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Rights groups see Govt. support for attackers

JAIPUR: Even as civil rights groups alleged “tacit support” of the Rajasthan Government to the violent attacks on teams conducting social audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Jhalawar district, the Government on Thursday affirmed that all “misunderstandings” had been cleared and the appraisal exercise was carried out in a transparent manner.

Jhalawar Collector Vaibhav Galaria said in a statement that adequate police force and administrative officials had been deployed to prevent any untoward incident. “Misunderstandings between the representatives of non-government organisations and village panchayats have been cleared and the NGOs went to five panchayats in Manohar Thana block,” he said.

The Rozgar Evum Suchana Ka Adhikar Abhiyan activists were attacked and chased out of three villages on Sunday. They were abused, hit by lathis and stones and dragged through the roads in a show of unrestrained violence when they tried to enter the villages.

Mr. Galaria said the Abhiyan activists and members of another NGO, Hum Kisan Sangathan, had agreed to hold the social audit at a neutral place in the villages and move around for the exercise in small groups of five to seven persons.

“The representatives of village panchayats had opposed the way the entire process of social audit was being conducted by the NGOs,” said Mr. Galaria, and quoted the Jawar Sarpanch and president of Sarpanch Sangh, Radheyshyam Lavvanshi, as saying that as per Government orders, gram sabhas alone were authorised to conduct social audit of NREGS works.

“This has already been done in the district during October and November. The social audit of a village panchayat should be carried out by only the people of that panchayat,” said Mr. Lavvanshi.

According to the Sarpanch, the Abhiyan activists had raised “provocative slogans” without making sure of the facts by inspecting the records and this led to tension between the two sides. Manohar Thana Panchayat Samiti Pradhan Govind Ranipuria also said the activists had interacted only with those opposed to the Sarpanches.

Mr. Galaria said all the Sarpanches of the block had asserted that they were totally open and transparent and the entire NREGS records were available for anybody who wanted to inspect them. However, Abhiyan spokesperson Nikhil Dey said that in the few days when the social audit resumed after the assault of activists, labourers and villagers had identified problems relating to submission of applications for job cards, job cards not being issued on time and delay in receiving wage payments.

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