Author: Correspondent
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: April 9, 2009
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090409/jsp/bengal/story_10796936.jsp
Poll funds wrenched out of the poorest
The CPM has been accused of ex- torting Rs
150 each from villagers who have to toil eight hours a day for three days
to earn that sum.
Some of Bengal's poorest of poor accused the
pradhan of Balijuri gram panchayat in Birbhum of threatening them saying they
would not be enlisted among those to get 100 days' work under a central scheme
if they did not pay.
The Telegraph has got a receipt for the money
issued by the party to one of the villagers. It bears the signatures of panchayat
pradhan Malati Ghosh and Birbhum CPM secretary Dilip Ganguly and says "Lok
Sabha poll funds 2009".
Confronted by some villagers and a Trinamul
Congress protest group, Ghosh fainted in the middle of a heated ex-change
at the panchayat office yesterday. Panchayat employees sprinkled water on
her and escorted her away after she regained consciousness.
Farm hand Ananda Gopal Roy was one of those
who paid Rs 150 to the pradhan. "She (Ghosh) told me that like many others
in the village, I wouldn't be enlisted for 100 days' work if I didn't pay.
I paid her the money at the panchayat office. There were others like me too,"
said Ananda, 40, a resident of Balijuri in Dubrajpur, about 260km from Calcutta.
Ganesh Das said they had no other option.
"Under the scheme, we are at least assured of 100 days' work."
Farm labourers like Ananda or Ganesh, who
usually earn Rs 55 for a hard day's work, get between Rs 68 and Rs 103 under
the national rural em- ployment guarantee scheme, meant for the poorest of
the poor.
Around 4pm yesterday, Trinamul supporters
who went to the panchayat to complain about "irregularities" in
the list of below-poverty-line (BPL) families heard about the alleged CPM
extortion from the vi-llagers and stormed the pradhan's office armed with
the receipts.
"She had no answer to why she was collecting
money from the poor villagers. She fumbled first and then fainted," said
Sailen Mahato, who led the Trinamul group.
A police team, posted at the panchayat to
pre-empt trouble over the BPL list, intervened when Ghosh fainted.
The Trinamul supporters lodged a complaint
with block development officer Moumita Saha. "We are probing the charge,"
the BDO said.
The CPM's Birbhum district secretary defended
the pradhan. Dilip Ganguly said: "The pradhan is a political person and
can collect funds for the party. In this case, it is not her fault that she
has accepted money in her office."
He went on to suggest that the villagers had
come there on their own to contribute to the party funds. "What can she
do if someone comes to make a donation," said Ganguly, admitting that
the receipts bear his signature.
Asked about the threats, Ganguly said: "If
the villagers were really threatened, how did they get the receipts?"
This evening, Ghosh even denied taking any
money "in my office".
District superintendent of police L.N. Meena
said Ghosh had lodged a complaint last night, accusing Trinamul supporters
of hurling abuses and gheraoing her.
