theweeklyobserver.in
Single-coach metro trains in city soon -Page 3
Volume 15 Issue 36
THE
An IIJNM Publication
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2016
We’ll be honest when we find an office -Page 4
DAILY OBSERVER
500 citizens could bring down the govt, says ‘damning’ report author Regina Gurung Oindrila Sarkar A 7000 page damning report detailing land scams involving some of the state’s most senior officials was sparked by 500 letters of complaint from citizens. That was the claim made today by the report’s author, Anwar Manipaddy , who says he has no axe to grind but wants people to know that the scam has the potential to be bigger than India’s 2G scandal.
Anwar Manipaddy, BJP spokesperson
The Karnataka Waqf Board land report was compiled by Manipaddy after the land embezzlement scam came to light in 2012. Waqf is an endowment made by a Muslim to a religious, educational or charitable trust. The scam is estimated by Manipaddy to be worth Rs2,00,000 crore, bigger than the 2G scam of Rs1,70,000 crore . The BJP leader who was the former chairman of Karnataka State Minorities Commission made the report along with his committee members, Mr Benjamin & Ateeq Ahmed. He said that citizens had come forward to tell him about land being illegally encroached all over Bangalore and cited examples. But he declined to comment over allegations that only Congress politicians were named in the report, even though it covers a period of time when his party also held power. He said, “The government is scared that the cat will be out of the bag and they will fall from power.” Waqf is a permanent dedication of movable or immovable properties for charitable
purposes as recognized by Muslim law. The grant is known as mushrut-ul-khidmat while the person making the grant is called the waqf. The Karnataka state waqf board is a statutory body under the Waqf Act 1995. It was founded to protect waqf properties from encroachment. The report was initiated when the BJP was in power from 2008-2013.An open court system was announced in the districts to review complaints. Manipaddy said, “People came up to me with complaints when I was touring the districts and I asked them to send me letters. I was known for my toughness and have a record of suspending 54 govt servants
in my two and a half years tenure.” His visit Bidar, which has one of the biggest graveyards in Asia, revealed that it had been illegally encroached. He said, “When I started a full scale survey it was all over the newspapers. Peo-
The government is scared that the cat will be out of the bag and they will fall from power -Anwar Manipaddy
ple who knew about similar land encroachments sent me
letters which helped me look into other areas we did not know about.” He said that every piece of land has survey numbers and 57,000 acres of land were registered under the waqf board. Now around 20,000 acres of land is left. He said, “The board got to know that a report is being prepared and offered me big money which ran to a 100 crores in bribe.” The ITC Windsor Manor hotel and the HOPCOMS opposite to Lalbagh Gardens are both in the report as examples of land encroachment. The Council Chairman D.H Shankaramurthy had ordered the report to be tabled in the Assembly.
Rural jobs scheme funds not reaching panchayats Tanay Sukumar Gram panchayats in the state received just 0.2 per cent of all expenses made under NREGA in the last financial year. Now in its eleventh year, NREGA is a centrally-sponsored flagship rural employment scheme. The state has a negative balance of Rs.1625 crore, up from Rs.1536 crore last year. Launched in 2005 by the then UPA government, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme aims to provide a secure livelihood to people in rural areas by guaranteeing a hundred days of wage employment each financial year. Its beneficiaries are rural households whose adult
members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The scheme funding
went up by 12 per cent, to Rs.34,699 crore in the budget for 2015-16. However,
the funds and expenditure summary for the year show a negative balance for 22 of the 34 states and union territories. After coming to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had labelled the poor funding to gram panchayats as “living proof of Congress party’s failure”. The execution of the scheme takes place at the gram panchayat level. Data reveals that all states have money left after transferring funds to the districts. At the state level, states transfer 12.5 per cent of the funds received, but the expenditure at gram panchayat level are 37 times the funds transferred to them. At 2554, Karnataka’s gram panchayats have the second highest number of complaints lodged against them under NREGA. Other stats in the report
show that only 35 per cent of the wages were paid within 15 days of work in Karnataka. One-tenth of households could complete 100 days of work. States like Mizoram, Nagaland, Goa and Manipur do not have a single household that completed 100 days of work. Most of the work is labour intensive and includes creation of infrastructure for water harvesting, drought relief and flood control. According to the government it is the largest social security and public works programme in the world. The scheme is being used in a big way for financial inclusions as it has been linked to the bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan Yojana and biometric system of identification (Aadhar). It is a force behind the creation of rural assets.