Recession Continues to Hammer Local Construction Industry

Leaders of the local construction industry say the hard times that began in 2008 are continuing — with the unemployement rate among skilled laborers hovering between 20 and 25 percent.

“I think it’s been absolutely devestating,” said Jeff Abousie, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, “People have had to learn how to work out of town. People are taking those skills, and they’re going outside this region to work.”

Abousie says there are some local projects on the horizon. He cited the planned expanion of the GM plant in Wentzville, possible construction of the Emerald Automotive factory in Hazelwood, expansion of Mercy hospital and BJC. But there are no major plans for major office construction, as the area remains glutted with vacant office space.

“It’s not enough,” he said, “to put everyone back to work.”


Bill Brown, President and CEO of Ben Hur Construction
Echoing those concerns, Bill Brown, President CEO of Ben Hur Construction, says there’s a “wait and see” attitude about what might happen after the presidential election.

“Some folks would prefer a Republican adminstration just because of the regulations more friendly to the construction industry,” Brown said. Others, he noted, want to stay the coarse with the current adminstration because of it’s emphasis on green construction projects.

The Federal Reserve announcement that more money will be pumped into the economy was met with approval by those in the crowd.

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Obama's "Recovery" Worse Than the Recession By Tim Cavanaugh, Reason When this column was written, the smart money was once again saying that the bad times were behind us. “Nearly seven years after the housing bubble burst, most indexes of house prices are bending up,” David Wessel wrote in The Wall ... RealClearPolitics - Homepage

ECRI: “We Do Believe we are in Recession” | PRAGMATIC ... By Cullen Roche The ECRI is sticking to their recession call. The research firm with an excellent track record of forecasting recessions says the recent data does not mean. PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM

Since Recession's End, American Incomes Fall Most Since Great ... By Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert If, since the end of the recession, incomes fell more than during the recession, wouldn't that then mean that the recession never ended? This seems pretty straight-forward logic. So, why the false sense of recovery that is purported through an ... Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert

Recession Continues to Hammer Local Construction Industry « CBS ... By Kevin Killeen ST. LOUIS--(KMOX)--Leaders of the local construction industry say the hard times that began in 2008 are continuing -- with the unemployement rate among skilled laborers hovering between 20 and 25 percent. CBS St. Louis

Analyzing The ECRI Recession Call - Wall Street - eWallstreeter Sep 13, 2012 Lance Roberts This morning Lakshman Achuthan, chief operations officer of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, visited with Tom Keene on Bloomberg TV to discuss his ongoingrecession call for the U.S. Achuthan has taken ... eWallstreeter

Delta Subsidiary Cuts 63 Jobs at Buffalo Airport

Delta Subsidiary Cuts 63 Jobs at Buffalo Airport
Aviation

Regional Elite Airline Services, a Delta Air Lines subsidiary that provides various customer service services for Delta's regional carrier flights, has filed a WARN notice with the state indicating its 63 workers at Buffalo Niagara International Airport will lose their jobs by year's end.

The company is also cutting 51 jobs at Greater Rochester International Airport.

Earlier this year, Delta told Regional Elite it would move the work it does to other providers.

Delta Subsidiary Cuts 63 Jobs at Buffalo Airport WGRZ-TV ... Elite Airline Services, a Delta Air Lines subsidiary that provides various customer service services for Delta's regional carrier flights, has filed a WARN notice with the state indicating its 63 workers at Buffalo Niagara International Airport ... See all stories on this topic » WGRZ-TV

US airline cuts pay to duck bankruptcy Morning Star Online The judge gave the airline permission last week to throw out the pilots' old contract and impose its own working terms after pilots rejected a company offer. AA hopes to cut its annual wage bill by about $1 billion (£620m) with the changes. The airline ... See all stories on this topic »

American Airlines gives unions timetable for contract cuts Bizjournals.com “Where these plans involve the outsourcing and job reductions announced previously, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notices will be mailed to those who may be affected,” Lynn said. Page 1; 2. |View All. Matt covers ... See all stories on this topic »

 

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Honeywell CEO Says U.S. Risks Recession With Fiscal Cliff

The U.S. risks triggering a global recession unless the White House and Congress avert $1.2 trillion in spending cuts set for January, Honeywell International Inc. (HON) Chief Executive Officer David Cote said.
Congress agreed to the cuts as part of last year’s Budget Control Act in an attempt to require lawmakers who had reached a stalemate on lowering government debt to work out an agreement that would replace the across-the-board reductions.

