A farmer from Hassan sought documents through RTI to expose the Panchayat scam. To pay the ₹32,000 required for the 16,000 pages, he sold his milk cow and obtained the documents.
Hassan (Karnataka): To obtain documents for Gram Panchayat work, a farmer sold his milk-giving cow. This incident happened in Hassan district. When he needed money to get documents under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the farmer sold his reared cow.
₹32,000 for 16,000 pages!
This case pertains to BS Ravi, a farmer of Basavanahalli Koppalu village in Arkalagudu taluk of Hassan district. Ravi suspected that there was a scam in the works of 15th Finance Commission Scheme in his Kalenahalli Gram Panchayat. He had applied under RTI to get the documents of this scam. The PDO (Panchayat Development Officer) tried to scare them by saying that the documents totaled 16,000 pages. But the farmer was not afraid. He said, “Whatever happens remains to be seen, I am ready to pay the money.” As per the rule of law, the farmer had to pay a total of ₹32,000 at the rate of ₹2 for every page.
Ravi obtained documents by selling cow
When it became difficult to pay such a huge amount, farmer Ravi could not think of any other way. He raised the money by selling one of his milk-giving cows for ₹32,000. By paying this amount, he obtained 16,000 pages of documents from the Gram Panchayat.
Documents carried in bullock cart!
After taking the heavy bundle of documents containing thousands of pages, farmer Ravi used a bullock cart to carry it, which was quite unusual. He took the copies of the documents to his village by bullock cart. Gram Panchayat officials and employees were surprised by this step of farmer Ravi.
try to scare by complaining
It is being said that when Ravi went to collect the documents, some people even lodged a false complaint with the police to stop him. But, he was not intimidated by the threats and finally obtained the documents with the money he got from selling his cow. Now he is ready to expose the Panchayat scam.