Paul John TNN
Ahmedabad: They are called the Ram-Rahim jodi of RTI in Baleshwar village of Songadh in Surat district. Mohammed Bilal and Hemant Patel, both 28-year-old, have made it a mission of their life not letting a single paisa of the taxpayers’ money go waste.
Last year, the duo made the state government coffers richer by Rs 1.28 crore after they noticed that a certain mining company was drawing minerals more than their approved quota. Recently, they even got their sarpanch suspended for illegally siphoning of village grants and now they are keeping a close watch on village development works, especially road construction and RCC paving of internal roads in neighbouring villages, and even ensure that a certain minimum balance is maintained in
the village accounts. They have even forced villages to ensure that gram sabhas are held at regular intervals.
In the case of the mining company, about two years ago Bilal and Patel came to know of the mining contract that a certain company had bagged and that the company was mining more than the approved amount. They filed an RTI to know the details of the contract papers of company. The RTI revealed some shocking details.
“The company had permission to mine just 2,000 metric tonnes of minerals. We lodged a complaint with the
Geology and Mining department and informed them of the theft. The investigation by officials revealed that the company had mined 3.21 lakh tonnes. The company was asked to pay Rs 1.28 crore and a case is being initiated against them,” says Bilal
“Corruption is deep-rooted in villages, more than in cities. Every year, mining contracts, village development works and irrigation works worth crores of rupees are approved but the benefits just trickle down to the actual recipients. We both use RTI just to ensure that the funds are spent for actual purposes, the beneficiaries get their due and the taxpayers’ money is spent logically. We want to prove that it does not take much effort to file RTI applications and yet one can make a huge change in the situation,” says Patel.
Through RTI, the duo even investigated village accounts of their taluka, especially the Sampurna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) where each village had to award labour works for development activities to the villagers. The sarpanch would earlier engage bulldozers for the work. The payment to the contractor was made via the SGRY grant head. The duo exposed this scam and got the sarpanch suspended.
Today, Bilal and Patel ensure that the minimum balance in their village accounts is at least Rs 24 lakh, which earlier used to be Rs 1 lakh.
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