David Cote, chief executive officer of Honeywell International Inc., talks about the global economy, the U.S. deficit and the outlook for Federal Reserve policy Cote speaks at the Bloomberg Markets 50 Summit in New York. (Source: Bloomberg)
U.S. debt should be curbed with long-term alterations, not abrupt changes, Cote, a member of President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction commission, said today at the Bloomberg Markets 50 Summit in New York. Congress’s wrangling over raising the debt ceiling last year has sapped confidence in politicians, Cote said.
“If the debt ceiling was playing with fire, this is playing with nitroglycerin,” he said. “There’s the opportunity for our government to spark a global recession with how they handle this fiscal cliff.”
The so-called cliff refers to the automatic spending reductions as well as the expiration of tax cuts approved under President George W. Bush, also set to end in January.
Companies are refraining from investments and hiring to see how Congress deals with the budget and the expiring tax breaks, and the delays hurt growth, said Cote. Last year, he criticized the debt-ceiling stalemate as causing “job destruction.”
Lost Decade
The U.S. needs to act now to avoid following Europe, which is in recession this year and risks repeating Japan’s so-called lost decade of scant growth, Cote said.
Cote said U.S. debt as a percentage of the economy is at its worst level since World War II and the country is accumulating debt at the same rate as Spain, which is grappling with austerity measures and bailouts.
The U.S. has avoided crisis so far because of the strong dollar and low interest rates as investors see the country as a safe haven, Cote said. The market could quickly turn against the U.S., he said.
“That stuff is true until it’s not,” Cote said. “When all of a sudden it’s not, it happens overnight. The herd turns against you.”
The government needs to make tough decisions to overhaul the tax system and benefit programs like Medicare, Cote said. The problem is the U.S., like other major democracies in Europe, Japan and India, suffers from gridlock, he said.
“Both sides need to go into it knowing the country is at stake,” he said. “This is not just some ideological argument.”

Lookback After QE3: ECB Outlook Commits to Recession for 2012 and Likely in ... DailyFinance The European Central Bank's outlook was hardly given notice as the world was focused on Ben Bernanke and the FOMC's new round of quantitative easing. The ECB is on the way down the path of its own quantitative easing via bond buying like our own ... See all stories on this topic »

US industrial production fell 1.2 percent San Francisco Chronicle Manufacturing helped lift the country out of the Great Recession, but it slowed in the spring as consumers cut back on spending, businesses invested less in machinery and demand for U.S. exports was hurt by a global weakness. U.S. factory activity ... See all stories on this topic »

A recovery no better than the recession GalesburgPlanet.com The median income of American households decreased by as much in the two years after the official end of the Great Recession as it did during the recession itself. The latest estimates from the Census Bureau show that the median income for U.S. ... See all stories on this topic »

Macedonia slips into recession, suffers slump in industrial output Washington Post SKOPJE, Macedonia — Macedonia's State Statistics office has confirmed that the Balkan country is in recession, after reporting a second consecutive quarter of negative growth. The agency on Friday reported 0.9 percent negative growth in the second ... See all stories on this topic »

Homebuilders in UK Defy Recession in Cameron Rescue: Mortgages Bloomberg Homebuilders in U.K. Defy Recession in Cameron Rescue: Mortgages. By Chris Spillane and Jeff St.Onge - 2012-09-14T08:31:15Z. The U.K. is mired in its second recession in three years and business confidence is at a record low. You wouldn't know it from ... See all stories on this topic »

Americans Continue to Struggle Post-Recession U.S. News & World Report (blog) In 2009, when the recession ended, median household income was $52,195, and in 2011 (the most recent year available), it was $50,054, a decline of 4.1 percent. Back in 2007, before the recession, median household income was $54,489. That leads Pew... See all stories on this topic » U.S. News & World Report (blog)

