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Raje, Centre help sought on social audit issue

JAIPUR: Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy, presently leading an indefinite dharna before the Collector’s office in South Rajasthan district of Banswara, on Thursday wrote to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh seeking their immediate intervention to make available information on works carried out under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in the district. Ms. Roy and 400 other volunteers are on a protest dharna after the Rajasthan Government departments and the district administration backed out on a social audit on NREGA scheduled from December 10 to 20.

“A very grave situation has developed in Banswara District with regard to the non-disclosure of information and the suppression of the people’s right to carry out social audits,” Ms.Roy said, seeking immediate action to ensure that the NREGA guidelines related to transparency and accountability are carried out in letter and spirit and the district administration provided copies of the recordsasked for by the Rozgar Evum Suchana Ka Adhikar Abhiyan (Campaign for right to information and employment) immediately. She also sought firm action against those government functionaries and elected representatives who are refusing to give copies of the records asked for.

“Kindly ensure that the social audit process is not reduced to a formality,” she said as more activists from various parts of the country joined the dharna. Ms.Roy reminded the Chief Minister that the proposed Banswara social audit was part of a series of social audits that have been taking place in Rajasthan and the country, where citizens groups collaborated with the administration to work out means of carrying out the statutory requirement of social audit as mandated by the NREGA.

Addressing the dharna Ms. Roy assured the people that she would now access information and visit work sites as a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council to “expose” the reluctance of the administration to act against those refusing to part with this information.

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