Empowering Villages in Rural India

Dear Friends,

In the village of Rohimala- Chief Minister Awas Yojana (government social welfare program) was introduced to provide housing for rural poor along with several activities such as well deepening, construction of boundary wall, saffron spraying in pastureland, plantation, etc.

For this, families Below Poverty Line (BPL) are provided with a subsidy of Rs. 50,000 for house construction.

Recently, few cases have emerged out from the village itself which made Seva Mandir presence a must as there is lack of appropriate government monitoring towards this type of BPL schemes.

In past, over 90% families in the village have been struggling out with a major issue of cross-level corruption with its own Mini Bank worker who is reportedly taking bribe from the villagers to provide them funds which govt. allots them.

CASES:

Kalu, treasurer of the Village Development Fund, was the first man standing to raise the issue with the BPL families who have not been getting funds from the banks. He reported to the Panchayat (local govt. body) that he was told by 18 people of 5 different villages that people from the bank were asking for a share in the grant provided under the scheme. The Mini Bank worker took a bribe of Rs. 500 each. He complained that the families believe that as they are receiving “free money” from the government, they do not mind giving a portion to the bank agents.

Also, Sardar who is another beneficiary of the government scheme was granted Rs. 50,000 through Mini Bank installments for house construction. He is illiterate so when verified that although Rs. 15,000 was registered as first installment, he only received Rs. 14,500; in addition, instead of Rs. 9,000 as second installment, he only received Rs. 8,000. In total, he has paid Rs. 1,500 as bribe. As a reason for not reporting to the authorities he said that he was afraid that he might not receive future installments.

Heer, another villager entitled to this scheme, denied to pay Rs. 500 bribe demanded by Mini bank worker. But later he had to negotiate and pay Rs.100 to the bank worker. As told by villagers, it was mentioned that both the Sarpanch (Head of the village) and Panchayat secretary are receiving Rs. 500 as bribe to sanction approvals for the construction of houses. 

After reviewing all these corruption cases Seva Mandir stepped in and took charge of the situation by uniting the villagers to lodge one formal joint complaint to the higher legal authorities such as BDO and SDM. As a result, both Sardar and Heer agreed to sign the application only if everyone is participating.

Seva Mandir since then is helping the villagers by joining hands with them to fight against strong challenge of cross-level corruption, by making them aware about their rights and also by organizing street programs, circulating timely information through brochures and trainings at regular periods.

Thank you so much for your continuous support to our program.

Regards

Atul Lekhra

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