Affluent Ex-MP, MLAs In Vidarbha Milk Govt Relief Packages
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Nagpur: In a bitter twist to the Vidarbha farmers’ tragedy, a simple RTI (right to information) query has revealed a huge scam in cash and kind in the CM’s and PM’s special relief packages.
A six-time former MP and relatives of a sitting MLA besides several former MLAs are among the well-off people who have helped themselves to the relief measures meant for poor, bereaved families in Yavatmal district, the epicentre of the farmers’ suicides.
The revelations point to large-scale corruption and irregularities in the implementation of the schemes. Social activist and journalist Vilas Wankhede, who made the RTI query, alleged that undeserving beneficiaries had abused the scheme in which 50% of the cost of purchase of a cow or a buffalo was subsidised by the government. The scheme was meant to help the near and dear ones of those indebted farmers who were the sole breadwinners of their families and who had ended their lives, or other BPL families living along the state dairy’s milk procurement route. Its purpose was to enable the distressed families to supplement their income as farming had become uneconomical in this mainly unirrigated cotton-growing region.
After Wankhede applied for data under the RTI Act, the deputy commissioner of Yavatmal’s animal husbandry department provided the list of beneficiaries. While former Congress MP Uttamrao Patil and his family members got ten cows under the subsidy scheme, sitting MLA of Digras Sanjay Deshmukh’s wife and mother got a cow each. Ex-minister and former guardian minister of Nagpur district Shivajirao Moghe’s near relations got eight cows. Wani ex-MLA Wamanrao Kasawar’s four relatives got eight cows, while Congress leader Suresh Lonkar’s relatives bagged six.
More suprisingly, the contractor who supplied the cows, Amol Kshirsagar, was himself a beneficiary and got subsidy for two cows. All the leaders belong to the Congress, the NCP or other parties in the ruling alliance.
State BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who introduced Wankhede at a crowded press conference here on Friday, said the RTI data only related to one district. “This is the tip of a scam iceberg, since the packages were to be implemented in six suicide-affected districts of Vidarbha,’’ he said. Demanding a CBI probe into the relief packages, Gadkari also sought the PM’s intervention.
THE GOLD-DIGGERS Ex-MP Uttamrao Patil, wife Sushilabai, sons Rajendra and Manish, and anemployee of their education society, Laxman Pawar. Together, they got ten cows with subsidy amount of Rs 70,000.
Ex-minister Shivajirao Moghe’s brother Anand Moghe and his sons Vijay Moghe, Bharat Moghe and daughter-in-law Sunita Moghe. The family got 8 cows with subsidy of Rs 7,000 on each
Digras sitting MLA (independent) Sanjay Deshmukh’s wife and mother got a cow each
Local Congress leader and ZP member Suresh Lonkar’s three family members got six cows
Cattle supplier and contractor of the scheme Amol Kshirsagar enlisted as beneficiary and got two cows.
‘Cong, NCP men misused relief scheme’
Nagpur: Demanding a CBI probe into the relief packages scam, BJP leader Nitin Gadkari on Friday said, “If the government fails to order a CBI enquiry, we will file a public interest litigation,’’ he added.
“What is disturbing in the whole affair is that needy and deserving people were left out and well-heeled politicians mainly from the Congress and the NCP misused the scheme,’’ said Gadkari. More shockingly, journalist Vilas Wankhede pointed out that despite distributing thousands of milch cows, each costing Rs 14,000, the milk collection in the district showed a decline. The collection figure on June 1, 2006 was 6,521 litres, but on the last day of that month, it was 5,359 litres. The beneficiaries also took advantage of funds provided for fodder and many availed of insurance by claiming that the animal had died. TNN
A six-time former MP and relatives of a sitting MLA besides several former MLAs are among the well-off people who have helped themselves to the relief measures meant for poor, bereaved families in Yavatmal district, the epicentre of the farmers’ suicides.
The revelations point to large-scale corruption and irregularities in the implementation of the schemes. Social activist and journalist Vilas Wankhede, who made the RTI query, alleged that undeserving beneficiaries had abused the scheme in which 50% of the cost of purchase of a cow or a buffalo was subsidised by the government. The scheme was meant to help the near and dear ones of those indebted farmers who were the sole breadwinners of their families and who had ended their lives, or other BPL families living along the state dairy’s milk procurement route. Its purpose was to enable the distressed families to supplement their income as farming had become uneconomical in this mainly unirrigated cotton-growing region.
After Wankhede applied for data under the RTI Act, the deputy commissioner of Yavatmal’s animal husbandry department provided the list of beneficiaries. While former Congress MP Uttamrao Patil and his family members got ten cows under the subsidy scheme, sitting MLA of Digras Sanjay Deshmukh’s wife and mother got a cow each. Ex-minister and former guardian minister of Nagpur district Shivajirao Moghe’s near relations got eight cows. Wani ex-MLA Wamanrao Kasawar’s four relatives got eight cows, while Congress leader Suresh Lonkar’s relatives bagged six.
More suprisingly, the contractor who supplied the cows, Amol Kshirsagar, was himself a beneficiary and got subsidy for two cows. All the leaders belong to the Congress, the NCP or other parties in the ruling alliance.
State BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who introduced Wankhede at a crowded press conference here on Friday, said the RTI data only related to one district. “This is the tip of a scam iceberg, since the packages were to be implemented in six suicide-affected districts of Vidarbha,’’ he said. Demanding a CBI probe into the relief packages, Gadkari also sought the PM’s intervention.
THE GOLD-DIGGERS Ex-MP Uttamrao Patil, wife Sushilabai, sons Rajendra and Manish, and anemployee of their education society, Laxman Pawar. Together, they got ten cows with subsidy amount of Rs 70,000.
Ex-minister Shivajirao Moghe’s brother Anand Moghe and his sons Vijay Moghe, Bharat Moghe and daughter-in-law Sunita Moghe. The family got 8 cows with subsidy of Rs 7,000 on each
Digras sitting MLA (independent) Sanjay Deshmukh’s wife and mother got a cow each
Local Congress leader and ZP member Suresh Lonkar’s three family members got six cows
Cattle supplier and contractor of the scheme Amol Kshirsagar enlisted as beneficiary and got two cows.
‘Cong, NCP men misused relief scheme’
Nagpur: Demanding a CBI probe into the relief packages scam, BJP leader Nitin Gadkari on Friday said, “If the government fails to order a CBI enquiry, we will file a public interest litigation,’’ he added.
“What is disturbing in the whole affair is that needy and deserving people were left out and well-heeled politicians mainly from the Congress and the NCP misused the scheme,’’ said Gadkari. More shockingly, journalist Vilas Wankhede pointed out that despite distributing thousands of milch cows, each costing Rs 14,000, the milk collection in the district showed a decline. The collection figure on June 1, 2006 was 6,521 litres, but on the last day of that month, it was 5,359 litres. The beneficiaries also took advantage of funds provided for fodder and many availed of insurance by claiming that the animal had died. TNN
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