INDIA: Another massive misappropriation of government funds to ensure food security in Orissa 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from human rights defenders in Orissa who have discovered that government funds to ensure food security by providing employment in rural areas have been allegedly misappropriated by local officials. A farm pond project that was started to ensure salaries for the workers but they were forced to stop working and pay bribes instead. When the case was revealed, the alleged perpetrators tried to silence the human rights activists who brought it to light by assaulting them and filing fabricated cases against them. One of the perpetrators has been given a show cause notice but no guarantee that justice will be granted has been given to the victims.

CASE DETAILS:

According to the information received from the human rights activists, seven beneficiaries from Kusmal Village of Birighat Panchayat, from Nuapada District in Orissa were selected by the Gram Sabha (village council) for digging a Farm Pond on their own land under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) in 2007-2008. A budget amounting to INR 245,000 (USD 5,450) was established.

As all the beneficiaries wanted to do the work themselves, they worked from May 9, 2008 to May 15, 2008. Nevertheless, Mr. Jogeswar Sagria whose wife Ms. Rina Mandal is a Gram Sathi (village friend; two are appointed by the government and one of the two should be a woman. One of the Gram Sathi’s roles is to look after the project under the NREGA helping a Junior Engineer), asked the workers to stop working by arguing that they could get their wages even without actually digging the farm ponds. Mr. Sagria asked them to pay INR 5,000 (USD 100) each instead. Fearing that Mr. Sagria might make use of his influential position to ask the block authority to withdraw the workers names from the list of beneficiaries, the seven ’workers acceded to his demand and interrupted the digging.

A second phase of work was conducted from May 12, 2009 to May 19, 2009. The workers only received their payment on December 4, 2009 after a delay of 6 months. However, the farm fond project was not completed.

Because the work did not resume, Khirasindhu Sagria, a farmer of the same village helping the villagers, filed a case under the Right to Information (RTI) Act at the Public Information Office of Khariar Block, in October 2009. On November 7, he was informed that more than INR 213,871 (USD 4,700) had already been paid to the workers, which was much more than what was actually paid. The table below summarizes the extent of the misappropriation, which occurred in Kusmal village.

On the other hand, the study of the muster rolls revealed ample manipulations in the names of the workers both in the first and second phase. Names of deceased persons, teachers and students had reportedly been inserted in the muster roll. It is discovered that the difference between the amount declared to have been paid to the workers and the amount they actually received on their bank accounts amounts to INR 178,764 (about USD 4,000). It has been found that this sum was deposited in the accounts of other villagers having job cards issued under the NREGA who have not worked at all. They are relatives and family members of the Gram Sathi, Ms. Mandal.

In addition, the social audit conducted for each project implemented under the NREGS did not reveal any of those anomalies.

After it was revealed, the beneficiaries alerted the Block District Officer (BDO), Khariar on January 11, 2010. The BDO, the Vice-Chairman and the Junior Engineer in charge of the project subsequently visited the village on February 25. Arjun Sing Majhi attached to the District Rural Development Agency, Nuapada also visited the village twice. On March 9, a meeting of all the electorates of a revenue village was conducted to discuss the issue. Its recommendations were transmitted to the Police Station.

In an attempt to cover up the case, the Junior Engineer in charge of the project reportedly tried to dig the pond himself by using a machine on March 15. The villagers managed to stop him and to hand the machine over to the police.

Meanwhile Khirasindhu Sagria and his supporters have been the target of several attacks from Mandal’s family and relatives aiming at preventing him from pushing the case further.
Ms. Mandal first tried to file a false rape case against him in the local police station but after two days the villagers made a Panchayat resolution and filed a counter case in the same police station.

On March 19, Mr. Narahari Sagria, Jogeswar Sagria’s elder brother along with five other persons physically abused Khirasindhu and some of his supporters. Earlier that day, Chandan Sagria, another brother of Jogeswar’s attacked some guests from Khasbahal village that Khirasindhu was receiving to discuss of some social issues. Two of them had to be admitted in the hospital. The village leaders managed to convince the guests not to file a complaint against their aggressors. Nevertheless, back in Khariar, Jogeswar and his supporters lodged a complaint against Khirasindhu and two of his guests.

