At a time when Gandhian Anna Hazare is set to begin a fast against corruption, a Gandhian institution in Ahmedabad has been accused of fraud.

Mahatma Gandhi started Majoor Mahajan Sangh in 1920 to fight for the rights of textile mill workers and even undertook a fast to convince mill owners to give the workers higher pay.

Today, the sangh is being accused of subverting Gandhian values. Police in Ahmedabad has accused leaders of the labour union of siphoning off crores of rupees meant to be compensation for jobless workers of 29 closed textile mills. The FIR, filed on Saturday, has named Raman Patel, president of the sangh, its secretary Manhar Shukla, chartered accountants Amal Datt & Associates, private lender Mohanlal Shah, Bapunagar Mahila Co-operative Bank and the HC appointed official liquidator as accused.

According to the FIR, savings accounts were opened in both cooperative and nationalized banks in the name of people who had never worked in a textile mill and the money withdrawn.

The scam came to light when Mansukh Parmar, who retired from Calico Mills in 1988, filed a complaint of fraud and embezzlement with the Navrangpura police. He told the police that when textile mills closed down in 1999, the Central government had come out with a scheme of giving the workers 18 months salary as compensation.

The sangh was asked to identify beneficiaries of the scheme and Parmar was on one of the committees identifying workers. Parmar alleges Calico Mills had 4,949 workers who were entitled for compensation. However, the sangh prepared a list of 5,757 names, 808 workers more than the actual number. He alleged that he was thrown out of the committee because he objected to this anomaly.

The sangh passed on the inflated list to the liquidator who issued cheques without verifying the names. Parmar had said in his complaint that instead of handing over cheques individually to beneficiaries, the liquidator gave all the cheques to the sangh officials.

The sangh officials have been accused of selling the cheques to a private lender at a discount. Police officials have found that at least 284 cheques have been issued in the names of people who had never worked in a textile mill. Yet, savings accounts were opened in their names in the Bapunagar bank and Rs 1.63 crore was withdrawn.

To create awareness on the Right to Information Act, city-based NGO It’s Time to Make a Difference (ITMD) on Sunday released a short film Melukolupu. The film is directed by ITMD team member and software engineer M Sreenivas. Sreenivas is employed with Oracle. 

ITMD plans to screen the film in rural areas to create awareness on RTI among the lesser privileged sections. The film narrates the importance of reacting to wrongdoings around us and tells how one can effectively make use of the RTI Act for grievance redressal. 

ITMD has also begun online assistance for citizens wanting to file an RTI. “Templates are available on our website for RTI letters to the government on various topics. This is to help those who are not familiar with the format of filing RTI,” said Panasa Rama Krishna, president of ITMD. “In the past four months, about 400 templates have been downloaded from our website which reflects the increasing concern among the common man to be more involved in governance,” chipped in the members of the organisation. 

In the next two months, ITMD is planning to create awareness about schemes that are not effectively reaching the beneficiaries such as the PDS and Indiramma Housing, the members said. Speaking on the occasion Chief Information Commissioner Jannat Hussain said, “RTI has made a tremendous impact on the country yet, rural India lacks awareness about the powerful tool. Also, a majority of those in urban areas who are familiar with the name of the Act do not know the details and its importance. NGOs should come together to create this awareness among people.”

Jannat Hussain who was present at the third anniversary programme of ITMD, lauded the NGO’s work in creating awareness about Right to Information. The rule is to give out information sought by the public and the bureaucrats will abide by it, he added.

Over Rs 7 crore is what some current and former Members of Parliament (MPs) owe MTNL as unpaid telephone bills. CNN-IBN has accessed RTI details obtained by activist Subhash Agarwal showing how much money is owed by the MPs. 

An overall sum of Rs 19, 78,027 is owed by six sitting members, while 399 former Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha combined together owe over Rs 7.10 crore to MTNL. Of the six current MPs, five belong to the Congress. 

Out of the current Lok Sabha MPs, the top defaulter is Hajipur MP Ram Sundar Das of Janata Dal (United), who owes Rs 9, 49,866. 

Among the Congress MPs, Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das owes Rs 3, 31,020, Amalapuram (Andhra Pradesh) MP GV Harsha Kumar owes Rs 2,08,660, Maharajganj (UP) MP Harsh Vardhan owes Rs 36,744 and Arani (Tamil Nadu) MP M Krishnasswamy owes Rs 3,19,740. 

The sole current Rajya Sabha MP in the defaulters' list, Narendra Budania, is also from the Congress and owes Rs 1, 33,777 to MTNL. 

Out of the former MPs, late Abdul Ghani Khan Chaudhary owed over Rs 34 lakh to MTNL, while Janata Dal's Basav Raj Patil owes as much as Rs 17 lakh. 

As Abdul Ghani Khan Chaudhary is dead so the money owned by him cannot be recovered.

A bill of Rs 1.98 crore has been raised by the Estates Department of the Urban Development Ministry against Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for occupation of 6, Krishna Menon Marg since 1986 after the demise of her father late Jagjivan Ram. The Department of Estates, in an RTI reply, has given a list of 10 persons including "family members of Late Indrani Devi i.e. Smt Mira Kumar (sic)" and dues against them for occupation of bungalows.

The list shows Kumar has a pending rent due of Rs 1,98,22,723 for which a bill has been issued, it says. The department was replying to a query by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal on pending rent dues towards persons having occupied government premises after losing entitlement.

 

When contacted for comments, the Speaker's office said "the family members of Late Smt Indrani Devi, vacated 6, Krishna Menon Marg, New Delhi by 30.11.2002, and intimation in this regard was given to CPWD, NDMC, Director of Estates and other concerned authorities.

"NDMC disconnected water and electricity supply immediately.  None of the family members of Late Smt Indrani Devi have, thereafter, been in the occupation of said premises," it said.

Two other persons mentioned in the list--Senior Congress leader Buta Singh and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman JS Sarma--have "Nil" dues against them, the reply said.

A police constable attached to Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had sent Rs 3,000 in 2008 by money order to an approver-turned-hostile accused, currently lodged in a city jail for his alleged role in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts, an RTI query has revealed.

In response to an RTI query filed by Gulzaar Azmi, general secretary (legal cell) of a socio-cultural organisation Jamiat Ulama-E-Maharashtra, it was found that Sadashiv Abhimanyu Patil, a constable attached to Nashik unit of ATS had sent Rs 1,000 thrice to accused Abrar Ahmed through money order in August, September and November 2008 from his residential address at police headquarters in Nashik.

The RTI reply was received from city's Byculla jail on July 5 which gave details of money orders the 34-year-old accused had received between August 2008 and June 2011. "The real face of ATS has been uncovered. The then ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi had falsely implicated Abrar and made him turn an approver saying that they would take care of his family and him and sent him money," Azmi alleged.

Through Patil, the ATS had sent money to Abrar so that he does not turn hostile in future, he claimed. Abrar's brother and lawyer Jalil Ahmed said, "Strict action should be initiated against the constable and higher officials of ATS for such acts. Not only they falsely implicated my brother but also gave him money to turn approver and implicate others."

Ahmed said he started representing his brother since March 2009 following which Abrar decided to reveal the facts as to what had happened on the day and after the blasts. The accused had turned hostile in April 2009.