Several rights activists in Jharkhand have written to the Latehar district administration to report a “fake FIR” filed against them for exposing “irregularities in the Abua Awas Yojana” in a block of the district.
Members of the Right to Food Campaign and Jharkhand NREGA Watch on Friday wrote to Latehar deputy commissioner Garima Singh and superintendent of police Anjani Anjan seeking the cancellation of “fake cases” against eight villagers.
The letter, which has the signature of developmental economist Jean Dreze along with 28 others, requests protection for the coordinator of NREGA Sahayata Kendra (Mahuadanr) Afsana Khatoon and others who were allegedly being harassed by Mahuadanr block development officer (BDO) Amren Dang and the local police after “exposing corruption in Abua Awas Yojana”.
The Abua Awas Yojana is a Hemant Soren-led government’s flagship scheme aimed at providing pucca houses to the rural homeless in the state. The scheme aims to cover those left out of the Centre’s housing scheme.
The letter also encloses the list of beneficiaries of the Abua Awas Yojana obtained by the rights activists through an RTI.
The letter claims: “The right activists had conducted door to door verification of the scheme beneficiaries between May 22 and 24 this year which revealed strong evidence of corruption. The housing scheme has been sanctioned for ineligible and affluent people living in pucca houses and the local administration has recorded the status of their old house as ‘kachcha makaan.’”
Based on the report, the Mahuadanr Gram Sabha on May 26 passed a resolution to cancel the allotment of houses to wrong beneficiaries, probe the irregularities and take action against the culprits.
“On the basis of this resolution, a complaint was lodged by the Gram Pradhan to the BDO on May 29. Unfortunately, instead of investigating this fraud, the BDO opened a front against the survey team and the Gram Pradhan and got a false FIR (case No. 28/2024) registered against them on June 4 at Mahuadanr police station,” the letter added.
In the FIR, the BDO has accused Khatoon of misleading people and tarnishing the image of the block by forming a fake verification panel without informing the BDO.