The muster roll was signed by the Junior Engineer after field verification and subsequently passed to the Assistant Engineer and the Block District Officer. It is alleged that the mischief could not have developed without collusion between those different officials.

A member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council, Ashwani Kumar, expressed his concern over the case and promised to launch an investigation. On March 26, the Director, Special Project, (NREGA) Panchayati Raj department, government of Orissa, Bhubaneswar visited the village. The concerned Junior Engineer has been given show cause notice one month to present his defence.

Nevertheless, for the moment no impartial investigation has been conducted, the other corrupt officials have not faced any prosecutions and neither did the abused beneficiaries receive any relief nor compensation.

The seven beneficiaries abused all own between one and six acres of land. Nevertheless, because of chronic uncertainties in the crop yield, they are all likely to suffer from food insecurity.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

According to the human rights defenders in Orissa, 20% of the farm ponds built under the NREGS would not actually exist physically.

A few days after this case was exposed, a case of massive misappropriation of NREGS funds was also revealed in Balangir district of Orissa. It was discovered that the Soil Conservation Department had allocated a budget to the tune of INR 202,500 (USD 4100) for the construction of a single farm pond whereas the workers had only received INR 32,000 (USD 700) as wages and even had to pay bribes to the department to get their benefits. Therefore, INR 170,500 (USD 3700) was allegedly misappropriated under this scheme.

The AHRC also reported a case of misappropriation of the NREGA wages of illiterate landless workers by a local official working on the project, depriving the workers of their only source of income and seriously jeopardizing their right to food. After the case was reported, the perpetrator was suspended but has been not legally prosecuted and the abused workers have still not recovered the total amount of their wages. For more information please see: AHRC-HAC-005-2010: INDIA: A corrupt supervisor misappropriated the wages of 16 illiterate workers depriving them of their food security and HAU-002-2010 for updates.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

The NREGS is one of the main public programs aiming at ensuring the food security of the poor in India by guaranteeing 100 days of employment per year to each household willing to do manual work at minimal wage. It has been praised by the UNDP as an important step toward poverty alleviation whereas the actual implement shown in this case and earlier case exposes seriousness of corruption in the programme. Consequently, the government budget aimed at ensuring food security does not completely reach the poor but rather has been continuously extracted by corrupt public servants.

The right to food NGO Agragamee, reported that in villages where the NREGA is carried out with ‘even partial consistency’, labourers do not need to migrate to other states to find employment. Nevertheless, the NREGS suffers from rampant corruption that seriously hampers its efficiency. The Chief Justice of India, Justice KG Balakrishnan on a visit to Orissa expressed his concern regarding the extent of corruption in the NREGS, which directly affects its impact on the poor households’ found insecurity.

The NREGA rules and guidelines contain a mechanism to ensure the transparency and the accountability of the scheme such as the holding of social audits for each project implemented under the scheme or the nomination of a Junior Engineer to ensure work measurements to ‘check’ if the project followed the NREGA rules and guidelines. Nevertheless, in reality those measures do not entirely prevent corruption.

The collusion between the Junior Engineer and the other block officials in this case proves that it is possible to get round those dispositions. The right to food campaign issued a report in 2007 in which it denounced the vulnerability of the NREGS due to the potential collusion between the different Panchayat officials who would therefore basically control all the steps of the project development process.

In March 2010, the Rural Development Ministry, in a letter to all state governments asked for criminal proceedings against state officials found ‘guilty of embezzlement’ of NREGA funds, under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a letter to the authorities listing below asking for the thorough investigation of this case, the prosecution of the perpetrators and protection for those who exposed the corruption.

Please be informed that the AHRC also wrote a separate letter to the Chief Justice of India, UNODC, UN Special Rapporteur on right to food, UN Advisory Committee on right to food.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER