DNA: Mumbai: Sunday,
September 29, 2013.
The
registration of an FIR by Thane rural police has blown the lid off a major scam
in the development works taken up by farmers on their own fields such as
digging of wells under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act (MGNREGA) in Vikramgad tehsil.
After dna
exposed how the elderly left to fend for themselves are dying of hunger on
September 23, many are linking scams like these in the schemes meant for
tribals for the desperate situation.
“I’ve heard
of many kinds of thefts but here over 15 wells have been stolen. Anyone who
finds them should contact the Block Development Officer according to whom the
dead are coming back to seek benefits of wells and wages,” Krishna Kakdya Bij a
Warli tribal from Kasa Budruk who braved threats to register the FIR a copy of
which is with dna. “The current sarpanch Vimal Wagh’s husband Sanjay has
threatened me and I fear for my life,” said a scared Bij. He was alerted of the
fraud when Pandu Babu Thakre from the neighbouring village of Kegwa filed an
RTI.
His father
Kakdya Dharma Bij died four years ago yet a sum of Rs 1,34,058 has been
released in his name for the construction of a non-existent well. Documents
available with DNA show that payments under the MGNREGA began with a
disbursement of Rs 86,000 on March 31, 2012 and were done in six stages. The
last instalment - a sum of Rs 11,613 –was done on August 8, 2013. DNA also
found another case of a deceased Janya Shinwar Satvi too being shown
identically as a beneficiary of the scheme.
While the
scheme was supposed to improve irrigation using the farmers’ own labour, the
six pits being passed off as wells were dug with an earth excavator and bogus
work musters created. For example one muster shows how Paravan Narayan Kadu was
paid labour for working on a well a whole two years after she died. Kadu seems
to work very hard posthumously as she shows up in another muster too in 2012. A
physically handicapped Rama Shirad Gond who has trouble moving around too shows
up on two musters as a labourer.
Furthermore
information on the official website shows expenses on the wells as being far in
excess of the estimate and sanction. For example in the case of Krishna Wagh
the cost estimated was Rs 1.91 lakh but actually a sum of Rs 2.78 was disbursed
for what cannot pass of an apology for a ditch too.
DNA found in
the case of one Govind Laxman Mane, five musters were created and sums of Rs
85, 500 were given for labour and another Rs 71,500 for skilled labour. Here
blasting is claimed to have been done but the stone is not even exposed.
Moreover
despite the district administration website’s claims of 22 sandbag bunds having
been built at the cost of Rs 19.58 lakhs in the area, dna found only one.
As if this
weren’t enough panchyat samiti officials have made off with lakhs disbursed for
creating sapling nurseries for forestry cheating both the government and
hapless tribals in the process. Krishna Gavli and Budhya Sathe were promised
that they will be paid at the rate of Rs 7.81 per sapling and laboured with
others in the village to create 25,000 saplings. “Apart from plastic bags and
some seeds we were given nothing. We were told to invest on our own and that
we’d get repaid,” remembers Gavli who sold his family rice stock for three
years and borrowed from others. He has only got Rs 30,348 of the Rs 1,17,150 he
was supposed to while Budhya has got only Rs20,500 of the Rs78,100. Both of
them complain of having to face the music from lenders. “The sarpanch would
tell us its government money, you’ll never get cheated. Only if we knew
better,” laments Budhya.
Both the
NREGA officer Naresh Jadhav and the extension officer R K Gawai at the
Vikramgad panchayat samiti refused to comment on the FIR. Gawai tried to rbush
off the information on the official website. “That must be wrong information,”
he offered.
Thane Zilla
Parishad CEO shekhar Gaikwad tried to downplay the FIR. “The dead beneficiaries
names showed up since the land holding is in their name. We’ve inquired through
the local BDO S Sontakke and didn’t find any irregularities.”
Shiraz
Balsara of the adivasi advocacy group Kashtakari Sanghatna which works in the
region said, “Such scams do not only constitute fraud against the government
but is the worst kind of atrocity against the adivasi who continues to labour
under poverty and die of starvation even while money meant for their welfare
and development is embezzled.”
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