Magsaysay awardee to file PIL against Mayawati's birthday bash

Ramon Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey on Wednesday said he would file a public interest litigation against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for the blatant misuse of tax-payers' money for her birthday party.

"I propose to move a PIL against this as a part of my new mission to combat corruption," Pandey told reporters.

Pandey is currently staging a sit-in in Lalpur–Bharawan block of Hardoi district, about 102 km from here, against what he calls pilferage of funds meant for various development works in the district.

Pandey bagged year 2002's Ramon Magsaysay award in the emergent leadership category for his work 'towards the upliftment of the poor and the underprivileged in India'.

Pandey sees the "gross misuse of development funds" at the grassroots level as a glaring example of the deplorable state of affairs in India's most populous state. "Rampant corruption, pilferage of funds and diversion of development funds in the wrong direction are largely responsible for the economic backwardness of Uttar Pradesh," Pandey said.

He said "devolution of power to gram pradhans (village heads) had failed to improve things at the village level."

A mechanical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where he also taught as a professor for sometime after completing his doctorate from Berkeley University, Pandey has undertaken education and other development projects through his National Alliance of People's Movements.

"It is amply evident that there is a vicious circle of corruption with the entire political and administrative machinery neck-deep in it," he said. "The gram pradhan accepts bribes, shares the loot with his superiors in the bureaucracy, from where a share is again passed on to the political masters, leaving the target beneficiary of a development scheme – the poor and the needy – high and dry," he said.

Pandey was shocked when after he had brought the administrative bunglings in his block to the notice of the district magistrate with sufficient evidence, no action was initiated against the guilty. "Right from the district magistrate to the chief minister, I have sent my complaint together with the statement of accounts and a corresponding chart of the development tasks accomplished, but to no avail," he said.

"I had no choice but to stage a sit-in, which is to be followed by an indefinite fast," Pandey added.

When contacted, District Magistrate M A A Khan told rediff.com:  "I have just received the complaint which took time to reach here through the official channel. Now, there is a laid down procedure to look into complaints against gram pradhans and I will go by the rule book."

He then went to add: "Let me tell you, this man [Pandey] is unnecessarily annoying all the gram pradhans, who were threatening to teach him a lesson...I advised them to restrain themselves."