[Reader-list] NREGA

[radhikarajen at vsnl.net]

Hi, 

   as usual, all this much hyped poverty alleviation programmes of the central government be it national rural emplyoment guarantee schemes or the suraksha, vidya abhiyans are all hogwash at the stage of implementation irrespective of which political party rules the state and implements the schemes as seen in free India. Inspite of foreign banks openly announcing the fact that there are 900 indian accounts in overseas banks with billions of rupees in safekeeping, the present FM being a "criminal" lawyer with income tax practise has the audacity to tell that he has sent legally worded letter asking for the details of these accounts under a separate classification of avoidance of double taxation.! To add to the misery we have a PM who is "honest" economist and has to follow dictates of Madam for mafia appeasements even at the cost of the economy of the nation with wasteful expenditure. Public attention is sought to be drawn with spins of diverting attention from main issue of 
wastage of funds with differently ruled states be it law and order or criminal offences, as CMs of congress ruled states are holy cows for the neo journalists as they refuse to see the crimes committed in daylight in such states but cry hoarse about states ruled by other party.?

  Crime and governance of the state is bad in any state but daily dose of rapes, in moving cars, murders and thuggery is highlighted only of some states and ignored if they are in other states by our "secular visual media journalists" thus
giving a spin to crimes and sustaining themselves as sellers of miseries of human beings as trp driven titllation mongering  living on speculative narratives of the victims.!

Regards. 
----- Original Message -----
From: "S. Jabbar" <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, June 16, 2008 11:20 am
Subject: [Reader-list] NREGA
To: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>

> From: aruna roy <arunaroy at gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 7:23 PM
> Subject: Please read and Sign - Statement in response to DC and SP 
> Palamaureport
> 
> 
> Dear friends,
> We are attaching (and enclosing inline text with some of the initial
> signatories) a statement on the happenings in Palamau jharkhand 
> related to
> uncovering of fraud in NREGA works in social audits and violent 
> reactions to
> that. The latest is a report that has been sent by the District
> Administration of Palamau which, amongst other things contains many
> ridiculous allegations against Jean and the survey team. we are also
> attaching the scanned copy of the DCs report as carried by Prabhat 
> Khabar,and a link to an article in the Indian Express on the 
> growing violence
> against NREGA activists: http://indianexpress.com/story/322527.html
> Could you please go through the statement below, and if you 
> approve send
> your concurrence as soon as possible so that the signed statement 
> can go to
> various newspapers.
> Please send this urgently to  kiranshaheen at gmail.com  with a copy to
> mkssrajasthan at gmail.com  . Also please send this on to others for 
> them to
> sign. If you need any more details, do let us know.
> in solidarity,
> Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey
> (for the MKSS)
> 
> Palamau Report: Enquiry or Cover-up?
> 
> We are shocked by the recent report prepared by the Deputy 
> Commissioner (DC)
> and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Palamau, commenting on Lalit 
> Mehta'smurder as well as on the survey of NREGA conducted there in 
> May 2008 by the
> G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad.  This report is a 
> deliberateattempt to divert attention from the real issues, which 
> effectively protects
> those responsible for corruption and violence in the area.
> 
> 
> 
> The report shows that the police have made no serious enquiries 
> into Lalit
> Mehta's murder. It does not provide any credible clue to this 
> murder, but
> raises a number of mischievous conjectures using selective 
> evidence. For
> instance, the report refers to interviews with Lalit Mehta's 
> brother and his
> sons, without mentioning that the sons are one and three years old,
> respectively. Meanwhile, evidence from extensive interviews with 
> Lalit'swife, Ashrita, is ignored. Further, the report is full of 
> factual mistakes.
> Even the date of the murder is incorrect: Lalit Mehta was murdered 
> on 14
> May, not on 15 May as stated in the report.
> 
> 
> 
> Instead of presenting a serious analysis of the circumstances of 
> the murder,
> the report makes  absurd insinuations, such as Jean Drèze's possible
> involvement in the murder, or the allegation that he and his team
> manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGA works. Equally ridiculous 
> is the
> unsubstantiated claim of the possible role of an old family 
> dispute about
> Lalit Mehta's inter-religious marriage being the cause for the murder.
> 
> 
> 
> The report also makes insidious allegations about the survey team, 
> VikasSahyog Kendra, and Lalit Mehta's family. For instance, the 
> report presents a
> ludicrous picture of the social audit activities conducted by the 
> surveyteam, and even accuses the team of using devious means to 
> collecttestimonies. No-one familiar with the team's work (which 
> was conducted in a
> transparent manner in full view of the public and the media) can 
> take this
> seriously. Casting  unwarranted aspersions on people like Jean 
> Drèze, who is
> a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (and 
> therefore mandated
> to monitor and investigate NREGA implementation anywhere in the 
> country),and on students from Delhi University  and other reputed 
> universities, is in
> fact an attempt to snuff out any independent monitoring of government
> expenditure.
> 
> 
> 
> The report reinforces earlier suspicions that there is an 
> entrenched and
> deep rooted nexus of corruption and violence surrounding NREGA in 
> Palamau,with powerful connections. Otherwise, why would the 
> district's seniormost
> officers go to such length to undermine a forthright examination 
> of the use
> of NREGA funds in this area?
> 
> 
> 
> We demand that the report of the DC and SP Palamau be rejected by the
> Central Government as well as by the State Government, and that a CBI
> enquiry into Lalit Mehta's murder and the corruption in NREGA 
> works in
> Palamau District be initiated immediately.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> signed
> 
> 
> 
> Aruna Roy
> 
> Bunker Roy
> 
> Arundhati Roy 
> 
> Prabhash Joshi
> 
> Harsh Mander
> 
> Kiran Shaheen
> 
> Nikhil Dey 
> 
> Shanker Singh
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Aruna Roy
> Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)
> Village Devdungri, Post Barar
> District Rajsamand 313341
> Rajasthan
> 
> Telephone : 09929519361
> 01463-288247 
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