Financial crisis, recession cost U.S. $12.8 trillion Mail Tribune WASHINGTON — The financial crisis and the Great Recession have taken a heavy toll on the U.S. Now one advocacy group says it has calculated that cost: at least $12.8 trillion. The estimate Wednesday from Better Markets, a public interest group that ... See all stories on this topic »

Recession 2013 Looks More Likely After Weak Jobs Report (IWM, SPY, DIA ... ETF Daily News (blog) Much of the economic growth of the United States after the recession in 2000 that occurred before the onslaught of The Great Recession was related to the housing market. As The Great Recession has clearly demonstrated, that was a result of a low... See all stories on this topic » ETF Daily News (blog)

Honeywell CEO Says U.S. Risks Recession With Fiscal Cliff Bloomberg The U.S. risks triggering a global recession unless the White House and Congress avert $1.2 trillion in spending cuts set for January, Honeywell International Inc. (HON) Chief Executive Officer David Cote said. Congress agreed to the cuts as part of ... See all stories on this topic »

Mortgages Slump as Double-Dip Recession Bites Sky News The UK's mortgage market has slumped to levels last seen more than two years ago as the effects of a double-dip recession take hold, according to new research. House purchase loans fell 8% year-on-year last month to 48,913 - the third worst August for ... See all stories on this topic »

Check this before you invest in debt mutual funds!

Many AMCs take large exposure to debt instruments from a selected few sectors, thereby exposing its investors to high risks. Hence it is advisable that the investors should look into the portfolio characteristics, returns delivered and track record apart from investment time horizon while investing in a debt schemes.

Excess of anything is bad. This tenet holds true in our daily lives as well as to a large extent in the financial arena too. For instance, if you have excess of sweets you might develop a condition wherein your body does not produce enough insulin or the cells do not response to insulin that is produced. This results in serious ill effects on your health. Similarly, when financial products are tweaked to make them more complex and sophisticated due to financial exuberance, it turns detrimental to the investors' financial health. Complex financial products may have appeal due to their aesthetic value, but when it comes to delivering returns, they falter either due to very high risks (occurring due to unwarranted financial innovation) or imprudent fund management. Another example worth mentioning here is debt mutual funds; as the characteristic of the portfolio held by them determines, the investment proposition it offers. In the recent past it has been observed that many mutual fund houses in their debt mutual fund schemes have been taking large exposure to debt instruments from a selected few sectors, thereby exposing its investors to high risks.

Citing this over exposure debt mutual funds which often bankroll builders, finance firms and struggling businesses like aviation, the capital market regulator - Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked fund houses to refrain from taking overexposed positions in any single sector. Recently, the capital market regulator SEBI told several fund houses, though verbally, that their new fund offerings would be cleared only after they promise not to put more than 30% of the money in a particular industry. Debt mutual funds constitute well over 60% of mutual funds' (MF) Assets Under Management (AUM).

SEBI is yet to come out with final guidelines on exposure limits. It is also unclear whether the proposed rules will apply to existing schemes as well. And if existing schemes are kept out, then the New Fund Offerings (NFOs) will be at a clear disadvantage. If existing debt mutual funds are not asked to reduce their investments, which are concentrated in a few sectors, their yields will be much higher than the new debt mutual funds with capped exposure limits.

Several fund houses including JP Morgan Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual, Indiabulls Mutual, Religare, Sundaram Mutual Fund, BNP Paribas Mutual and DSP BlackRock, among others, have applied for NFOs of open-ended funds over the past six months. These funds, according to industry sources, could raise anywhere between Rs 4,000 crore and Rs 8,000 crore during NFO phase. Approvals are still awaited for some of the NFO plans.

We are of the view that, SEBI has taken steps in the right direction in order to curtail the overexposure to certain sectors by the debt mutual funds. Certainly overexposure to a few sectors or debt instruments exposes investors to high risk. However, in some cases overexposure by the fund is well compensated by commensurate returns generated by the fund. Thus, investors while selecting debt mutual funds should also look into the portfolio characteristics as well and the consistency with which returns are generated and track record apart from knowing their investment time horizon.

Moreover, we also think the decision to cap the exposure limits of debt mutual funds should be levied on both - new as well as existing mutual funds, and not only on new funds, in order to avoid any disparity and induce a risk control mechanism. Debt mutual funds provide an important diversification to one's mutual fund portfolio since it provides exposure to a different asset class. Moreover, using it for right asset allocation can help shield one's portfolio from the volatility of the equity markets.

