Right To Information(RTI) Movement

In the early 2000s, Anna Hazare led a movement in Maharashtra state, which forced the Government of Maharashtra to repeal the earlier weak act and pass a stronger Maharashtra Right to Information Act. This Act was later considered as the base document for the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI), enacted by the Union Government. It also ensured that the President of India assented to this new Act.Law professor Alasdair Scott Roberts mentions,

“ The state of Maharashtra - home to one of the world's largest cities, Mumbai, adopted a Right to Information Act in 2003, prodded by the hunger strike of prominent activist, Anna Hazare. ("All corruption can end only if there is freedom of information," said Hazare, who resumed his strike in February 2004 to push for better enforcement of the Act).”

On 20 July 2006, the Union Cabinet decided to amend the Right to Information Act 2005 to exclude the file notings by the government officials from its purview. Hazare began his 'fast unto death' on 9 August 2006 against the proposed amendment in Alandi. He ended his fast on 19 August 2006, after the government agreed to change its earlier decision

Anti-Corruption Protest in Maharashtra

In 1991, Hazare launched the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA) (People's Movement against Corruption), a popular movement to fight against corruption in Ralegaon Siddhi. In the same year he protested against the collusion between 40 forest officials and the timber merchants. This protest resulted in the transfer and suspension of these officials.

In May 1997, Hazare protested against the alleged malpractices in the purchase of powerlooms by the Vasantrao Naik Bhathya Vimukt Jamati Vikas Manch and the Mahatma Phule Magasvargiya Vikas Mandal. These institutions were directly under the charge of then Maharashtra Social Welfare minister Babanrao Gholap of the Shiv Sena, since their managing committees were dissolved after the Shiv Sena-BJP government came to power in the state in 1995. 

Hazare also raised the issue of alleged massive land purchase by Gholap's wife Shashikala in Nashik between April to September 1996. He forwarded the available documentary evidences in support of his allegations to then Maharashtra Governor P. C. Alexander.

On 4 November 1997, Gholap filed a defamation suit against Hazare for accusing him of corruption. He was initially arrested in April 1998 and was released on a personal bond of Rs 5,000.On 9 September 1998, Anna Hazare was imprisoned in the Yerawada Jail after being sentenced to simple imprisonment for three months by the Mumbai Metropolitan Court.The sentencing came as a huge shock at that time to all social activists. 

           Leaders of all political parties except the BJP and the Shiv Sena came in support of him Later due to public protests, the Government of Maharashtra ordered his release from the jail. After release, Hazare wrote a letter to then chief minister Manohar Joshi demanding Gholap's removal for his role in the alleged malpractices in the Awami Merchant Bank.Gholap resigned from the cabinet on 27 April 1999.

In 2003, the corruption charges were raised by Hazare against 4 ministers of the Congress-NCP government belonging to the NCP.He started his 'fast unto death' on 9 August 2003. He ended his fast on 17 August 2003 after then chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde formed a one man commission, headed by the retired justice P. B. Sawant to probe his charges.

                                                          The P. B. Sawant commission report, submitted on 23 February 2005, indicted Sureshdada Jain, Nawab Malik and Padmasinh Patil. The report exonerated Vijaykumar Gavit.Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik resigned from the cabinet in March 2005

Anna's dedication towards work in Ralegaon

1.Prohibition of alcohol.

2.Grain Bank.

3.Watershed development programme.

4.Milk production.

5.Education.

6.Removal of untouchability.

7.Collective Marriages.

8.Gram sabha.

Gram Sabha

Anna campaigned between 1998 and 2006 for amending the Gram Sabha Act, so that the people (meaning the villagers) have a say in the development works in their village. While the state government refused to bend to his demand, it had to give in due to public pressure.

As per the amendments, seeking sanction of the Gram Sabha (an assembly of all village adults, and not just the few elected representatives in the gram panchayat) for expenditure on development works in the village, is mandatory. In case of expenditure without the sanction of the Gram Sabha, 20% of Gram Sabha members can lodge a complaint to the chief executive officer of the zilla parishad with their signatures. The chief executive officer is required to visit the village and conduct an inquiry within 30 days and submit the report to the divisional commissioner, who has powers to remove the sarpanch or deputy sarpanch and dismiss the gram sevak involved. Anna was not satisfied, as the amended Act did not include "the right to recall a sarpanch". He insisted that this should be included and the state government relented.

