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By Rashme Sehgal A chronicle of the battle of destitute women, supported by the NGO Parivartan, to expose a Rs 300 crore Public Distribution System scam in the capital and secure their entitlements using the Right to Information Act
February 2003 saw gutsy Triveni Devi, an adult literacy teacher based in Delhi, taking the unprecedented step of going up to Maya Devi, an owner of a ration shop, and asking her why she had not been given her share of rations for the last six months. Triveni, with a monthly income of Rs 400 a month, belongs to the Antyodaya or poorest of the poor category. Her ration of 5 kg of wheat at Rs 2 per kg and 10 kg of rice at Rs 3 a kg is her lifeline to survival. With the ration shop denying her entitlement, she was forced to procure wheat and rice from the marketplace at Rs 13 and Rs 15 per kilo. Triveni, with the help of the Delhi-based NGO Parivartan, filed an application under the Right to Information Act (RIA) with the Department of Food and Supply (DFS). Under the Act, the concerned department must perforce supply details requested within one month of the application. If the officials refuse to do this, their salaries will be cut at source on a daily basis. When Maya Devi showed her the records a month later, Triveni found that 25 kg of wheat and 25 kg of rice were purportedly being issued to her every month and a thumb impression being faked on her behalf as receipt. A frightened Maya Devi not only offered her six months of free ration but also Rs 20,000 under the table if she did not file a complaint against her. Triveni refused to take the money, and her example triggered several poor women to follow suit. Suddenly, the DFS was deluged with requests to supply details of why several ration shop owners were not giving them their monthly supply of rations. Realising that the numbers of such families runs into the thousands, Parivartan, a Delhi-based NGO working in the area of the right to information, swung into action and demanded that the DFS provide them with sales records being maintained by the ration shops for the last six months. A nervous DFS, under pressure from the dealers, wrote back to Parivartan saying that these records were the private property of the ration shops. They were not obliged to show them to the NGO. Parivartan shot off a letter to the Public Grievance Commission (PGC) based in Delhi demanding that under the RIA, they were entitled to scrutinise public documents. On June 7, 2003, the PGC wrote to the DFS demanding that all records of the 3,000 ration shops in Delhi be made available to Parivartan. Eighty of these ration shop owners who had been black-marketing foodgrains took the unprecedented step of gheraoing the Commissioner of the PGC. They could do so because these dealers enjoy political patronage with a large number of these shops being owned by politicians. It was no wonder then that Vir Singh Dhingra, a local MLA, accused Parivartan of being an organisation of ‘touts and dalals’. Arvind Kejriwal, a mechanical engineer by training and Joint Commissioner Income Tax who has taken leave without pay to work with Parivartan, pointed out, “In March this year we did a survey and found there were 4.9 lakh BPL families in Delhi, 30,000 Antyodaya cardholders and another 34 lakh Above Poverty Line cardholders. BPL families are the worst-affected by the so-called ‘unavailability’ of foodgrain unlike the rations for the APL category of which we have calculated over Rs 40 crore annually is being siphoned off just in the wheat and sugar sections. If we include all the items being sold including sugar and kerosene for all three categories, this works out to a scam of over Rs 300 crore annually in the capital alone.” The situation is much worse in rural India where ration shops are known to keep their shutters down for days on end. With such high stakes, it came as no surprise that the ration dealers filed a petition before the Delhi government insisting they would not make their records public. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit intervened and asked that the records be given to her. This request was also turned down. Upset at this flagrant violation of the Supreme Court directive on the RIA, women belonging to different colonies of Rajiv Camp, Ravidas Camp, India Camp, Kalyanpuri, RK Puram and Sanjay Amar Colony decided to take matters into their own hands. One hundred and nine women submitted separate applications insisting they be given access to the Daily Sales Register being maintained by the ration shops. Reva Devi, a widow with four kids living in Gita Colony, and one of the petitioners wanting access to the Daily Sales Register, pointed out, “The minute the dealers saw our names and addresses, they sent their goons to our homes to intimidate us to take back our applications. Some of the families were scared. I refused to be cowed down. I am a daily wager and have nothing to lose,” said Reva Devi. Ashok Kumar, commissioner DFS, tried to diffuse the atmosphere by once again making a request for records. With state elections around the corner, the state machinery did not want this andolan to spread to other jhuggi-jhopri colonies (shantytowns) and began exerting pressure on the ration dealers. Several dealers asked for a three-month period of grace during which time they would mend their ways. Many did fall in line and have begun to make rations available to BPL families. Others however refused and filed a petition in the Delhi High Court claiming that these documents “were their private property and should not be placed under public scrutiny”. Aruna Roy, who heads the Rajasthan-based Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan insists, “The Supreme Court has given a clear directive on May 2, 2003 that the people have a right to access public documents. In Rajasthan, the state government cannot refuse permission to inspect records. They will have to do the same in Delhi.” In April this year, Parivartan was made a party to this court case against corrupt dealers. Ashok Kumar is confident that the Delhi High Court will give a ruling in favour of the public. “For the poor, not receiving rations is the difference between starvation and staying alive. No one can be allowed to fool around with their lives.” Triveni is happy that she was the first to jump into the fray. “This has become a people's movement. Public pressure is forcing ration dealers to sell their products to the poorest of the poor. We are confident that within the next few months, the nefarious practices adopted by these people will come to an end. For us it is a matter of survival.” For more on Parivartan see Parivartan fights for people's right to information (Rashme Sehgal is a Delhi-based writer and journalist) InfoChange News & Features, June 2004
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