SBI Mutual Fund announces distribution tie-up with Ratnakar Bank Economic Times Commenting on the development, Nitin Chopra, Head - Retail and Consumer Banking, Ratnakar Bank said, "Distribution of mutual funds is an important initiative taken by the bank to offer new asset classes to the customers and expand the bank's product ... See all stories on this topic »

Why Mutual Fund Investors Should Care About the iPhone 5 U.S. News & World Report Unless you spent Wednesday under a rock, you probably heard about the unveiling of the iPhone 5. If you don't plan on waiting in line for the phone, you might have drowned out the news. But if you own a mutual fund, chances are you have more invested ... See all stories on this topic » U.S. News & World Report

Many MF investors will need to update KYC now mydigitalfc.com Mutual fund investors who have completed know your customer (KYC) formalities prior to January 1, through CDSL Ventures have to provide additional personal information and have to go for in-person verification (IPV) by November 30 to be able to invest ... See all stories on this topic »

Should you Follow Fund Managers Chasing Returns? Investorplace.com Recently mutual and hedge funds are “chasing returns” in order to catch up to their benchmarks. This means funds are buying stocks for the sole purpose of being more fully invested in order to keep up with their benchmark returns. Since benchmarks are ... See all stories on this topic »

Check this before you invest in debt mutual funds! Moneycontrol.com Another example worth mentioning here is debt mutual funds; as the characteristic of the portfolio held by them determines, the investment proposition it offers. In the recent past it has been observed that many mutual fund houses in their debt mutual ... See all stories on this topic »

Reliance Mutual Fund in distribution tie-up with IOB Economic Times Reliance Mutual Fund, a part of Reliance Capital, today said it has entered into a distribution tie-up with IOB. MUMBAI: Reliance Mutual Fund, a part of Reliance Capital, today said it has entered into a distribution tie-up with Indian Overseas Bank (IOB). See all stories on this topic »

Diversified equity funds safe bet for new entrants mydigitalfc.com This might seem surprising to a lot of people because most people think that the best-performingmutual funds should be the first choice for the portfolio, but this need not be the case. There is a need to match your needs with the mutual fund features ... See all stories on this topic »

Japan mutual funds value inches up, weak performance offsets inflow Reuters TOKYO, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The asset value of Japanese mutual funds inched up in August, its third consecutive monthly gain, as investors bought into less risky bond funds, but overall performance was lower due to dividend payouts by equity funds, ... See all stories on this topic »

Aviva Exiting China Mutual Fund Market Barron's (blog) Aviva Plc is exiting the $380 billion mutual fund business in China, ending a five-year effort to win a license to operate a fund, according to sources close to the situation. As Reuters reports (via the Chicago Tribune) the British insurer is the ... See all stories on this topic »

MF equity managers cut bank exposure Business Standard Mutual fund equity managers have heavily cut their exposure in banking shares, of late. The cut is in excess of 100 basis points, the sharpest fall in recent months. With slowdown blues hitting growth, issues of rising non-performing assets (NPAs) and ... See all stories on this topic »

Indian aviation industry second biggest loser after US

• Aviation Today :: Aviation Industry Set to Defy Recession

  www.aviationtoday.com/pr/22150.html

  Thursday, May 22, 2008. Aviation Industry Set to Defy Recession Sharon Valencik

• Adapting to the Downturn - AviationPros.com

  www.aviationpros.com/article/10373369/adapting-to-the-downturn

  Pat Epps, president of 48-year-old Epps Aviation, based in Atlanta, GA, says the economic recession has fuel sales down 16-25 percent from 2007.

• Indian aviation industry second biggest loser after US - CIOL News ...

  www.ciol.com/Enterprise/News-Reports/Indian-aviation-industry...

  NEW DELHI, INDIA:India's civil aviation industry is the second largest loser after the US due to the recession worldwide and the government can, indeed, help by ...

• Kingfisher sacks 300 employees - Business News - IBNLive

  ibnlive.in.com/news/hit-by-recession-kingfisher-sacks-300...

  With the recession in the aviation sector worldwide, private Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines on Tuesday said it had deferred deliveries of a number of Airbus ...

