The Times of India: Patna: Tuesday, July 31, 2012.
Many top district authorities have lately been goaded into action to improve the implementation of different public welfare schemes that got mired into controversy, thanks to the activism of the State Information Commission (SIC).
Several incidents of irregularities, corruption and embezzlement of funds in flagship schemes like MNREGA and Indira Awas Yojna at the panchayat, block and district level were brought before the SIC by RTI activists. Acting swiftly on those complaints, the SIC ordered the DMs of some districts to hold inquiries into the matter. The inquiry reports found the allegations true.
RTI applicants in such cases did not get information from the information officers (IOs) concerned and thereafter approached the SIC through second appeal. Information commissionerFarzand Ahmed took a hard stand in some of these cases. He not only admonished the IOs concerned, who for obvious reasons did not provide full information to the applicants, but also sought intervention of DMs to order probe for transparency and ensure that the applicants got the information they had sought.
The DMs of Saran, Muzaffarpur and West Champaran ordered inquiries into some of the cases and the reports revealed that all was not well with the implementation of certain schemes.
An RTI activist, Samarjit Singh of Sonepur in Saran district, wanted information regarding the job cards under MNREGA scheme. When the Saran DM got an inquiry conducted by the DDC in Jahangirpur panchayat, he was shocked to find that an Intelligence Bureau official, retired bank manager besides several government employees were among the persons issued job cards. He also ordered action against assistant engineers, mukhiya, junior engineers and programme officers. Interestingly, the Jahangirpur panchayat mukhiya, Triptinath Singh, found accused in this scam, had been indicted by another probe team in a case of solar lights. Singh is absconding for over a month now.
The DMs of Muzaffarpur and West Champaran also informed information commissioner Ahmed that they had ordered high-level inquiries into the irregularities in IAY scheme, as alleged by information seekers who charged the IOs of hiding information.
A probe committee has been constituted to look into the charges hurled by RTI activist B P Akhilesh of Srisiyan Jagdish village under Motipur block in Muzaffarpur about the distribution of housing units against the official waiting list. The DM has also ordered that the information-seeker would also be part of the probe committee.
West Champaran DM constituted a committee headed by the DDC to probe into the allocation of land under IAY at Banu Chhapar in Bettiah and release of funds for construction of houses. The DM acted following Ahmed's observation, "It is matter of probe how Indira Awas units were constructed without mentioning khata and khesra numbers and whether the fund was really utilized for construction of houses."
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