In Ralegan Siddhi, the Gram Sabha meetings are held periodically to discuss issues relating to the welfare of the village. Projects like Watershed development activities are undertaken only after they are discussed in the Gram Sabha. All decisions like Nashabandi (bans on alcohol), Kurhadbandi (bans on tree felling), Charai bandi (bans on grazing), and Shramdan were taken in the Gram Sabha. Decisions are taken in a simple majority consensus. In case of a difference of opinion the majority consensus becomes acceptable. The decision of the Gram Sabha is accepted as final.

In addition to the panchayat, there are several registered societies that take care of various projects and activities of the village. Each society presents its annual report and statement of accounts in the Gram Sabha every year. The Sant Yadavbaba Shikshan Prasarak Mandal monitors the educational activities. The Vividh Karyakari Society gives assistance and provides guidance to farmers regarding fertilizers, seeds, organic farming and financial assistance. The Sri Sant Yadavbaba Doodh Utpadhak Sahakari Sanstha gives guidance regarding the dairy business. Seven Co-operative irrigation societies provide water to the farmers from cooperative wells. The Mahila Sarvage Utkarsh Mandal attends the welfare needs of the women

Collective marriages

Most rural poor get into a debt-trap as they have to incur heavy expenses at the time of marriage of their son or daughter. It is an undesirable practice but has almost become a social obligation in India. Ralegan's people have started celebrating marriages collectively. 

The feast is held together where the expenses are further reduced by the Tarun Mandal taking the responsibility for cooking and serving the food. The vessels, the Loudspeaker system, the mandap and the decorations have also been bought by the Tarun Mandal members belonging to the oppressed castes. From 1976 to 1986, 424 marriages have been held under this system.

Removal Of Untouchability

The social barriers that existed due to the caste system in India have been broken down by Ralegan Siddhi villagers and people of all castes come together to celebrate social events. The people of Ralegan have largely succeeded in eradicating social discrimination on the basis of caste. The Dalits have been integrated into the social and economic life of the village. The villagers have built houses for the Dalits, and helped to repay their loans to free them from their indebtedness.

Education

    In 1932, Ralegan Siddhi got its first formal school, a single class room primary school. In 1962, the villagers added more classrooms through community volunteer efforts. By 1971, out of an estimated population of 1209, only 30.43% were literate (72 women and 290 men). Boys moved to the nearby towns of Shirur and Parner to pursue higher education, but due to socioeconomic conditions, girls could not do the same and were limited to primary education. Anna Hazare along with the youth of Ralegan Siddhi worked to increase literacy rates and education levels. In 1976, they started a pre school for the primary school and a high school in 1979. The villagers started taking active interest in the village school and formed a charitable trust, the Sant Yadavbaba Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, which was registered in 1979.The trust decided to take over the function of the village school which was in a bad state due to government neglect and also lack of interest on behalf of teachers who were moonlighting.

The trust obtained a government grant of Indian Rupee symbol.svg 4 lakhs (400,000) for the school building using the National Rural Education Programme (NREP). A new school building was built in the next 2 months with volunteer efforts and the money obtained via the grant. A new hostel was also constructed to house 200 students from poorer sections of society. After the opening of the school in the village, a girl from Ralegan Siddhi became the first female in the village to complete her SSC in 1982.

Since then the school has been instrumental in bringing in many of changes to the village. This school has a hostel for 150 boarders. Traditional farming practices are tought in this school in addition to the government curriculum.

Milk production

     

      As a secondary occupation, milk production was promoted in Ralegan Siddhi. Purchase of new cattle and improvement of the existing breed with the help of artificial insemination and timely guidance and assistance by the veterinary doctor has resulted in an improvement in the cattle stock. As a result, the milk production has increased. Crossbred cows are replacing local ones which give a low milk yield. The number of milk cattle has also been growing, which resulted in growth from one hundred litres (before 1975) to around 2500 litres per day which is sent to a co-operative dairy (Malganga Dairy) in Ahmednagar. Some milk is also given to Balwadi (kindergarten) children and neighbouring villages under the child nutrition program sponsored by the Zilla Parishad.