  
  

  

  
  

• Aviation Copes With Recession - By Ben Boulden Times Record ·

  www.aviationservicesdirectory.com/permalink.php?id=140

  07/21/09 10:43AM: Arkansas Aviation, General Aviation, Mena Airport, Recession:Aviation Copes With Recession By Ben Boulden Times Record · Professionals in the ...

• Recession hits aviation industry « Indian Aviation

  aviatingindia.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/recession-hits-aviation...

  19-04-2009 · Hyderabad: The ongoing recession is expected to result in severe losses for airlines in 2009, particularly for the private players, which comprise 75 per ...

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

• Three reasons airlines in India will come out strongest from the ...

  simpliflying.com/...india-will-come-out-strongest-from-the-recession

  ... bad times have not resulted in a disregard for customer service in Indian aviation. ... Did someone forget to tell these airlines that “we’re in a recession”?

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

List of 18 MURDERS by Sant Shri Asaram Ji Bapu in ashram List of Murders In Asaram bapu ashram

In Virngham ashram which is apx. 1 hour from Ahmedabad sadhak named ZANDU (real name Narender, as asaram changes names in is cult), who came from MP. 2yrs ago on Sunday was murdered. He was sanchalak of Virangham ashram. No FIR about the murder was ever written, after murdering criminals of asaram called asaram that Zandu is dead now what do with dead body, then asaram told them to NIPTA lo mamla. Bidhisa was there. Asaram was in his Ahmedabad ashram.

Amor Bhai (Pile Vastra wala, there is another Amor also but this is the one who was given yellow clothes to wear) about 7 yrs ago his age was around 35 at that time Near Surat there is an ashram, he was sanchalak. He saw asaram in sexual exploitation and he didn’t wanted to be in ashram. Asaram told sadhaks to beat him brutally that he was dead. Asaram himself got his ritual done in Ahmedabad ashram itself, & in front of sadhaks he said he was stealing from ashram & now he couldn’t bear the pain of stealing so did suicide. Vanzara helped him to rush up the murder case. Body was given fire ritual and body finished. NO FIR, NO complaint. But there are over 37 witnesses who saw this murder.

Naresh Murder age 10-11yrs.- Ahmedabad – They were two bothers from mujaffurnagar, their Mother / Father started living in ashram & at that time asaram had no gurukul to brainwash so kids used to go outside to study in school. This story is apx. 10 yrs ago in Ahmedabad Naresh was murdered in ashram but ashram said he did suicide. 10 yrs old kid did suicide ? why ? No police complaint? No FIR ? Asaram ashram did fire ritual of the body. Witnesses are out of his ashram & some are still there. story can be confirmed with anyone who is associated with Ahmedabad ashram from 10 yrs.

Naresh Trivedi - Asaram used to call him CID as he was used to give information about other ashram inmates to asaram. He used to work as angad sewak, & used to read books for asaram so asaram can raata maro those things to speak in his pravachans. The day he was murdered asaram told ashram wasi there in Rishikesh that he has drowned in gunga river. nadi mein doob kar mar gaya hai.

Vashi -From Bombay – his sister still lives in ashram and under illusion of asaram. He used to work in rishi Prasad in day & in night he was security man of ashram. murdered in ashram because he was protesting his sisters misuse 7 sexual exploitation but after murdering Asaram said nadi mein doob kar mar gaya. mari gaya to zinda kar do kya ?

Balalk das maharaj – Karol bagh ashram – he used to run this ashram & asaram promised him he will give him 5 lakh if gives this ashram to him. he agreed but Asaram moved in and before asaram could pay him out asaram ordered his murder through poison. Goverdhan & Ram bhai jattadhari, Ashok bhai bhandari (vaid) (he is asaram in chetna ke swar) ne zahar de kar maar diya & asaram took over the forest land where ashram was there, then later asaram expanded the coverage of land by himself as whole land is of forest department of government & no construction can be done but asaram still has the possession of the land.

