by Venkat Iyer
Everything seemed to go well till one month some people found that the current bill did not reflect their last month’s payment. They went to the centre and questioned Amit. He promised to check and get back and dismissed it as an error. Soon enough the number of people who turned up complaining that the last month’s payment was not reflecting in the bills had shot up.
It did not take long to figure out what had happened. After the initial months of remitting the amount to MSEB the businessman had stopped paying. Amit, along with a few friends, went to Malad, Mumbai, to check the address they had been given. They just saw a locked office. When they checked with the neighbours they were told that the office had shut down a couple of months ago and they had no idea where the owners were. While they were standing outside the office they met a lot of other youngsters who had also come there to check. They were all in the same situation as Amit. It transpired that the scam was not limited to Kasa but was spread across the entire area from Virar to Dahanu. There were more than twenty-odd franchisees that had been opened to cheat people.
They all went to the police and lodged complaints. Months passed by but the police were unable to trace the businessman or his associates. The total amount of money he had duped from the unsuspecting franchisees ran into crores. The centre at Kasa owed around Rs 30 lakh to MSEB which Amit had collected but had not been paid to MSEB. When they approached MSEB they were told that they had no idea about the franchisees that had been opened and they had only given permission to the company to collect money on their behalf. They had no idea where the owner was and what had happened to the company.
Amit had no choice but to refund some of the money to the consumers who were thronging his home in Nanivali. The case has still not been solved and the businessman is absconding.
Twinkle, Twinkle
Twinkle was a chit fund company extremely popular in our village. Jayesh the postman was the official agent for the company and did his work diligently. Each month you paid money to the chit fund with assurances that after six years you got double of what you had paid. The monthly deposit can be as low as Rs 500. You also had the option of parking large sums which will be doubled after the mandatory six years.
Jayesh had approached me too, asking for some money to be put into the fund. He showed me papers and brochures that spoke at length of the benefits of it. I did my checks on the Internet and found nothing that said the company was reliable. Some good sense prevailed and I did not part with any of our money. I also warned Baban and family that this did not look good and they should be wary of it. I suggested that they open fixed deposits in the bank which is more reliable and gave pretty good returns. In spite of my warning, Baban’s son started putting Rs 2000 each month into the fund.
For some reason the villagers do not like going to the bank. They are scared of the paperwork and the rude attitude of the staff. Here Jayesh the agent came home each month and collected the money. They did not even have to fill any form; he did everything for you. The entire transaction was in cash which suited the villagers. Also the idea of getting double the money was more alluring than complex interest rates which they could not understand.
After the demonetization was announced, Vipul called me and asked about Twinkle. I asked him why he had asked. He said, ‘A large number of these chit funds have collapsed as they dealt in cash only.’ Sure enough, the next month, Jayesh did not come to collect the monthly deposit. When everyone asked him he just said there were some issues with the company but all will be resolved.
The company had collapsed. All those who had put their money in it now started hounding Jayesh asking for explanations. The situation turned so bad that he had to move to his wife’s village for a few days till the heat died down. A few months later he went to each family and assured them that they would all get what they had invested without any interest. For this they would have to fill up a form. He promised that the money would be paid in a few months.
Forms have been filled and submitted but no one has yet got their money back.
Sarkari Troubles
While farming was becoming increasingly absorbing, the one source of trouble I had was with the government or sarkar, as people referred to it in the village. Right from the day I wished to buy land I had been at loggerheads with the administration. It seemed that corruption was rampant around us. Since we had already decided that we would not pay money to get work done there was no other option but to take them head on for each and every activity that we wanted done through them.
For a simple task like getting a copy of the 7/12 extract from the revenue department, I had to meet the official concerned and fight to get the work done. The villagers always commented that I was just wasting my time and energy since the same task could be done in a jiffy if I were willing to agree to their demands. My efforts to explain to them that these were due to them without any fees and the talati’s existence as a revenue official was to serve the people did not find any favour with them.
After five years of farming, I was surprised when one day I was paid a visit by an officer from the Surya canal project. This project was completed around twenty years ago with the sole purpose of supplying irrigation water to the Adivasi villages in Thane district for agricultural purposes. Most of the villages around benefited from this canal and were able to grow two crops instead of one. Besides giving water to the villages the water was also being diverted to the industrial estate near Boisar. It was rumoured that the industrial estate paid a huge sum of money to the government for the use of this water.
Our land was on high ground compared to the surrounding land and hence there was no access to canal water. I invited the officer and offered him water and tea. After the usual small talk he told me the purpose of his visit. He claimed that since I was drawing water from the river I would have to pay the government for the use of water. I was shocked and explained to him that the river was a natural resource. The pipes were mine. The pump to draw water was mine. I had a meter and paid for the power to run the pump.
