Raj Govt Disrupting Social Audit Due To Sarpanch Sangh: Roy | Jaipur News

Jaipur: Social activist Aruna Roy, a member of Suchna Evam Rojgar Adhikar Abhiyaan, a civil society group on Monday accused the state government of ‘disrupting the process of social audit’ and making it ‘ineffective’ due to the pressure of the Sarpanch Sangh.
She said the ‘Abhiyaan’ will launch a ‘yatra’ soon demanding enactment of the Rajasthan Transparency and Social Accountability law.
In a press statement issued by the group, it stated, “According to an order, dated August 6, as per instructions given during the high-level talks with the Sarpanch Sangh, the words ‘members of the civil society organisations and members of Suchana Evam Rojgar Adhikar Abhiyaan’ were deleted by making amendments to point number 3 of the Office Order No. 8976, dated July 26, which talks about selection and formation of social audit teams.” “The Abhiyaan believes Sarpanch Sangh’s opposition to social audit is an unfair and illegal step and the government’s submission to their illegal demands raises questions about the transparency and accountability of the government,” it stated.
“It is worth mentioning that the group has not conducted any social audits. It has only trained the social audit teams so that audit could be conducted as per criteria set by the CAG. The question arises, ‘why are sarpanches and village development officers scared of the social audit,” it stated.
“The reality is that for a long time an independent directorate for social audit was not created in Rajasthan. Now, when some steps were being taken in that direction and the process of social audit had begun as per the criteria set by the CAG, the Sarpanch Sangh started mobilising against it. Coming under the pressure of the Sarpanch Sangh, the state government made the process of social audit ineffective,” it added.
The statement further said, “This ineffective process was identified by the central government and NIRD (National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj). Hence, the central government allocated less labour budget this year due to the lack of effective social audit by the state government and has threatened not to release the money.”