The NGO Muskan: the ugly tales behind the smile and the tall promises!
Patna: The Bihar government refused to give in to the demand of the opposition leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui for either a CBI or vigilance probe into siphoning of approximately Rs 150 crore from the public by Mainpura, Patna based organization ‘Muskan’.
According to Siddiqui, Pratap — who added a ‘Dr’ to his name — floated his NGO and took money from around 4,000 youths in the name of running Kisan Haat, Kisan Gaushala, Sramodaya Vidyalaya, a dairy besides other initiatives under Muskan and offered them jobs as district coordinators, programme coordinators, Kisan Sewaks etc and even cows at a subsidized rate of Rs 11,000. Leader of opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui claimed that the scam is worth well over Rs.1,000 crore. According to Siddiqui, several ministers, including Giriraj Singh, Damodar Rout, Awadesh Narayan Singh, Hari Narayan Singh and ruling Janata Dal (United) chief whip Sharwan Kumar had directly or indirectly extended favour to Muskan.
Siddiqui stated that the then cooperative minister, Giriraj Singh, had attended the function organised by the NGO concerned at Shri Krishna Memorial Hall on June 7 last year. This, despite the fact that even an FIR had been lodged against its personnel, including director Rudradeo, on March 23 same year. The minister also made government announcements on the occasion and promised that with Muskan in the picture Bihar will no longer face milk shortages in the future. Siddiqui had raised the issue in the House through call attention notice.
However, water resources department (WRD) minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who replies to questions regarding affairs of the home (police) department, said there was no justification for a probe either by the CBI or vigilance department, since police investigation conducted into the matter has already shown that most of the charges levelled by the leader of opposition has been proved correct. He also said the police probe was on course. The chargesheet has also been submitted, he added. Choudhary however did not offer to defend Giriraj Singh’s actions.
It is interesting how the story of the flashy NGO Muskan ended – on December 12 last year, information regarding kidnapping of Rudradeo was received by the Pataliputra police station. Police investigation revealed that the kidnapping, in fact, was a drama, as Rudradeo and his accomplices actually escaped. He added g that they were also facing cases at Paharganj (Delhi) in connection with swindling of money through false promise of jobs under the aegis of Airport Authority. A group of Rudradeo’s victims also brought their grievances at CM’s Janata Durbar in pursuance of which a case was lodged with the Pataliputra police station on March 12 this year.
The question is – is Muskan the last such NGO in Bihar or there are others making big names in the press, consistently in news for their good work through their PR campaigns, who will be seen coming down from the skies in the near future!
The current status update for Ruadradeo Pratap – he is absconding!
Awesome article post.