Since everything that irrigated the land was personal and the water was natural, why would I be required to pay the Government of Maharashtra for the water? What was their contribution to the irrigation of my land? He mumbled about some rule that had been passed by the irrigation department and he had no access to the same. I told him that I would find out and asked him what would be the kind of money that they would charge for a year.
His reply made it clear why he had taken the trouble of visiting me at the farm. He said it would be in thousands but was willing to reduce it if I ‘cooperated’ with him. This made me lose my cool. I told him to leave immediately and to serve me a bill of the huge thousands he was talking about. I also told him I would take the matter up with the authorities concerned and as of now would not part with a single penny.
After this episode there was no news from the Surya canal project office till almost a year later when a gang of five people landed up at the farm with a senior officer in tow. The officer was also from the Surya project and he explained that the money I would pay was for the government to recover the cost of the dam. I told him that this was acceptable to me but they would have to tell me how much and I would need a bill for the same. I was not ready to part with any amount without any paper evidence. He assured me that he would send a bill immediately and wanted to know how much land I owned so he could calculate the amount. I told him that the land I owned could not be the basis for the calculation since I did not use water on all the land. The usage was dependant on the crop and the area that was used for agriculture only. I had so many trees on the land which I did not water at all. Why would I pay for use of water on that land? I also explained to him that the consumption of water would vary according to the crop I sowed and they cannot charge me a fixed rate based on the area that was irrigated.
The poor man had no answer to my questions. He said they did not have the mechanism for this kind of detailed analysis but he agreed to measure only the pa
rt that I had sowed and calculate the amount based on that. His team went around the farm measuring the land that had been used. He promised to send me an official bill which he said would arrive in fifteen days.
Almost a year later, one of the villagers, Santosh, called me and handed over a bill for Rs 1700 from the Surya project office as dues for water usage. They had calculated the use of water from 2000, when I had not even bought the land and arrived at the figure. I showed the bill to Meena and asked her to inquire with the irrigation department. The bill had no details nor workings on how they had arrived at the figure. I was ready to pay the money if they agreed to share the calculation with me.
She went to the irrigation department in Mumbai. They all laughed at her and told her that in their entire career in the department this was the first time that a farmer had come asking for calculation details and wanting to pay. They advised her to keep the bill safely and forget it. We had no idea what the scam was but we decided to pay the bill. Since then no official has visited us and no other bill has been served.
In 2008, there was a cyclone which wrecked crops in the state and the government decided to compensate the farmers for the loss. The procedure was that the talati and the agricultural officer would visit the village to assess the damage and then pay the compensation. I kept asking Baban if any officer had come but there were no visits. A few months later Baban told me he had got compensation from the government. I went to the sarpanch and asked him why my name was not on the list. He promised to find out.
A few days later, he explained that there had been some mix-up and my name did not figure in the list eligible for compensation. I was furious at being left out as I was a legitimate farmer and did lose crops. He calmed me down and said that he would ensure that the next time I would be included and to forget this year’s compensation. I agreed to not raise the issue and gave him a copy of my 7/12 extract so I could be included in the next round, if any.
Two years later, in 2010, there was excessive rain and most of the rice crop, including mine, got washed away. We barely got enough rice to store as seeds for the next year. The government again rushed to the rescue of the farmers and announced a compensation package. This time I went to the sarpanch and reminded him that I had to be included. I had lost all my rice and I too was a farmer in the village like them. He agreed to inform the authorities and include my name.
A year later the entire village received the compensation except me. On inquiring, the sarpanch expressed his inability to do anything but claimed he had given my papers to the field officer of the agricultural department. This time around I was not going to take this exclusion and needed answers.
I went to the agriculture department near Dahanu and met an officer there. I told him my problem and also showed him a copy of my 7/12 extract. He flipped though some register and said he could not find my name. I asked him who would have the answer on why I was excluded. He calmly told me to contact the talati since he was the one who had made the list. I immediately went to meet the talati at Kasa.
He was not around but the circle inspector, his senior, was willing to help me. He explained that his job was only to provide the list of land records and the agriculture department was the one which prepared the list eligible for compensation. I requested him to show me the register so that I could confirm that my name did indeed figure in the list of people having land in Peth village. He showed me the register with my name but refused to allow me to take a photocopy of the same. I realized that this was another game of passing the buck being played by both the revenue and the agriculture department.
I decided to take the matter to another level. I wrote a long letter to the agriculture minister and the agriculture secretary at Mantralaya, the state secretariat, and went and gave the letters personally to the departments. I got signed receipts of the letter. The letter asked for an explanation of why my name was not included in the list of farmers eligible for compensation due to excessive monsoon in 2010.
