A bad day at BDO's office

A bad day at BDO's office
By SANTOSH K. KIRO | www.telegraphindia.com

Ormanjhi (Ranchi), Aug. 28: It was another unhappy day for most of the 100-odd villagers who had gathered at the block development office in the hope of wrapping up unfinished business ranging from a caste or birth certificate to pending payments for work done on an MGNREGS project last week.
Anna Hazare and the Lokpal bill may have driven the national consciousness for the past 12 days or so, but they mean little to the likes of Parashuram Munda or Ramlal Mahto, regular visitors here since their work never seems to get done.
Government officials manning the block office, the first point of contact for the aam aadmi to the government machinery, look tired, wearing their usual don't-care-less attitude on their sleeves.
Given its proximity to the state capital ' barely 20km away ' the Ormanjhi office, under the leadership of the local BDO, could well have been a shade more efficient than similar offices in the interiors of a state that is beset with problems ranging from Maoist terror to malnutrition to fraudulent practices by middlemen in the implementation of the Centre's flagship job scheme.
But it isn't. It is as insensitive as any government office can be.
"I have been moving from pillar to post since February. But, I have not succeeded in getting my work done," said Parashuram (45), a resident of Piparwanda village, who visits the BDO's office regularly to get Rs 57,000 he was sanctioned last year to prepare his three-acre plot for planting trees on commercial basis.
He has already spent Rs 20,000 on his own, but has had to abandon the project midway as the block has issued him Rs 2,500 so far.
"As I had no money to pay labourers' wages, I had to mortgage a piece of land. The government dishes out a dream by announcing such schemes. But the truth is that families that fall for these schemes, get destroyed due to the official (attitude)," Parashuram said, claiming that his refusal to pay them a "commission" was the root of his problems.
About a hundred villagers like him visit the BDO's office regularly. They crowd around the tables of babus, pleading their cases be taken up and their problems resolved once for all.
Their business centres around caste certificates for tribals and Scheduled Tribes, income certificates and land mutation.
Development and government welfare schemes are also under the ambit of the BDO to implement. For instance, construction of village roads and culverts, implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojna scheme, digging community ponds and wells, setting up bore-wells, carrying out tribal welfare activities, monitoring education in the area, et al.
Now that the panchayati raj system is in place, the BDO has the added responsibility of coordinating with the elected representatives.
Jitendra Bedia, a youngster from Gagari village, was there for a income certificate he needs for admission to Ranchi University to pursue a masters degree in economics.
"Block officials are delaying matters… I need the certificate at the time of admission," he said.
Ramlal Mahto of Kute was there for mutation of land. "I am running to the block office for the last three months for mutation of a piece of land that I have bought. The officials give me different reasons for the delay every time I come," he said.
Waiting alongside was Dhaneshwar Mahto, a resident of Anandi village. He was at the BDO's office for a birth certificate of his son Sanjay, who studies in Class IX at SS High School, Ormanjhi.
The officer who was supposed to issue the certificate wasn't in. "I will have to come again another day," he sighed.
BDO D.K. Bhatt did not agree his office was as bad as it was being made out to be. The villagers' allegations were isolated cases, he said, but promised to look into them.
"Today, villagers are well aware that we cannot put things in the cold sack unnecessarily. As much as possible, the work of villagers are done by us as soon as they come to us," he said. "But, some cases may be stuck due to administrative reasons, say a beneficiary may have not submitted the desired documents."
But the villagers of Ormanjhi are tired. All they want is that their work get done, and on time. Some of them even lit candles in the evenings in support of Hazare's anti-corruption campaign.
But not Parashuram Munda, Jitendra Bedia, Ramlal Mahto and Dhaneswar Mahto. They simply don't have the time.

The more we want to change a system, the more they remain the same.
This is what Anna is fighting against.
I suppose it will take some time for the message to percolate down to the lowest level.
As Anna send, the present victory is partial.
Unless the law is passed and the concerned people start working as per it. victory will nt be complete