Variayo – Rajokri ashram – He came from Orrisa and was working to construct rajokri ashram in 2002 one night snake had bitten him. ashram people had called Kaka mani in Karol bagh that snake had bitten him 7 we need to take him to hospital. Kaka mani said we will look into this in the morning, no need to worry he is chotta jaati ka aadmi. In the morning ashram people took him to hospital where he was declared dead, Narayan sai in Karol bagh ashram touched the body and said main isko zinda kar sakta hoon, par agar yeh zindda ho gaya to sukhi nahin rahega saari zindagi, zinda karoon kya ? People around him said no. They then took the dead body for fire ritual, narayan sai asaram bapu’s son gave kandha for a minute & kaka mani took the body to cremation ground. They got rid of the body easily. poor parents had came from Orrisa but were no even offered water in ashram & they were told your son ne sadgadhi prapt kar li hai kyonki narayan sai ne kandha diya hai usko.

Ahilya AYARI – Durbhungha – bihar – narayan sai told village people that he can make any one bring to life even though if he dead with sanke bit. village people came & told him we have our daughter dead two days ago and we have buried the child in ground can you make her alive ? narayan said yes bring the dead body to me. whole village went back but half of village people didn’t came under superstition so they stopped parents to take the dead body from ground. parents came back to naryan sai ashram & told him to do his pooja in cremation ground itself so come with them. Narayan sai got scared as he knew he can’t bring that dead girl to life because he wanted that child to bring to ashram o he can eat the flesh, but how will he do it there in front of people. so he sent one another tantrik from ashram with pipal ki leaves. But in cremation ground dead body was taken out tantrik of asaram & narayan put people leaves in nose & ear nothing happened. Villagers got agitated they went back to ashram to kill narayan for playing with their feelings but narayan fled to Nepal that night. this story was published in local news paper of Durbhungha. It just shows asaram & narayan have pattern of murders & then playing with dead bodies. Both have no feelings for dead alive people. This is why parents of so many people are victims who are asking for their son & daughter back from his ashram.

Jaswant singh s/o Pratap singh – Rajokri delhi. Three teenagers were in ashram and ashram people got hold of them thinking they are here to steal. They tied them up upside down on tree to all three, & were beating them, in the mean time asaram came to give his speech, all who were beating went there and forgot that kids are still hanging on tree. By the time they came back one was dead. they threatend the two and told them to run away. Then dead body was taken to kapoor’s warehouse in najafgarh. From there after two day the dead body was taken to haridwaar in ashram, cut in pieces then put in bag then thrown in gunga. Police still can’t find body. eventhoguh 6 people were caught they admitted in their bayan yes the jaswant is dead, but his motorcycle was planted at new delhi rly station and declared he has gone outside of delhi. Pratap ji still doesn’t know his son is dead, it’s hard for us to reveal to him. so please atleast inform him. He is still hoping for the son to be back from asaram ashram or facts to be revealed to him.

Chindwara – two kids murdered – Shadow coverup of case by parents under the influnece of asaram.

Ahmedabad – Abhisheikh, Deepesh Vaghela – Two cousins murdered of Vaghela – details will come soon.

From couple of years ago asaram is brainwashing educated people & thier parents come up with legal cases against asaram so to protect himself Asaram has made a contract paper it is called  ajjevan daan paper which he gets signed from brainwashed fanatics once they are brainwashed & are manipulated to live in ashram. it says now they ar giving thier life to asaram. HUMM  think about it.  what will you do if your own family member or son gets involved with asaram.

Tags: asaram bapu ashram, asaram bapu list of murders, asaram bapu murder, ASARAM MURDERED

Cult & Controversy: the story of Asaram ashram

For the phenomenally influential religious guru, Asaram Bapu, his 37-year-long spiritual career had never been a cakewalk and the four mysterious deaths in his ashramss here and in Madhya Pradesh and the public ire he has been courting are only the latest that he hopes to shrug off.
His spiritual domain is spread across 300 ashrams throughout India, as also in the US, with lakhs of his followers and admirers flooding his commune with funds. Sixty-seven-year-old Bapu has even delivered a speech at the parliament of world religions.

