A hearing for India’s rural tehelkas

A hearing for India’s rural tehelkas

Extracted from The Indian Express, New Delhi, April 12, 2001
By Ajit Bhattacharjea
Director, Press Institute of India

A right to information movement in a small corner of Rajasthan, unveils a mind-boggling scale of corruption

TRAVELLING through the arid, undulating land around Beawar in south Rajasthan is like traversing a campaign map marked with historic revolutionary battles. The names of villages and small towns huddled in the folds of the Aravallis recalls scenes of a very different kind of engagement, but which will equally go down in history. Here local villagers have successfully confronted and exposed misrule non-violently; the only weapon they have used is information.

It all started when a small band of social activists joined hands in the late 80s to form the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). They soon won confidence by living in the area and identifying themselves with local causes. Like the town of Bhim, where the MKSS set up a fair price shop to bring down prices. Or Lutyana where Shankar Singh, the bard of the campaign, was born. Or Devdoongri, where former IAS officer Aruna Roy lives in a mud hut and from where she and her small team has charted the course of the movement.

The scale of corruption unearthed, even in a small corner of Rajasthan, is mind-boggling. It shows why rural India remains poverty-stricken despite the thousands of crores supposed to be spent on development. The cutting edge of the right to information movement is the jan sunwai (public hearing) where villagers assemble to testify whether the public works detailed in official bills and vouchers secured by them actually exist. The occasion itself is an impressive demonstration of direct local democracy, with officials invited to be present.

At the latest jan sunwai in Janawad (Rajsamand district) on April 3, an audience of about 3,000, most of them women, sat through the day while panchayat records were examined. Villager after villager got up to testify about roads and buildings paid for that had not been built, a non-existent school, or one building that was paid for more than once. Among the witnesses was the new woman sarpanch, who sat veiled through the day after confessing that she signed whatever was put before her.

Securing access to the records had taken more than a year and to prevent some being copied,some being copied, the local gram sewak had secured a stay from the Jodhpur High Court. Yet the outcome of the examination was astounding. Out of the bills and vouchers detailing expenditure of Rs 65 lakh, no less than Rs 45 lakh was found to be isappropriated. The dirt could no longer be hidden.

Less than a week later, three local officials involved were arrested. For the first time, a jan sunwai had forced the administration to take action against erring officials. The scandal had been substantiated not by hidden cameras but in full public view. The amount isappropriated in one panchayat

provided an insight into the extent of corruption in development, exceeding the scope for corruption in defence. The Tehelka revelations pale into insignificance.

Kot Kirana (December 1994), in Pali district, may be considered as the first jan sunwai. This was before the State Government was forced to authorise access to panchayat records, but documents like muster rolls and payments for an unfinished patwar ghar were available. And the familiar

spectacle