Cash back

Over 100 villages in Bikaner have formed their own anti-corruption bureau,the Jagruk Nagrik Manch,making sure that bribe seekers return the money they take

On March 9,Bhanwarlal Meghwal of Chandu village in Nokha tehsil filed an FIR against a few other villagers for beating up his 13-year-old son and forcing him to drink alcohol. The Assistant Sub Inspector investigating the case told Bhanwarlal that he would have to pay Rs 950 as part of inquiry expenses. He then ran into a member of the Jagruk Nagrik Manch who asked Bhanwarlal to lodge a complaint with the police headquarters in Bikaner. An inquiry was set up and on April 4,the ASI came to Bhanwarlals house and returned the money.

Last year in August,Ramswarup,a 10-year-old in Roda village in Nokha was beaten up by a villager. When Rawat Ram Meghwal,a worker with the Jagruk Nagrik Manch,heard about the incident,he took the boy to the house of a doctor at the local government hospital and sought a medical report to back the FIR. The doctor asked for Rs 600 to make an accurate report. Rawat Ram,who was carrying Rs 200,had to pay him whatever he had. Later,he filed a complaint with the Lokayukta and managed to retrieve his money.

Over 100 villages all over Bikaner have formed their own anti-corruption bureau,called the Jagruk Nagrik Manch,and rarely depend on the state machinery to tackle corruption cases in their villages. An informal but organised body,the Jagruk Nagrik Manch has 700 active volunteers550 men and 150 womenwho have for the last one decade solved their own cases and have almost always been successful.

Every time a villager is forced to pay a bribe,be it to the police,rozgar sahayak,sarpanch,local doctor,a government clerk or even a senior district administration official,volunteers of the body take it upon themselves to ensure that the bribe money is paid back to the villager. Sometimes,they use threat and at other times,they lodge a complaint with the officials concerned.

Shiv Narayan,a volunteer,recalls a recent episode where he managed to help 218 villagers get their share of ration within two days. In Himatsar villager,the ration dealer had made fake entries,saying he had distributed wheat worth Rs 3.11 lakh to 218 villagers but Shiv Narayan and the other Manch volunteers collected all the ration cards and approached the dealer,threatening to report him to the police. Within the next two days,the dealer called on all the affected villagers and compensated them in cash.

Rawat Ram,who is one of the key members of the group,says,We set up an informal body in 1999 but it was only in the last few years that people started getting to know of us. Now we have hundreds of cases pouring in. So far,we have managed to retrieve at least Rs 72 lakh in all. We maintain records of every case. After a particular case is solved,the victim is asked to give in writing a summary of the case along with her thumb impression or signature, Rawat Ram says,showing us stacks of registers lining the racks of the Manchs new office in Nokha.

Barely half a kilometre away from the offices of the sub divisional magistrate and the block development officer,the Jagruk Nagrik Manchs new office is so popular that even the local administration sends all cheques for schemes such as Shaadi Sahayata,Palanhaar Yojana among others to their office instead of the post office.

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Chetan Ram Godara,co-founder of the NGO URMUL Jyoti,says,We started training villagers in this area and making them aware of the schemes and policies of the state government way back in the late 90s. It was then decided that a dedicated body should be set up so that villagers need not necessarily have to go to the police or the local administration if they are forced to pay a bribe or are cheated. In most cases,the person taking the bribe realises that his job is at stake if the matter is officially reported and usually returns the money on his own. Sometimes when the person refuses to settle the matter amicably,we file complaints with the police or the Lokayukta and pursue the matter.

Chetan Ram says that over 90 per cent of bribes are taken in the form of cash. There have been cases of people asking for bribes in kind too and even there,the volunteers ensure that the bribe is delivered back to the victim.