From the surplus generated, the milk society bought a mini-truck and a thresher. Besides transporting milk to Ahmednagar, the mini-truck is also used for taking vegetables and other produce directly to the market, thus eliminating intermediate agents. The thresher is rented out to the farmers during the harvesting season.

Watershed development

Anna Hazare realised that the only way to increase agricultural production in a sustainable manner was to build a better irrigation system. Taking into account the geographical location of Ralegan , located in the foothills, Anna Hazare persuaded villagers to construct a watershed embankment to stop water and allow it to percolate and increase the ground water level. He motivated the residents of the village into shramdan (voluntary labour) to build canals, small-scale check-dams and percolation tanks in the nearby hills for watershed development; efforts that solved the problem of scarcity of water in the village that also made irrigation possible.The first embankment that was built using volunteer efforts developed a leak and had to be reconstructed this time with government funding.

Hazare also took steps to stop the second big problem, soil erosion. In order to conserve soil and water by checking the run off, contour trenches and gully plugs were constructed along the hill slopes. Grass, shrubs and about 3 lakh ( 300,000) trees were planted along the hillside and the village. This process was supplemented by afforestation, nullah bunds, underground check dams and cemented bandhras at strategic locations. 

The Watershed Development programme became a huge success and helped increase the fortunes of many farmers as they now had a reliable source of water. Ralegan has also experimented with drip and bi-valve irrigation in a big way. Papaya, lemon and chillies have been planted on a plot of 80 acres (320,000 m²) entirely irrigated by the drip irrigation system. Cultivation of water-intensive crops like sugar cane was banned. Crops such as pulses, oilseeds and certain cash crops with low water requirements were grown. 
                                                                                                                                     The farmers started growing high yield varieties of crop and the cropping pattern of the village also changed. He has helped farmers of more than 70 villages in drought-prone regions in the state of Maharashtra since 1975.

The Government of India plans to start a training centre here to understand and implement Hazare's watershed development model in other villages in the country.

Grain Bank Settlement

          The people of this village do not accept charity from any outside organization. They have their own “Grain Bank” Here everybody donates grains to the grain bank. Whenever a family needs food, that family takes the grains and return them back with a little “interest” at a favorable time. This way nobody starves. This was a big success when it was implemented. But now, luckily, everybody is so prosperous that they hardly need to visit the grain bank.

Prohibition of Alcohol

As the next step towards social and economic change, Anna Hazare and the youth group decided to take up the issue of alcoholism. At a meeting conducted in the temple, the villagers commitment to ban the drinking of alcohol in the village. Over thirty liquor brewing units were closed by their owners voluntarily. Those who did not succumb to social pressure were forced to close down their businesses, when the youth group smashed up their liquor dens.

Though the closure of liquor brewing reduced alcoholism in Ralegaon Siddhi, some villagers continued to drink. They obtained their liquor from neighbouring villages. The villagers decided that those men would be given three warnings, after which they would be physically punished. Twelve men who were found in a drunken state even after initial warnings were tied to a pole with help from the youth group and flogged.

Anna Hazare appealed to the government of Maharashtra to bring in a law whereby prohibition would come into force in a village if 25% of the women in the village demanded it. In July 2009, the state government issued a government resolution amending the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949. 

As per the amendments, if at least 25% of women voters demand liquor prohibition through a written application to the state excise department, voting should be conducted through a secret ballot. If 50% of the voters vote against the sale of liquor, prohibition should be imposed in the village and the sale of liquor should be stopped. Similar action can be taken at the ward level in municipal areas. Thereafter, another circular was issued, making it mandatory to get the sanction of the Gram Sabha for issuing new permits for sale of liquor. In some instances, when women agitated against the sale of liquor, cases were filed against them. Anna took up the issue again and in August 2009 the government issued another circular that sought withdrawal of cases against women who sought prohibition of liquor in their villages.

Along with the removal of alcohol from the village, it was decided to ban the sale of tobacco, cigarettes and beedies. In order to implement this resolution, the youth group performed a unique "Holi" ceremony twenty two years ago. The festival of Holi is celebrated as a symbolic burning of evil. The youth group brought all the tobacco, cigarettes and beedies from the shops in the village and burnt them in a ‘Holi’ fire. From that day, no tobacco, cigarettes, or beedies are sold in any shop at Ralegaon Siddhi.

