Shillong, Sept. 6: Residents of Mawsynram in East Khasi Hills district have come out strongly against the alleged “misappropriation and misuse of funds,” meant for implementation under various government schemes after the Meghalaya Right to Information Movement (MRTIM) activists held an awareness campaign in the village.
Residents of Mawsynram were shocked to learn on Friday that they had been “kept in the dark,” by their public representative and government officials about different schemes. These include construction of Rural Road Programme (CRRP), Special Rural Works Programme (SRWP) and others sanctioned under the MLA Local Area Development Scheme.
“We are surprised to learn that so many schemes had been approved under the MLA local area development programme,” said one resident while thanking the Meghalaya Right to Information (RTI) movement for “exposing the embezzlement,” by the public representative and block level government officials of that area.
The MRTIM, composed of several NGOs and citizens groups, had teamed up with the cluster-level federation of Mawsynram to organise the RTI interactive session-cum-helpdesk at the village.
Participants were acquainted with the mechanics of filing questions sheets, complaints and appeal by members of the MRTIM. Films and social audit of various schemes funded by MLA funds and Central schemes were also shown.
It was during this training exercise that the cases of corruption and misappropriation of government funds meant for development of people and their localities came to the fore.
“See for yourself how underdeveloped is our area. We are always told that fund is a constraint,” the shocked residents said. “There is so much money given for our development but we get nothing. We must do something about it,” they added.
“The revelation, inspired some of the participants to decide on filing detailed RTI questions about these schemes for their block, so that a social audit can be conducted and corruption exposed,” said MRTIM me-mbers. “When people were apprised of their entitlements under public distribution system (PDS), they were surprised by the leakage in the PDS,” the members said.
Locals complained that except for one village where ration distribution was proper, everywhere else, people did not even receive half of their entitled 35-kg rice. “There will be a social audit of ration system and complete BPL list soon, conducted by the residents of the block,” Tarun Bharatiya, a member, said.
