EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE; RAJKOT, December 4, 2010,
TAKING suo motu cognisance of The Indian Express report published on November 17 that a labourer in Bapodar village of Porbandar district out to expose NREGS scam was allegedly being denied information under the RTI, the Gujarat Information Commissioner has ordered taluka authorities to submit a report in this regard within 15 days.
While the 15-day deadline to submit the report is about to end shortly the Information Commissioner issued the order on November 19 the taluka development officer (TDO) said action has been taken in this regard. "Our office has received a letter from the Information Commission. Talati has been sent to redress the grievance," TDO Vikesh Upadhyay.
The complainant, Malde Bapodara, however, said though his query still remains unanswered, he received a letter on December 1 from local authorities saying all the information had been provided to him.
"On December 1, a week after I was called by the TDO regarding my RTI complaints, I received a letter from talati stating they have provided me with all the information," said the 49year-old farm labourer, adding his query like on which sites labourers were employed under the NREGS is still unanswered.
Since March this year, this class XII dropout has written five times to taluka development office and the chief minister's office raising mainly three complaints -NREGS job cards exist in his family's name though they have neither worked nor received payments shown on paper, similar cards exist in the name of others who never got paid, and finally, cards also exist in names of a postoffice employee and his wife. According to Bapodara, there are about 100 bogus job cards in his village.
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