Banabai Kumre
The agriculture department official told Banabai Kumre that nothing would come of her complaint of corruption, because he had already paid hush money to the district collector and the chief minister. So the septuagenarian did what she thought was best: She went to Mumbai and asked Maharashtra’s chief minister if he had received a cut on the check dam on her land.
Banabai hails from village Kharula in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district. Banabai’s family of six barely managed to make ends meet. Though her extended family (of more than 20 people) owned a farm as big as 10 ha, only parts of it were cultivable, where they grew jowar, pulses and paddy. But their routine was upset in early June this year when a check dam flooded the field after a spell of heavy rains. The rushing waters destroyed the seedlings on Banabai’s land. The dam was not very old. It was constructed barely a year ago. Banabai decided to report the matter to the agriculture department’s office at Yavatmal Tehsil. After all, Rs. 3 lakh was spent under the Prime Minister’s relief package for constructing the dam.
An inspection team of the department visited the site on June 16, 2008. It confirmed Banabai’s allegations that inferior quality material was used to construct the dam. Fearing consequences, the supervisor with the agriculture department, who was involved with the construction of the dam, went to Banabai’s house and unleashed a volley of threats. He accused her of breaking the dam and told her that he had ‘fixed’ all the higher ups.
Unfazed, Banabai filed a second complaint with the district collector, mentioning the supervisor’s threats and demanded that the official be suspended. She alleged that only Rs 1 lakh had been spent on the dam, instead of the officially sanctioned Rs 3 lakh. She also alleged that instead of black soil, murum (a local variety of thick gravel) was used to construct the dam. But there was no action. So Banabai went back to the collector’s office on July 1, and asked him directly, ‘Did you take a bribe?’ The collector was initially speechless. But within moments his team was in a hustle. An inspection team was dispatched immediately to the check dam site.
The memory of that day is precious to Banabai. ‘The inspection team and I had to travel by the collector’s own official vehicle with a red lamp, because there was no other vehicle at the collectorate at that time,’ she says with a smile. The team’s findings confirmed Banabai’s allegations. With the support of media as well as Yavatmal District Panchayat Samiti, and the intervention of the Chief Minister, action was taken against the supervisor.
Background: This is one of the true stories uploaded on the website of the Central Information Commission, Government of India. Not all battles against corruption end on such a happy note!
Courage and conviction, again. When you are likely to lose something, which is the only thing, or you have lost it altogether, what is there for one to fear. Solid stubbornness sets in and courage to speak out comes out so naturally and probably in great decibels This is a good example when people have to confront officialdom or the bureaucracy. Often people buckle down to pay bribe and get things going. What a fate and what a shame to the Indian Constitution.
What’s interesting would be to see the factors that make someone like Banabai Kumre who was able to muster so much courage to go and meet the next level authorities knowing very well that she had her family could face grave harm. Its’ the kind of courage that the warriors display when they charge onto a gun that is pointed at them! Although we have examples of people with similar courage, they are so rare! Have wondered why. Is it the way we are educated or is it the way we grow up in the society. Whatever they are, the factors that make people like Banabai Kumre are like those precious metals that we get after a lot of sieving…