To expose alleged irregularities and siphoning off government money sanctioned to rehabilitate or for distribution of compensation to riot victims, some social activists had used Right to Information (RTI).
They filed applications in this regard with the local administration in Shamli as well as in Muzaffarnagar, and after failing to get any reply, took the matter in the court of State Information Commissioner, Hafiz Usman, who finally ordered divisional commissioner of Saharanpur, to make in-depth probe on utilization of use of government aide for the riot victims and submit a report within a month so that necessary action could be taken in the matter.
Giving details in this regard, Usman told RsThe Pioneer’ here on Wednesday that to conceal the irregularities made in distribution of government’s relief sent for riot victims of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli etc about a year back, the local administration averted to reply to some RTI queries filed in this regard. He said that one of the RTI filed by an activist sought details from the administration in Shamli that how much quota of food grains has been given to RsKotedars’ (Fair Price Shop Owners) in Bawadi locality before September 2013 and between September 2013 till September 2014, when the riot broke, how many BlP and Antoudhya card holders were in Bawadi, how many of them had not collected food grains between the above period i.e September 2013 till September 2014, and how many families had not used their cards and the reason behind it. Usman said that the RTI activists served several reminders to get detail of the above, but is was alleged that since all the families were collecting food grains, so the claims of the administration that about 5000 families have been displaced due to riots would be exposed, the officials concerned had avoided to provide information.
Similarly the RTI activists also sought detail from Minority Welfare Department that how much relief fund they received, the list of persons who they forwarded the said benefit, details of the expenditure if it was made on other heads, instead of distributing it to riot victims etc. The RTI activists also sought details of the persons killed in the riots, amount of compensation given to their family members, initiate taken to rehabilitate their families, details of persons who remained in shelter homes during riots and money spent on them etc.
Usman claimed that the officers had not given reply on any of the RTIs so since the matter now comes in his court, he ordered the divisional commissioner of Saharanpur to probe the matter particularly that whether the information of displacement of families is right or wrong and if true, than how the all the poor families having BPl or Antoudya card continued collecting food grains, how many persons had died and the details of the family members who the compensation has been forwarded etc. He also claimed to have asked that what steps had government taken to make new cards for the families which were displaced in the riots. Usman said that once the report would arrive it might give clear picture of what actually happened in the riots, how many were killed or how many families were displaced and that how the government help reached to the right person.
It may be mentioned that earlier also irregularities galore in distribution of relief money to riot victims. An appeal was filed by a resident of lisad area in Shamli before Usman in which the complainant appraise him that the house of one Naseebudin, was burnt during the riots which broke out in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. later under the state government’s announcement of facilitating monetary help as compensation to the riot victims, the officials declared to give Naseebudin Rs 5 lakh. However, when Naseebudin did not recovered the money, he along with his nephew Dilshad aka Nanu, went to enquire the matter from the local thesildar. It may be mentioned here that as Naseebudin had no issues so he adopted his nephew Nanu.
Nanu, on behalf of Naseebudin, took several rounds of the thesil office only to learn that officials record showed that his uncle Naseebudin already received the Rsmoney’. However, whom the money was actually paid, he failed to get any information so he filed an application under the RTI Act. When the thesil officials not gave reply to the RTI, the victim came and filed an appeal before Usman so the SIC summoned the entire records.
Usman disclosed that during his hearing, the Nayab Tehsildar of Shamli told him that as Nanu were five brothers so finding that they would have dispute, they deposited the compensation money in their father Niyazudin’s bank account and not in Naseebudin’s bank account. He claimed that when he enquired the matter further, he was surprised to find that even Niyazudin, in whose account the money is said to be transferred is already dead and he never hold any bank account.
Usman said that even then he asked the Nayab thesildar to provide that account number of Niyazudin in which they deposited the money but they failed to do so. He claimed that during the above enquiry, he also detected that not just in the above case but in many other incidents also, the compensation money has been siphoned off by the officers concerned both in Shamli and at Muzaffarnagar districts.