Fight for transparency

This piece came in 'Grassroots' in March, 15 2010 issue

Fight for transparency

Activists who seek the truth behind the processing of national schemes end up paying a heavy price!


PRADEEP BAISAKH, Orissa

Kailash Nayak's wife Bauri with their daughter

The organised opposition by the elected members of the Panchayats in Rajasthan in form of attacks on the social activist organizing social audits of NREGA works in Banswara in December 2007 and Jhalawar in February 2008 took an ugly form this time around in Alwar in November 2009. The Sarpanches and Gram Panchayat officials took to streets and blocked highways. They pressurised the government to cancel the planned social audits in the district and got orders from the courts against the inclusion of social activist and NGOs in future social audit process in NREGA-now Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). This time they got overt support from some elected members of State Assembly and Parliament. It is also alleged that some of the District Collectors in the State had put their weight behind the move.

Assertions by the activists and people at grass root from across the country to bring about transparency and accountability in the implementation of this law have been met with backlash by the vested interest groups who stood to be exposed from the whole exercise of social audit. The backlash took various forms: disruption during social audits/public hearing process, bloody and murderous attack,many a times right under the nose of the government officials thus clamping false police cases and finally, liquidating the ‘over-enthusiastic activists’!

On 23rd December 2009, in Araria district of Bihar, the goons of the Mukhiya (the Panchayat head man) attacked a ward member who was encouraging a villager to testify fearlessly for having received lower wages than what was recorded in the muster roll. This was discovered during a social audit conducted by Jan Jagaran Abhiyan, a people’s organization in association with the district administration. According to the compilation by Anis Vanaik on NREGA-related violence, in January 2009, workers of Aira Kake Mau of Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh protesting in front of the Sarpanch’s house demanding the payment of their wages under NREGA were mercilessly beaten by the goons of the Sarpanch right in front of the Station House Officer of the local PS, who was standing there as a silent observer. Similarly, on 3rd February 2009, Neyamat Ansari and Bhukhan Singh, two social workers of Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, Jharkhand who mobilised people for the Lok Adalat held on NREGA by the Jharkhand government in Latehar district were later framed in false cases of attempting to murder a forest guard and were put in jail for six days.

Apart from these backlashes, some ghastly incidences of murdering the activists also took place. Rajeswar Das, a CPI (ML) activist from Deoghar district of Jharkhand, who was active in exposing corruption in NREGA works, was attacked and murdered by the goons and his wife was seriously injured in the attack. Similarly Kamleswar Yadav, activist from Jharkhand, Narayan Hareka, naib-Sarpanch from Orissa were murdered for fighting against corruption in NREGA.

Why Kailash went missing?

A case that is still interesting is that of Kailash Nayak from Ganjam district of Orissa, who is missing since august 2008. Kailash, a daily labourer from dalit community applied for work under NREGS in July 2006. Failing to get the same he applied for unemployment allowance near the BDO of Jagannath Prasad block. Then he filed an appeal near the District Collector, and approached the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell. The CM’s grievance cell wrote to the Collector in November 2006 to provide job to the applicant in a month's time. Then, as usual, the order of the CM was handed down from the Collector to the BDO and then to the Sarpanch, but with no effect. Again in June 2007, a similar complaint was made by Kailash near the then State Project Coordinator, NREGA, R N Dash (the Secretary cum Commissioner- Panchayati Raj department) who promised to act in fifteen days. But Kailash neither got any job nor the unemployment allowance. He then resorted to seeking information from the concerned offices through RTI. Having got no response, he filed a complaint near the State Information Commission (SIC). During the series of hearings of his case in the SIC, he went missing after august 2008. Finally the SIC also disposed of the case in May 2009 without penalising the guilty for not providing information to Kailash as ‘missing’ Kailash Naik failed to appear before the Commission! Knocking all the doors and using all possible provisions of the so called pro-people laws, Kailash finally met with the fate that nobody stands witness to.

The administration has shown a lukewarm response to the ‘backlash’ of the vested interest groups on the people and the activist. After almost all the NREGA activists of the country such as Aruna Roy, Prof Jean Drèze, Nikhil Dey and others demanded for a CBI inquiry to the ghastly murder incidence of Lalit Mehta in Palamu district in May 2008, the state government finally agreed for the same in July 2008. However, CBI found the incidence as a road robbery case and framed charge against Som Bihari Singh and Kamta Singh. But many, who worked with Lalit believed this as a NREGA related murder-facts of which could not be established by the CBI. Lot of commitments have been made by several politicians including the current Minister for Rural Development - C P Joshi to bring the attackers of NREGA activists to book. In reality however very little is done by the administration.

Jean Dreze addressing gathering on Lalit Mehta Sahadat Divas held at Daltonganj, Jharkhand on May 14, 2009

High degree of corruption in implementation of welfare schemes in India has been the rule with transparency and accountably being rather alien terminologies. For the first time probably, NREGA became the kind of law (to be operationally in form of a scheme) which was designed with in-built provisions for openness in forms of reading muster rolls in open, maintenance of Job Cards, regularly conducting socials audits by the Gram Sabhas etc. But these ‘legal adventurism’ in favour of open and participatory governance were not to be taken easily by people in position and power who had been immensely benefiting from the ‘rot’ in the system.

As a matter of fact, regular social audits under NREGA have exposed the existing elected representatives-official-contractor nexus in receiving fixed percentage cuts from welfare schemes.

In an interview to a news magazine, Prof Jean Drèze, development economist said about the deep rooted corruption and nexus among contractor officials and politicians. Therefore, the backlash. But what about the political dispensation at the centre, which has won back the national election trumpeting the success of NREGA, reneges from its promises for protection of people fighting for their statutory right to employment and the activist facilitating it? If such spectre of violence continues with impunity the current establishment may have to pay a good price in the next election for neglecting common people’s interest in favour of the mighty.