West Godavari Districts, the Medak District Project, the Mahbubnagar District Project. These are valuable solutions to some of the water problems in Andhra and Tamil Nadu, but are actually dwarfed by other State-run and financed water projects.

My old friend V.K. Narasimhan told me in considerable detail how the Rayalaseema Water Project was botched, not least because Sathya Sai Baba forced it to open on his 70th birthday celebrations, just so that he could preside over its inauguration twice over with maximum fanfare by the Indian P.M. Narasimha Rao and again next day by the President of India, Dayal Sharma. The central pumping station broke down during the inaugural ceremony... very auspicious for an infallible avatar's miraculous project! Various sub-contractors delivered sub-standard materials and did poor work, while no one in any of the villages could be found to help maintain it. That is partly why it fell into the lap of the State political bureaucracy. Compare that project and his repeated proud trumpeting to this day of 'his project' with Bob Geldof's 'Food for Ethiopia' project, taking no credit himself other than 'it was my good luck to be there at the right time and place'! The Sai water project did not function 'at the right time and place', despite the claim was that it was yet another exhibition of this Avatar's almighty miraculous power that it came up and in time for his birthday. (His many building projects have been very widely promoted as being possible only by his personal miraculous intervention as miracles, such as the Poornachandra Hall, the SarvadharmaSthupa, the Dharmaksethra building in Mumbai, the so-called 'Super-speciality' Hospital in Puttaparthi and many other of his projects. MR. K. CHACKRAVATHY

There are often considerable losses of money through wrong investment by Sathya Sai Central Trust (long presided over autocratically by him), plus embezzlement and huge funds misspent on wasteful buildings (many have been pulled down and the site reused). No one can tell where the money not used is spend or placed, as the Trust publishes no details and any minutes (if kept at all) are highly secret. A complete absence of accountability operates throughout Sathya Sai officialdom in India (also to varying degrees in his organization in most other countries). Those relatively very few people who are properly aware about the extent and depth of corruption in India, the pay-offs, kick-backs and ingrained financial embezzlement throughout most of the country will not be surprised. Especially foreigners are kept in the dark as much as possible by a kind of public conspiracy (No one has explained this in greater detail than the famous Bengali, Nirad Chaudury). I write this simply to warn and try to redress some of the cover-ups about money matters in the Sai mini-empire, money which was pledged to raising the lot of the poor through education and help projects. I learned from IAS officer V. Ramnath and V.K. Narsasimhan that the man who was chosen as the overall leader of the Water project and its finances, Mr. K. Chackravathy had been forced to resign from the government in 1981 (i.e. 'sacked') and leave an Indian Administrative Service post he had held for 20 years because he was caught out in major embezzlement! He became the registrar of the Institute of Higher Learning and is now secretary of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, the fulcrum of Puttaparthi and is also head of the Prashanthi Nilayam ashram. He is no doubt rolling in millions. Asked about this kind of corruption once by the former head of the Indian canteen - a very long-serving strict Hindu - Sathya Sai Baba said to him 'God allows his cows to defecate where they will'. Rayalaseema water project handed over to AP government

Rayalaseema water project handed over to AP government

Incompetence and corruption of entrepreneurs beyond Sai Baba's omnipotent control?

"Divine resolve is always true resolve. Remember there is nothing that divine power cannot accomplish. It can transmute earth into sky and sky into earth. To doubt this is to prove that you are too weak to grasp great things, the grandeur of the universe.” (43rd birthday Discourse, 23 November 1968)The water project did begin in 1996, very unevenly and only in a fraction of the villages where it was supposed to be installed, leading to many disturbances by divers villagers in the Rayalaseema area variously reported in the local press. All that is carefully suppressed by the Sathya Sai authorities in their lavish hand-outs and web pages praising the project to heaven. Nonetheless, this has done a lot of good to some villagers. However, already in 1996, the Sathya Sai Rayalaseema Water Project was shown to be a considerable failure due to unforeseen natural circumstances, as the report from Andhra Pradesh Regional News Network showed (see whole article below). Further, he had not predicted - nor miraculously altered - what proved to be a drastically sinking water table nor on flawed engineering plans or corrupt entrepreneurs!

Despite claims of his omnipotent miraculous power, Sai Baba could not even predict the huge fall of the water table in Rayalaseema and the Anantapur District generally, let alone stop it. Further, he is reported by numerous devotees to have stopped rain from disturbing his activities and turned back floods when the Chitravati River overflowed and threatened his ashram. The propaganda about the water project as being Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘miracle’ goes on, even though he had to palm off the entire unmanageable and failing white elephant to the Andhra Pradesh government to sort out and try somehow to run. Unfortunately for the suffering population of the Anantapur region, the water table has continued to fall causing greater and greater shortages of water, as is the case throughout large areas of Andhra Pradesh.

Bogus claims of World Bank support by Sathya Sai Baba
In his discourse on Yugadi Day, 13 April 2002, (see here) Sathya Sai said:-

"So in Madras, rich people gave some money and are they are drinking good water. But the poor people and beggars, not having money in hand, are drinking polluted and dirty water, and are succumbing to diseases. I have the desire and have resolved to give pure water to them, to sacredly protect and develop their health, generation after generation, so they can be happy.

"Only yesterday, the three, Secretary, Mr. Chakravarthy, Mr. Srinivas from Madras and Mr. Indulal Shah from Bombay, went together to the authorities of the World Bank. They went and explained our sacred seva. They said that this is not merely our (selfish) service. It is seva (selfless service) that we do. We won't experience any results (benefit personally). We won't aspire for results. It is seva that is done without desiring for the results. I told these three this, and they went to the World Bank authorities and repeated these words parrot-like.

"All the authorities of the World Bank came here. They declared, "We have not heard about and we have not seen, in any place or in any country, this kind of seva. (Applause) Sathya Sai Baba is giving water like this to Madras which is somewhere else (far from Puttaparthi)." Today a phone call came saying that the World Bank authorities had said, "We will give the entire cost of this." (the project to supply drinking water to Madras) (Applause)

"See! On Ugadi day! Sacred results will come when there are sacred feelings.

"The Bank authorities said, "You don't need to think anymore (worry) at all. You don't need to come to us again. We will give help to you. We will give any number of crores." (One crore is ten million rupees.)

"How great it is that such an enthusiastic feeling came! Twelve hours have not yet passed. They came last night at 7PM. The phone call came at 7AM in the morning when I was coming out. Do you see?"

Despite these claims, there is absolutely no evidence in any of the World Bank's extensive web sites (as of June 2008) that any project of Sathya Sai Baba has received any loans from the World Bank. Loans are made to national states and a World Bank administration within that state distributes the loans to projects it support. These are of course listed in public. Neither the 'Sathya Sai Ganga Canal' project to repair water supply to Chennai - nor any other Sai Baba projects are registered with the World Bank.