Check dams or health, he gets them on track

Vijaysinh Parmar TNN/ Vangdhra village(Rajkot district): For Hanubhai Derawaliya, sarpanch of Vangadhra village in Jasdan taluka, RTI is a tool to fix all ills — from getting an ill-constructed check dam repaired to having money allocated for health committees being put to proper use and making village panchayat accountable. “In 2007, the government built a check dam on Guma river here under the Sardar Patel Sahbhagi Sinchai Yojna at Rs 12 lakh. But the construction was so poor that the very first monsoon left it damaged. It was public money and villagers contributed 20 per cent to it. I sought information under RTI about details of construction materials used and the reason behind the damage. First, engineers were not willing to provide answers. But, I decided to fight for villagers’ rights. Later, the local administration was convinced. It accepted the the irregularities and spent Rs 4.80 lakh to repair the check dam,’’ says Derawaliya. “Right now, farmers on both sides of the river are getting benefits of the check dam as it has helped their well get re-charged,’’ he adds. As member of the village panchayat last year, Derawaliya was upset no meetings were called for a long time. “I approached the talati but he refused to act. So, I sought details under RTI. He was careless in responding to my application, which went to information commissioner and the talati was fined Rs 500 for not giving information,’’ says Derawaliya. He is now the village sarpanch and also works with a local NGO, Saurashtra Voluntary Action. “I came to know about money for the village health committee lying unused. According to the rules, every village-level health committee receives Rs 10,000 from the government. But in most cases, grants were not used. I sought details of money spent under this scheme,” says Derawaliya. “When we received the information, we found many norms were violated. Later, health officials decided to spend the entire grant in every every village and also streamline the system by the use of RTI. The application benefited 102 villages in Jasdan taluka,’’ he adds. “Whenever I find irregularities in any sector in my taluka, I use RTI immediately. I have found that it results in serving the larger public interest. People now come to me to learn how to use RTI,’’ says Derawaliya.