Raj govt forbids civil society members from conducting social audit of village projects

Rajasthan government has forbidden the members of the civil society organisations from conducting social audits of village development projects, according to an order.The step was taken after village Sarpanchs staged a protest regarding the same.As per the order of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Members of Civil Society have been removed from the social audit teams as village resource persons.

Rajasthan government has forbidden the members of the civil society organisations from conducting social audits of village development projects, according to an order.

The step was taken after village Sarpanchs staged a protest regarding the same.

As per the order of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, ''Members of Civil Society'' have been removed from the social audit teams as village resource persons. The Sarpanch Sangh welcomed the move. ''This was one of our demands to remove civil society members from social audit teams. They do not have an understanding of work records. They are not trained. They work with an agenda to prove sarpanch as thieves. They target Sarpanch and secretary,'' Banshidhar Garhwal, President of Rajasthan Sarpanch Sangh said. He said there are other alternatives to civil society members for conducting these audits. Meanwhile, civil rights activist Aruna Roy on Monday condemned the decision, alleging that the social audit of rural development projects is not being done as per the rules of the state government which has resulted in rampant corruption. Social activist Nikhil Dey said the state government has not formed an independent directorate for social audits for a long time and when some steps were taken in this direction and the audit process got started as per the rules of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, village Sarpanchs started opposing it. This raises questions over the transparency and accountability of the state government, he said.

''We demand social audits as per CAG norms,'' Chief of PUCL's Rajasthan unit, Kavita Srivastav, said.