I waited for a month to pass, knowing well that there would be no response from the two offices. A month later I filed a Right to Information (RTI) plea with the department concerned, this time asking for details on the action taken by them on my letter and a request for information on any such action.
My RTI plea had the desired effect. I got mails from the department saying that they had forwarded the matter to the Thane district headquarters and I would hear from them soon. A few days later a letter arrived from the Thane district headquarters saying that they had sent it to Dahanu for further action. So they were keeping me updated on each action they were taking on my letter.
The very next week I got a call from Khare, the taluk agriculture officer. At first he was aggressive and told me that I should not have written to his seniors but approached him first and so on. I listened to him for some time and then calmly told him that I had filed an RTI and it was his job to reply to the same, not call me. I also mentioned to him that time was running out since as per the RTI Act he had to reply in thirty days or face penal action for not replying.
The next week I was at the farm and Khare, with a large team of six people, came to meet me. These included the agriculture officer of the village, the sarpanch of our village, the taluk officer and the nodal officer. They sat down and the agriculture officer of the village, Gharat, made the introductions. At the end of it I asked him who he was. He said he was our village officer. I turned to his superiors and smiled and told them that for the last eight years I had been here the local village officer had had no time to visit my land. I did not even recognize him. How on earth would he know what was the damage on my land and how much compensation I would receive?
The tone for the interaction had been set. They spoke at length on various schemes and benefits that they wished to bring to the village and how they would transform the entire agriculture. I listened patiently and then told them that I had never heard of any scheme of assistance from the department in the last eight years. I could see Gharat fumbling and turning red in the background. Besides I told them that the purpose of the visit was not schemes but my exclusion from the compensation list and it might be better if we discussed that.
The officers tried to impress on me that it was incorrect to file an RTI for such a trivial matter and it would have been better if I had met them directly. I was waiting for this suggestion, and immediately told them how I had been to their office and had been misguided to the talati’s office by none other than the agriculture officer.
I explained to the officers that this was not a question of money but a matter of service and incorrect data being generated. If the real assessment had been done and the visit to the fields taken place they would have included my name.
They all looked sheepish and knew that I was right. They had done no visits and had just picked up the previous year’s list and sent it across. Finally they asked what solution I wished for. They hinted that they would include me under some scheme if I withdrew my RTI plea. I refused to do any such thing and told them that there was no question of accepting any other scheme in lieu of the 2010 compensation.
I told Khare that it was a mistake by their department and they would have to accept it. He asked me to reconsider my decision since it would mean a major embarrassment to his team. He hinted that this procedure would take a lot of time and it may take months for the money to come. I refused to back down and told him that I had waited for two years for the money to come and a few more months would hardly matter.
They left after walking around the farm, but not before one last-ditch attempt by the sarpanch to request me to withdraw the RTI plea and forget it. I asked him if he was willing to be left out of the compensation. I told him not to get involved and let me do what I thought was right. After they left, I wondered why the sarpanch was so keen on seeing me withdraw my RTI petition. Could it be that he was in cahoots with the agriculture department and had taken what was due to me?
It was a joy when after three weeks
I got a call from the department saying that my compensation had been calculated and it would be transferred to my bank account soon. They wanted a letter from me saying that I was happy with the solution and my RTI plea was closed. I told the officer that when I saw the entry in my passbook I would surely send him a letter, but nothing till then.
The question was not about the money but the effort I had to put in to get what was due to me. There was no central method of information dissemination and everyone relied on the field officer to tell them what was due to them. I wondered how a poor farmer would get his or her dues if they had to go through so much red tape and paperwork.
Murder
Right from the start, I felt I would have a problem with Ramesh, who was an alcoholic. His house was on the side of the road as soon as you entered the village. Our paths would cross many times as I went to the farm or returned from there. His elder son, Jitesh, worked in Boisar and visited his parents rarely while the younger one, Bunty, was a sweet boy who had failed to clear his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations and worked in a factory close by.
Whenever I met Ramesh, he would always greet me with his bloodshot eyes and ask me if there was any work at the farm. I politely refused his help. He would then launch into an explanation of how good a worker he was and how he needed money since his wife was ill and had to be taken care of. I was aware that all he needed was a quick buck to quench his thirst.
Ramesh drank all day and had raging rows with his wife whom he beat up very often. The village tried to reason with him but things did not change. One evening when the day was drawing to a close, he swaggered to the farm where we were all sitting and having tea. He demanded that I give him money. I could see Baban frantically gesticulating from behind telling me not to. I told him that he could work at the farm for money but I was unwilling to lend him any.