The Hindu : National : After Solapur, muster roll irregularities in Satara

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Wednesday, Sep 14, 2005

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National

After Solapur, muster roll irregularities in Satara

Meena Menon

The detection comes on the heels of the scam coming to light in Solapur

SATARA (MAHARASHTRA): Last March Tulshiram Shravan Shinde and his wife Mangal were among those who worked on a Forest department nallah bunding project at Anphale village, 85 km from here. "We were paid Rs. 20 a day in cash and we got wheat for Rs 25," Mangal said.

However, the prescribed daily wage was Rs. 64.63; this was mentioned in a muster roll obtained for the period March 15-31, 2004. On the heels of large-scale corruption coming to light in the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in Solapur, various irregularities have been detected in this adjacent district too, thanks to the efforts of activist Shivaji Raut, who is part of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, based here.

Mr. Raut and another activist from Mumbai, Shailesh Gandhi, visited Anphale and other villages in the drought-prone Khatav talukon Sunday to check the muster rolls. In 2004-05, Rs. 22.5 crores was spent on the EGS in Satara district.

Mr. Raut obtained 43 muster rolls after a seven-month battle with authorities. Armed with these, he has been visiting villages to conduct a sort of social audit of the EGS works done in March 2004.

At Anphale, as he read out the 131 names on the muster, villagers were shocked as many of these were from the neighbouring Padal or Kankatre.

Mangal said some names were new to her. Even the names from Kankatre were not correct. Many of those people mentioned did not work with her, she said.

Mangal recalled that only about 70 persons were working there and even when the work was getting over, there were not more than 100. One Amol Bhanudas Yelmar was working at two places. He used to sign the muster roll at one place and affix his thumb impression at the other site.

Villagers said Waman Hariba Yelmar, a peon at the panchayat samiti, usually signed his name. His daughter, Nisha, in Standard V, confirmed that her father never put his thumb impression. Of the 131 names on the muster roll from Kankatre, there was only one signature in English. The rest were thumb impressions.

Bogus names

Pandurang Yelmar, a village leader and former head of a cooperative body, Vividh Vikas Society, said the muster roll contained bogus names. EGS works were rare in the village and in most cases people were refused work.

Last year many from Anphale were turned away, he said. At least nine names on the muster roll were bogus.

This was confirmed by others. Tulshiram and Mangal agreed that the names were fake. They said they worked for two months and thereafter there was no work in the village. "They used to take our signatures in a small book every day and every 15 days we signed on these muster rolls," Mangal said.

Mr. Raut said Anphale consisted mostly of Dalits. People from Kankatre — who were from upper castes — were however given work.

Reading out the muster roll in the village showed that Tulshiram and Mangal, among others, were not only underpaid but also deprived of their right to just wages. There were bogus names on the list.

Why have people from Anphale not got their share of work or payment, asks Mr. Raut. Of the 30-40 names from the village, 14 were verified; thumb impressions were suspect in two cases. Nine names were clearly fake, according to the villagers.

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