Former Keshkal MLA Krishna Kumar Dhruv has demanded a thorough probe into the corruption involving crores of rupees in the name of making women self-reliant and providing employment opportunities. Former MLA Dhruv says that the central and state governments are giving funds and grants to make women self-reliant by forming self-help groups, training them in employment-oriented work, linking them with employment, but the middlemen with the help of corrupt officials, in the name of training and setting up business/industry, are minting riches while and women are reduced to mere laborers or they been forced to sit at home unemployed and in debt after their business collapses.

 

Giving example, former MLA Krishnakumar Dhruv told that a social service organisation which trained women members of Maa Danteshwari Bunkar Co-operative Society of village Bafna of Kondagaon, committed such fraud that the society has gone bankrupt. In the name of training, the said social worker organisation received lakhs of rupees through the bank. The said institution applied to the collector for the amount of training, but the money went to the bank in the name of women’s group and women’s co-operative society, which was given to the fraud organization by ignoring the rules and regulations laid down by the bank. How the bankers made the payment to another institution by not following the procedure can be a serious matter of investigation.

 

A written complaint was made to the police by the members of Maa Danteshwari Bunkar Co-operative Society, but no action has been taken till today. A written complaint was also made to the collector, but the irony was that even the administration, without taking it seriously, did not get any proper investigation done and no action was taken. Like the committee in Bafna, many women cooperative societies and SHG members in Kondagaon district have become debtridden. Kondagaon District Administration is claiming that more than eight thousand women groups have been made self-reliant with employment opportunities through providing loans from banks, but the ground reality is contrary. Many groups were given training and grants for making cement bricks in the district, but Keshkal development block SHGs of Korkoti and Silati of Baderajpur and Gamhari and Chhoterajpur of Baderajpur, who wanted to set up cement bricks industry, became indebted. Similarly, Mushroom farming, quail farming, fish farming, pig farming, goat farming and dairy work were started in Gothan by inaugurating the newly constructed Gothan in Dhanora, Keshkal in a public meeting Chief Minister. In the name of showing off mushroom farming to the Chief Minister, the concerned officials hanged the mushroom seeds, which were completely destroyed and the group’s funds were wasted. Similarly, in the name of purchase of equipment and other material in the name of displaying fisheries, the group was put in debt.

 

After the inauguration by the Chief Minister, no official paid any attention to the condition of the group. In Farsgaon development block too, a lot of publicity was given to the women by making bangles, soaps and bricks and becoming prosperous by joining employment, whose condition is also bad. Former MLA Krishna Kumar Dhruv says that the biggest scam in the state has happened and is happening in the name of making women self-reliant by providing employment, which needs to be closely investigated along with physical verification. In the public interest, the government is requested to take the trouble of getting a high level inquiry done