HC seeks state reply on PIL alleging arbitrary selection

Dr D K Tiwari, counsel for the petitioner, said: “Our argument before the court is that the selection of villages under the Lohia Scheme is not being done in accordance with the actual situation of the villages. A government order in 2013 gave discretion to the local MLA or MLC to decide which villages were to be included in the scheme. This has led to many villages, with better indices of development, getting selected under the Scheme, while the really backward ones are being left out.”

As per norms, a list of villages requiring special government intervention for their development was to be prepared under the Scheme that replaced a similar programme under the BSP government. On the basis of indices — like whether the village has a panchayat building, a primary school, proper link road, electrification and others — the villages were to be given marks. The ones scoring the least were supposed to be selected. The villages thus selected were to be given a financial help of Rs 30 lakh for improving the development indices.

“The least numerical value given was six, which went up to around 22. Logically, the villages scoring six, seven or eight should have been taken first. But, villages with higher scores have been selected,” said the counsel.

In Kaushambi, for instance, a list of a total of 366 villages was prepared, the petition pointed out. “Out of these, 27 have been selected for the financial year of 2014-15. All these villages have scored 15 as per the pro forma. No village scoring six, seven or eight, has been taken,” said the counsel.

“The prayer in the petition before the high court is that the villages should be selected from the least developed onwards and the government order allowing interference from political representatives in finalising the selection should be done away with,” said the counsel.