Few controversies connected with his ashrams have invited media attention the way the deaths of four children in his two ashrams — in Ahmedabad and Chhindwara — did in just one month. His ashram, in both the cases, is facing serious problems, with investigators finally getting down to grilling inmates of the ashrams in connection with the deaths.
Asaram Bapu may not have had to look back ever since he set up his first kutia or hutment in Motera village here in 1971, but the path had all along been strewn with scandals.
Sindh-born Asaram, who had migrated to Ahmedabad with his parents during Partition, is facing about dozen-odd cases at different places — all of them pertaining to alleged land grabbing by his Sant Asaram Bapu Trust. One of the villagers in Motera, Ashok Thakore, has moved the court to get back five acres of his family’s land allegedly grabbed by the ashram. According to Thakore, the land is situated adjoining the ashram and was used for erecting tents on the Guru Purnima day. Permission to this effect was given by his father to the ashram. After his father’s death, the ashram grabbed it by saying that Thakore’s father had ‘gifted’ it to the ashram. However, the ashram has not been able to substantiate its claim with proofs.
In another case, Anil Vyas, a farmer from Jehangirpura village near Surat, where the ashram is facing several allegations of land grabbing, is fighting a prolonged battle for recovery of his 34,400 square metres of prime land from the ashram. According to Vyas, despite the fact that the ashram’s claim over the land was challenged in the court, the state Government regularised the unauthorised encroachment on January 24, 1997. However, the Gujarat High Court on December 8, 2006, held the regularisation illegal and decreed in favour of the farmer. The Ashram then appealed to the Division Bench against the order.
A Delhi-based widow, Sudarshan Kumari, is also fighting a legal battle against Asaram Bapu whose Trust, she alleges, had fraudulently got some papers signed by her. The paper later turned out to be a ‘gift deed’ to the ashram. The documents say that she has gifted the ground floor of her house in Rajouri Garden, New Delhi, to the ashram. According to her complaint, on July 6, 2000, on the pretext of taking her to Asaram satsang, she was taken to the office of Sub Registrar in Janakpuri, New Delhi. One of the inmates of the ashram, identified as Mani Kaka, hypnotised her and made her sign a number of documents, without allowing her to go through the content. The other person who signed the papers there, according to her, was Narayan Swamy, son of Asaram Bapu. She came to know about the gift deed when officials from the Municipal Committee of Delhi came to confirm it.
The ashram authorities at Rajokri village, near Gurgaon, have allegedly forged documents pertaining to the registration of the ashram. Bhagwani Devi, a resident of Rajokri, has also approached the Delhi High Court levelling allegations of land grabbing against Asaram’s Rajokri ashram.
Even Government agencies have levelled allegations of land grabbing against Asaram’s Trust. A few months ago, the Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts (BSBRT) had served a notice to the Trust’s headquarters in Ahmedabad, asking it to vacate a land belonging to BSBRT, worth Rs 80 crore. And in April 2007, a retired judge of the Patna High Court had filed a criminal complaint in Kadamkuan police station, Patna, alleging grabbing of his land by Asaram Bapu and others.
In Ratlam, Asaram’s Trust had to vacate a piece of land after a prolonged litigation. In January 2007, power theft amounting to Rs 4.7 lakh was detected from his Rajkot ashram.
Despite all these cases and allegations, Asaram Bapu’s popularity is on the rise — particularly among the ruling party politicians in the state. “It is due to the clout of Asaram that no criminal case was registered against any of his ashram-members nor was anyone from the ashram arrested after the two boys of his gurukuls died under mysterious circumstances,” said a rebel BJP leader, requesting anonymity.
The popularity of Asaram can be gauged from the fact that his photographs can be spotted in every government office across the state and even state transport corporation’s buses display his photos and messages.
When the Gujarat Government in 2005 decided to rejuvenate the Saraswati river by filling long tracts of land considered to be the vestiges of the mythical river at Sidhpur town in Mehsana district, Asaram Bapu was the chief guest at the launch of the project. Though there are other religious leaders in the state, inviting him to such a high-profile programme as the chief guest explains the popularity of the man among the ruling party.
Again, when the state Government temporarily launched Vande Gujarat TV channel, telecasting its developmental achievements on the eve of December 2007 Assembly polls, the channel regularly carried footages of Asaram Bapu.
This explains the clout of Asaram Bapu whose religious movement has taken the shape of a cult, having followers in every section of the society. With his influence growing, there are many politicians, including Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, visiting his ashram regularly.



Asaram Ashram Scam