A 40-year-old resident of Bhai Desa village who had exposed a scam in the Indira Awaas Yojana and misappropriation of funds by the panchayat is now being allegedly harassed by the district administration.
The panchayat and BDPO had alleged that villager Bikkar Singh was having possession over a village pond for more than past 35 years that the village panchayat had taken the possession from him.
The whistleblower, through the Right to Information, had exposed 'malpractices' being done by the district authorities in the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY). The scam was highlighted by Hindustan Times in its report (Money for homeless going to shameless, September 31, 2011).
After the issue was highlighted, a central team visited Mansa district in November last year to investigate the matter.
On November 12, Bikkar Singh procured some documents under RTI and found that the panchayat and BDPO were trying to implicate him in a false case. Following this, he had submitted a written complaint to the Mansa deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police.
"The sarpanch had on a number of occasions threatened me after which I filed a complaint with the officials. I demanded relevant documents through RTI and found that the BDPO wants to close the file of investigation and was trying to implicate me in a false case. The documents procured by the whistleblower said: "villager Bikkar Singh was harassing the village panchayat after the latter had taken from him the possession of a village pond, which the former was having in his possession for more than 35 years".
{{/usCountry}}"The sarpanch had on a number of occasions threatened me after which I filed a complaint with the officials. I demanded relevant documents through RTI and found that the BDPO wants to close the file of investigation and was trying to implicate me in a false case. The documents procured by the whistleblower said: "villager Bikkar Singh was harassing the village panchayat after the latter had taken from him the possession of a village pond, which the former was having in his possession for more than 35 years".
{{/usCountry}}"This means that I was having possession over the village land and pond when I was just two year old," Bikkar Singh said. Mansa SSP Narender Bharghav told HT: "The matter is not in my knowledge as of now, but I will look into it thoroughly."