Times
of India: Coimbatore: Friday, 12 December 2014.
After two
years of filing thousands of RTI applications and in victory to activist, K
Ramamurthy, Neelambur panchayat president R Latha Ravi was found guilty of
financial irregularities of 1.8 crores and was dismissed from the post by
district collector on Tuesday. Neelambur village panchayat is located 20km from
Coimbatore.
Under Section
205 of Tamilnadu Village Panchayat Act, 1994, R Latha Ravi was dismissed from
the post and the same was recorded in the government gazette extraordinary in
page number 258, an official said. Ramamurthy had first filed his RTI in 2012,
when he was charged 4,000 for getting a water connection. But when he filed his
RTI, he discovered a entire web of corruption under panchayat officials.
From claiming
1 crore for laying water pipe lines of 53.7km when in reality pipe lines were
only laid for 5310km, panchayat officials had been looting money, revealed the
RTI. They also claimed 9.09 lakh for repair of street lights.
The officials
were not only siphoning off exchequers but were awarding contracts of
non-existent projects to five non-existent companies, his RTI queries revealed.
Later, the
vigilance report also exposed the same corruption in their report after
investigation. "After the vigilance department's inspection last month,
the panchayat officials were found guilty. Criminal action will be taken
against them, shortly," an official from the department said.
When R Latha
Ravi was contacted, she was unavailable for comment but her husband said that
they were wrongly punished for fabricated charges. "We have been working
for the good for the people of the village," said Ravi. Ramamurthy said
that his struggle does not end here.
"This is
just the first victory. All others who are corrupt will also be punished and
criminal action will be taken against them," he said. Officials assured
him that in 10 days the vice-president will also be dismissed and action will
be initiated against all those who were involved in corrupt practices. "I
will try to weed out corruption from other panchayats as well," said
Ramamurthy.
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