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STATES: RAJASTHAN
Gross Irregularities
After a complete
study, a public hearing was held in April. Taking the charges levelled
by the villagers seriously, Gehlot ordered an inquiry by the Rajsamand
collector. Significantly, the collector's team was selective in
its findings. It said 15 works were non-existent but did not mention
nine others. Unconvinced, the MKSS demanded a fresh probe, the result
of which was the formation of the Banna Lal Committee.
INTERVIEW:
ARUNA ROY
"Transparency sorts out problems" |
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 Magsaysay
Award winner and Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan activist Aruna
Roy spoke to Principal Correspondent Rohit Parihar.
Excerpts:
Q. How important is the Banna Lal report?
A. It is a milestone as it establishes how the right to
information can expose widespread corruption.
Q. Are you satisfied with the implementation
of the Right to Information Act?
A. People are still not getting information. Grassroots
officials send false compliance reports.
Q. The Government says there are not
too many people demanding information.
A. Whosoever demands it must get it.
Q. Do people have time for the effort
the MKSS has put in Janawad?
A. There are many lone fighters against corruption. The
Government has to make them succeed.
Q. The chief minister has not made the
property statements of his ministers public...
A. He should. Transparency never creates problems, it
only sorts them out.
Q. Politicians can still connive to
ensure a cover up or blackmail...
A. Blackmailers have access to the best of secrets. Once
people get information easily, they will demand accountability
from politicians.
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Among other things, the committee found
that 49 of 141 construction works worth Rs 31.28 lakh were never
taken up; 51 others worth Rs 31.72 lakh were still unfinished but
shown as completed while Rs 4.48 lakh was spent on private property
and religious places. And this, as Banna Lal points out, was just
in one panchayat. "Extend it to the 9,186 panchayats in the
state and the scale of irregularities will be enormous."
The range of frauds unearthed was wide.
Muster rolls were forged, people were shown as working at two places
simultaneously and old buildings were passed off as new. There were
irregularities in the Indira Awas Yojana too. People who already
owned houses were given house loans.
Despite these findings and the success
of the MKSS campaign, the efficacy of the Right to Information Act
is a still debatable. Although Panchayati Raj Minister C.P. Joshi
insists that the Government is "keen" to provide information
to those who ask for it, Roy disagrees. She has brought to the notice
of the Government 20 instances where she was denied information.
"It has not developed a mechanism to know if the Act has been
adhered to and whether false compliance reports were not being sent,''
she says. Besides, there is no provision to punish those who do
not give information.
Accessibility to data apart, there's the
question of adequate action. MKSS activist Nikhil Dey says there
was little accountability in the Government's action in Janawad
and that it shied away from punishing those in supervisory roles.
Joshi feels differently. "A collector cannot be made responsible
for every work undertaken in his district,'' he says.
Although the MKSS is still debating the
matter, it has embarked on other campaigns. It is encouraging locals
to seek information on the expenses incurred on Rajiv Gandhi schools
at the panchayat level. It will also go to the cities to motivate
educated people to demand information on development works. Under
public scrutiny will be questions as elementary as why a particular
road was washed off by the first showers and why power cuts were
persisting despite the much-hyped reforms. As Joshi says, the Government
had better keep its answers ready.
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