The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) today decried the attack on a woman working towards exposing corruption in the PDS system, as a result of government callousness undermining the Right to Information Act.
Santosh, a 20-year-old activist with NGO Parivartan, had been attacked on December 30. An unidentified youth had slashed her throat at Nand Nagri but she managed to escape. The only fallout, activists said, was that two PDS shopowners named in Santosh’s complaint were let go with a warning the next day.
Parivartan said she had been attacked as she was registering complaints on irregularities in rations givent to BPL families in Nand Nagri and other areas. ‘‘Santosh and other members have unearthed 190 complaints by ration card holders where these people were deprived of rations which were siphoned off by corrupt PDS shop owners,’’ said Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan.
Santosh, who was present at a press conference today, recounted the two attacks on her (the earlier one on December 13), in which she said she narrowly escaped injury. Parivartan charged that the Delhi government had refused to file FIRs against the shopowners, thereby leaving the latter to hijack the PDS system.
According to data compiled by economist Jean Dreze, more than 39 per cent of the rice and wheat supplied from FCI godowns to PDS shops in 19 states gets siphoned off. In Delhi, 72 per cent of the rice and 65 per cent of the wheat never reaches the people intended for. A stupendous 77 per cent of rice and 92 per cent of wheat get stolen in Bihar, as per 2001-02 figures. ‘‘In that period, the total offtake from PDS was around 15 million tonnes. If half of this is sold in the black market, the ‘theft’ is around Rs 5,000 crore,’’ Dreze said. ‘‘The people running these scams get away with with violence or the threat of violence, and the attack on Santosh is an example of this.’’
‘‘The fact that despite several attacks on Parivartan activists, and the presence of evidence against the corrupt shop owners, the government refuses to file FIRs or take action against them questions the whole concept of Right To Information,’’ said Aruna Roy, social activist and member of the NCPRI working committee.
‘‘These attacks might have serious political repercussions in the future. I have seen Parivartan’s evidence against the PDS shopowners, and if the government now refuses to prosecute the accused because of inadequate evidence, the whole idea of Right to Information becomes meaningless,’’ said former PM V.P. Singh. He said the issue would be taken up with the Left parties in the UPA alliance.