Mayawati fudges to win govt award

Total Sanitation Campaign in villages

Srawan Shukla | Uttar Pradesh | 1 June 2009 |

The shit has literally hit the ceiling. The Uttar Pradesh government had proudly taken a Central government award for full sanitation of villages in November 2008. It was later discovered that figures were fudged and many villages did not have the so-called toilets which made them eligible for the award.

Corruption is an integral part of the Uttar Pradesh bureaucracy. But their corrupt acts reached its nadir when they did not spare even President Pratibha Patil. They bagged the Nirmal Gram Awards from the President for 729 villages in the state by faking works and fudging figures in many of them.

Under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) scheme, the Central government gives awards to those gram panchayats which achieve 100 per cent sanitation facilities and are declared “open defecation” free. Names of 729 gram panchayats in 65 districts were recommended by the state government for the awards. After Haryana and Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh was third in the country.

In a function held in Hissar in Haryana, President Pratibha Patil gave the awards in November 2008. Awadhesh Kumar, gram pradhan from Mirzapur was nominated by the Mayawati government to receive these awards. The Award carries a cash reward of Rs two to five lakhs depending upon the size and population of the panchayat and a citation.

Elated over receiving the awards, the Mayawati government listed this feat as one of her government’s major achievements. In all her government’s publicity material, including booklets, ads, hoardings, banners and posters etc, this achievement was prominently highlighted.

But a letter from the Union ministry of Rural development dated December 12 2008 short-circuited Mayawati’s euphoria. The letter thoroughly exposed irregularities and anomalies in the selection of gram panchayats which bagged the awards from the President. The ministry recommended withdrawal of the awards and directed the Mayawati government to hold an inquiry to nail the guilty officers.

A red-faced Mayawati ordered a probe on January 2, 2009. After preliminary inquiry, about 16 gram panchayats in seven districts were found to have faked works to get the awards. Taking strong note, then Agriculture Produce Commissioner (APC) Anees Ansari constituted a high-level probe team comprising 60 senior officers.

Skeletons started tumbling out when team members conducted inquiries in 65 districts of the state. A member of the inquiry team revealed that they had detected grave irregularities in over 100 gram panchayats which received the awards. “In majority of these villages, work was not done as per specifications and should not have been recommended for the awards,” he confided.

The government took drastic steps recommending withdrawal of the awards by the president and stringent actions against block development officers (BDOs), secretary, gram panchayat, district gram panchayat officers (DPROs) and district project co-ortdinators (DPOs) who were responsible for the error in the wrong selection of villages for the award.

The Total Sanitation Campaign was launched in Uttar Pradesh way back in 1999-2000. Initially, a pilot project was launched in four districts and later all 71 districts were included in the campaign. Uttar Pradesh got a whopping Rs 2,400 crore last year from the Centre. Under the scheme, BPL families are now provided a cash incentive of Rs 2,500 to construct pucca toilets. The main objective of the scheme is to ensure that all households, schools, aganwadi centres have toilets to make it “open defecation” free.

A visit to Uttardhauna, a village situated only 8 km from Lucknow, by a joint secretary of the Central government exposed chinks in the TSC and the nexus between politicians and bureaucrats to siphon off Central funds. Bindra Prasad constructed a toilet outside his house about 10 years ago. But a wall painting on it suggested that it was constructed under the TSC in 2007-2008.

Similar is the story of 70-year-old Krishna Devi. “I had protested when they tried to write the same on my toilet,” she complained. There are about a dozen houses which had toilets but their numbers were included in the award list. About 50 houses are still without sanitation facility. Interestingly, none of the villagers are even aware that their village was selected or awarded the Nirmal Gram Award by the President.

“We have no idea when and how our village was selected. When no work was done in our village then how could they claim the award,” quipped Durga Prasad.

There are scores of villagers who had filled the form but are still awaiting the construction of a toilet. Pramod Kumar Gautam had filled the form to get the benefit under the TSC but no toilet was constructed. “We still go to the fields,” he said.

A structure was constructed outside Rahmatul Nisha’s house. She is still awaiting a toilet sheet and roof. The quality of construction was so poor that a few of those constructed under the schemes are in a dilapidated state. Toilet sheets of many are broken and there are no gates on others.

Many villagers in the gram panchayat situated just behind an engineering institute of BSP general secretary Dr Akhilesh Das, claimed a few of the toilets were constructed after an inquiry was ordered. “They had warned us not to reveal this to the probe team when they visit the village,” says Mohammed Naseem.

Special secretary Panchayati Raj MM Khan too admitted that irregularities were committed in TSC’s implementation. “The probe is on and it would be inappropriate to make any comment at this stage,” he said.

Principal secretary Panch-ayati Raj RK Sharma, who was an accused in the Taj corridor scam, also refused to comment. Though the inquiry is on, efforts are on to hush up the matter as it had adversely affected the image of the Mayawati government.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has already charged the Mayawati government of misusing Central funds. Work done or rather not done under the TSC and the Nirmal Gram Award fiasco only substantiate his charge.