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print version14 December, 2018
Over 4000 workers gathered on the 14th December 2018 at Jubba Sahni Park in Muzaffarpur, Bihar to protest and resist the continued harassment of members of Samaj Parivartan Shakti Sangathan (SPSS). Workers and people from various national campaigns from Bihar and other states stood in solidarity with them. There have been continuous attempts to intimidate people who raise questions of corruption in MGNREGA. The dharna was a democratic and peaceful attempt to resist the intimidation and continue the battle for demanding legal rights by the members of SPSS.
SPSS began with the electric passion of one man — Sanjay Sahni, a class 7 drop-out, once an electrician in South-West Delhi — to expose corruption in MGNREGA works in his Panchayat. SPSS has now become a non-violent people’s movement that has a collective of more than 50,000 labourers, largely Dalit women, who are fighting for their rights and against corruption.
The implementation of social security schemes in Muzaffarpur has seen a distressing downward trend. Nearly Rs 636 crores are payments due to be made by the State Government towards wage and material costs that are still pending. In Muzaffarpur district only 94 households have managed to avail their legal entitlement of a 100 days of work in the year.* The sangathan has been questioning these issues and consequently, some of the members are facing a severe backlash from the local elite and the bureaucracy through a series of false FIRs. The FIRs are a clear attempt to break the sangathan and quash the movement against corruption.
A detailed fact-finding report on the fabricated FIRs filed till April 2017 was compiled and presented to the Director General of Police (DGP), Bihar in June 2017. More false FIRs have been filed since. In the most recent FIR, dated 6th September 2018, it has been claimed that Sanjay Sahni, Mandeshri Devi and Neelam Devi forcefully took away the daughter-in-law of the complainant to do NREGA work - in opposition to her husband’s wish. This allegedly led his son to commit suicide. In fact, Sanjay was in Ranchi when the said event occurred. Neelam Devi, the wife of the deceased was also present at the dharna to stand in solidarity with Sanjay. Another letter was submitted to the DGP in September, 2018. However, no action seems to have been taken.
The protest began at Jubba Sahni park and the march ended at the collectorate. A letter was submitted to the District Magistrate, Md. Sohail, and the Inspector General, Sunil Kumar, demanding that a fair, transparent and time bound probe on the allegations made against Sanjay Sahni and other members of the SPSS and quash all false charges against members of the SPSS. The letter further demands that demand for work under MGNREGA be met within the stipulated 15 days and a bi-monthly dialogue be organised to address grievances. The letter also urges the DM to ensure that the whistleblowers be protected as per Para 10 of the Standard Operating Procedure for operationalizing provisions of Section 27(2) of the MGNREGA.
A letter of support and solidarity signed by over a 100 well known activists and individuals was also released at the dharna. The letter demands that the harassment and intimidation of the members of SPSS should stop immediately and the administration to quash all the false FIRs against the members of SPSS.
For more details contact: Shahid Kamal: +91 9835067418 Shahid Kamal +91 9835067418, Rajendran Narayanan: +91 9620318492
