'Broker Bandhus'

Hyderabad: Contrary to the claims of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at various public meetings that Telangana was now a corruption-free government and people need not pay even Re 1 as bribe for any official work, ground reports indicate that brokers and middlemen were ruling the roost in implementation of the Dalit Bandhu Scheme.

The scheme has been a great success and was fully transparent and without corruption in the areas where it was introduced as a pilot project in Chintakani mandal in Madhira constituency of Khammam district, Tirmalgiri mandal in Thungathurthy constituency of Suryapet district, Charagonda mandal in Achampet constituency of Nagarkurnool district and Nizamsagar mandal in Jukkal constituency of Kamareddy district. Here the Collectors had taken utmost precautions to see that it was free from corruption. A Group 1 level officer was appointed in every village to scrutinise the applications and finalise the list of beneficiaries at four levels.

But with the State Government announcing that it would provide the benefit of the scheme to 40,000 beneficiaries before March 31 under the MLA quota in all assembly constituencies, things seem to have gone haywire. No MLA wants to invite the ire of their voters and hence corrupt practices seem to have creeped in.

Giving power to local MLAs to sanction the scheme in their respective Assembly Constituencies has given scope for corruption, the beneficiaries allege.

A random field study by The Hans India team in Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Khammam and Nizamabad districts revealed that the applicants were running from pillar to post to get applications and seek the local Legislator's approval.

For example in a remote village in Kodad and Kothagudem Assembly segments, local leaders have created groups to receive the applications at the MLA camp office.

It is learnt that even for MLA's approval, applicants have to depend on brokers. But no one was willing to lodge a complaint fearing that their application may get rejected. The applicants say the middlemen were collecting applications based on recommendation from mandal level local body representatives.

Once this process is over, the bribe factor enters the scene. Middlemen, it is alleged, were demanding bribes which ranged from Rs 1 to Rs 2 lakh. The beneficiary must pay Rs 50,000 as advance amount. Balance payment after the cheque for Rs 10 lakh was ready for disbursal, an applicant on condition of anonymity told The Hans India.

In some cases, when the number of applications were high, the Rs 10 lakh amount was being distributed between two persons who would get a cheque for Rs 5 lakh each. But in turn they must pay Rs 2 lakh to the agents. It is also alleged that the middlemen were demanding commission from automobile dealers also for speedy release of cheques to buy tractors, harvesters and minibuses.