Awards to Anna Hazare

 

Anna hazare Honours, awards and international recognition:

Year of Award or Honors	Name of Award or Honor	Awarding Organization
2008	Jit Gill Memorial Award	World Bank
2005	Honorary Doctorate	Gandhigram Rural University
2003	Integrity Award	Transparency International
1998	CARE International Award	CARE (relief agency)
1997	Mahaveer Award
1996	Shiromani Award
1992	Padma Bhushan	President of India
1990	Padma Shri	President of India
1989	Krishi Bhushana Award	Government of Maharashtra
1986	Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award	Government of India

2011 - Rabindranath Tagore International Peace Prize, awarded by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management.

Felicitations

He was felicitated by the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation on 15 January 1987 and by the Pune Municipal Corporation also.

Anna's Works on Ralegaon Siddhi

Transformation of Ralegan Siddhi

Anna Hazare returned to Ralegan Siddhi, "one of the many villages of India plagued by acute poverty, lack of irrigation facilities. Although most of the villagers owned some land, cultivation was extremely difficult due to the rocky ground preventing retention of the monsoon rains; this situation had not been assisted by a gradual deterioration as trees were cut down, erosion spread and droughts were also experienced. 

The shortage of  water also led to disease because conditions became unsanitary and water was re-used for multiple purposes. The economy of the village had become reliant on illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol, a product to which many of the villagers had themselves become addicted. Many inhabitants were at the mercy of moneylenders in order to survive, and those lenders would charge monthly interest rates of as much as 10%. Crime and violence (including domestic violence) had become commonplace, while education and employment opportunities were poor. 

Hazare was relatively wealthy because of the gratuity from his army service. He set about using that money to restore a run-down, vandalised village temple as a focal point for the community. Some were able to respond with small financial donations but many other villagers, particularly among the elderly, donated their labour in a process that became known as shramdaan. Some youths also became involved in the work and these he organised into a Tarun Mandal (Youth Association). One of the works of Vivekananda which he had read was Call to the youth for nation building
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Evolution of Anna Hazare

 

Early Life

Anna Hazare is also known as Kisan Hazare was born on 15 June 1937 in Bhingar, near to Ahmednagar. The eldest son, with two sisters and four brothers, the later adoption of the name Anna reflects the Marathi word for "elder brother". 

His father worked in a pharmacy and struggled to support the family financially. In time, the family moved to their ancestral village of Ralegan Siddhi, where they owned a small amount of agricultural land. A relative took on the burden of providing Kisan with an education, taking him to Mumbai because the village had no primary school. 

The relative became unable financially to continue the support and Kisan's schooling ended in the Standard Seventh grade; his siblings were not schooled at all. He started selling flowers at the Dadar railway station in Mumbai and was able eventually to own two flower shops in the city.

Military Service

The Indo-China War of 1962 caused the Indian Army to commence emergency recruitment measures. Hazare was recruited in April 1963, despite not meeting the physical requirements, and was attested as a soldier on 16 November of that year after undertaking training at Aurangabad.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Hazare was posted at the border in the Khem Karan sector. He was the sole survivor of an enemy attack - variously claimed to have been a bomb, an aerial assault and an exchange of fire at the border - while he was driving a truck.The experiences of this time, coupled with the poverty from which he had come, affected him. He had considered suicide at one point but now turned to pondering the meaning of life and death.He has said of the truck attack that,he felt that God wanted me to stay alive for some reason. He thought that I was re-born in the battlefield of Khem Karan, and I decided to dedicate my new life to serving people. He spent his spare time reading the works of Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave.

During the mid-1970s, Hazare survived a road accident while driving for the army. He interpreted his survival as a further sign that his life was intended to be dedicated to the service of the community. Despite subsequent allegations that he had deserted from the army, official records show that he was honorably discharged in 1975 after completing his 12 years of service.

Indian Grand Prix 2011 Thrills in Delhi

The race of thrill begins, first time in India, F1 race has been organized in Delhi.

Alike the commonwealth games the track will complete before time or not?? 

 

Almost inevitably, Hermann Tilke was commissioned to design the 5.1km track which was expected to cost around $320 million with a predicted opening date in February 2011, although delays caused by the weather soon pushed the deadline back to July 2011 for an October 30 race date.