MNREGA whistleblower claims he was assaulted

The Hindu: Mangolore: Sunday, October 07, 2012.

A man who was instrumental in bringing to the attention of regulatory authorities of misappropriation in Paduperar Gram Panchayat on the outskirts of the city, claimed to have been assaulted by members of the panchayat whom he had “exposed”.

He told presspersons in Mangalore on Friday that Gilbert D’Silva, a farmer from Paduperar near Gurupura Kaikamba, said he attended a gram sabha on Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) on October 2, when he was allegedly assaulted by a few members of the gram panchayat and Panchayat Development Officials (PDO) whom he had named in his complaint to Karnataka Lokayukta and the MNREGS Ombudsman.

“Only two other persons had come for the meeting, but they could not help me. The GP members then pushed me around, beat me, used vulgar words, and tried to force me to take back the complaints against them. Even the PDOs were present. Rules which say the meetings should be videographed and police should be present were not followed,” he said.

Between April 2011 and December 2011, the GP undertook 91 works of drainage, retaining wall and other constructions under MNREGA, cumulatively amounting to bills of Rs. 2.2 lakh to be paid to those who worked on these projects in Paduperar.

Mr. D’Silva said he noticed the works had been substandard, and for most works only a few people were engaged while heavy machines and earthmovers were used which was against the rules. “They illegally collected Rs. 27,000 from farmers in the area there saying it would benefit them. Since most farmers did not know the rules, they ended up giving officials the money,” he alleged.

He then filed an RTI, and on finding out that the gram panchayat had been pilfering money in the name of dead or aged people, lodged a complaint with the MNREGA Ombudsman in January this year and later with the Karnataka Lokayukta in April.

On February 22, the Ombudsman found the charges in the complaint to be true. The order, signed by N. Seena Shetty, Ombudsman, Dakshina Kannada, asks the GP to return money that had been allotted to them based on their fraudulent bills, as well as placed a Rs. 1,000 fine on five GP members and PDOs.

It is in this background, and to force him to take back the Lokayukta complaint that he was targeted, said Mr. D’Silva. After the assault, he has lodged a complaint with the Bajpe Police Station. However, the police said they were yet to file an FIR on the case.