AP's 'volunteer system' under a scanner after Pawan Kalyan's rap

Amaravati, July 23: Andhra Pradesh's volunteer system is at the centre of an ongoing bitter political row between the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government and the opposition parties in the state.

The row erupted two weeks ago when actor-politician Pawan Kalyan made  sensational remarks linking volunteers to human trafficking in the state.

Jana Sena Party (JSP) leader's allegations triggered a heated debate in political circles and with Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy himself hitting back with personal accusations against Pawan Kalyan and leaders of main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the political discourse in the state has hit a new low.  

About 2.60 lakh volunteers working in villages and urban areas across the state for the last four years may be finding themselves caught in the crossfire between the government and the opposition.

With elections in the state less than a year ago, the reported plans by YSRCP to use volunteers for voter enrollment/verification work are also drawing strong criticism from TDP, JSP and other opposition parties.

A few months after storming to power in 2019, Jagan Mohan Reddy had launched a village and ward volunteer system, one of his government's flagship initiatives.

He came out with the idea of a volunteer and secretariat system for effective delivery of government schemes. The promise was made by Jagan during his 3,648-km-long padayatra which he undertook before 2019 elections..

 "You have three duties: To identify beneficiaries accurately so that no entitled person is excluded from getting the government benefits, to ensure that the promises made in the YSRCP manifesto are delivered at people's doorstep, and to find people's problems. You will be the bridge between the government and the people," Jagan had told volunteers while announcing the programme on August 15, 2019.

The 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, 2019 ushered in a new system of public administration in Andhra Pradesh with the launch of village and ward secretariats.

A total of 11,158 village secretariats came into existence across the state while 3,809 ward secretariats also started functioning in 110 municipalities.

It was aimed at providing services to people in rural and urban areas in a corruption-free and hassle-free manner.

The government recruited 1.26 lakh people for the posts in village and ward secretariats. Officials said 19.56 lakh candidates had appeared in the exams conducted for these posts - 95,088 rural and 31,640 urban posts. The YSRCP government claims this to be the single biggest initiative of mass recruitment.

The government has also appointed over 2.5 lakh village and ward volunteers. It was announced that the volunteers will be the face of governance and will strengthen the public delivery system of welfare schemes.

The YSRCP government had clarified that the volunteers will not be like 'Janmaboomi' committees of the previous TDP government. It alleged that 'Janmabhoomi' committees were acting as decision-making bodies and were interacting with people on party lines, showing discrimination and indulging in corruption.

The volunteers are mostly in the age group of 18-35 years old, and residents of the locality. Each volunteer gets a monthly honorarium of Rs 5,000.

The system, however, came under flak from the opposition parties, which see it as a parallel administration. They alleged that the ruling party created this with ulterior motives to ensure that only its supporters corner the benefits of government schemes. The volunteers have been accused of being biased against those perceived supporters of the opposition parties.

The government claimed that the network of village and ward volunteers helped it to smoothly execute its Covid-19 containment measures. During the pandemic, the government utilised the volunteers to monitor the foreign returnees in the state, deliver essentials to people at doorsteps besides delivering welfare doles.

The Chief Minister claims that the volunteer system has redefined governance, effectively delivering welfare with inclusiveness.

In 2021, the state government organised a felicitation programme for 2.23 lakh volunteers and gave cash incentives totalling Rs 229 crore to all of them.

"Volunteer system has brought governance to the doorstep by providing 32 types of services with each volunteer taking care of 50 houses in rural (areas) and 100 houses in urban areas and delivering welfare schemes in a transparent and corruption free manner looking beyond caste, creed, religion and party affiliations," Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

However, Pawan Kalyan created a sensation on July 9 when he linked the volunteers with human trafficking in the state.

Addressing a public meeting at Eluru, Pawan Kalyan had alleged that the data being collected by volunteers from women in villages and towns is leading to human trafficking.

JSP leader said that volunteers are collecting data from every family and the information is being misused to perpetrate crimes, including human trafficking.

He stated that Central intelligence officials in New Delhi told him that there was massive human trafficking in Andhra Pradesh and the state's women and girls were in danger through the volunteer system.

Stating that approximately 30,000 girls and women had gone missing in 2019-20, he said only 14,000 of them returned home.

At another meeting, the actor-politician questioned Jagan Mohan Reddy why the public data gathered by volunteers was being stored in Hyderabad. He remarked some volunteers were caught in red sander smuggling, illegal liquor trade and thefts.

The actor also wanted to know who is heading the volunteer system. "The President heads the Red Cross in the country while in the state the Governor heads the organization. Who is heading the volunteer system," he asked.

Pawan Kalyan even compared the volunteer system with Hitler's surveillance. He also stated that the work of volunteers amounted to data theft.

He also alleged that by employing educated youth as volunteers the YSRCP was exploiting them. "Every volunteer is being paid a meager amount of Rs.160 per day which is lower than the daily wages paid to the workers under MGNREGS," he said.

Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy came out in defence of volunteers by making personal attacks on Pawan Kalyan, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu, his son Lokesh and brother-in-law N. Balakrishna.

"The 2, 60,000 volunteers, with 60 per cent of them being my sisters, are known to locals in the neighborhood. They work like family members extending services transparently irrespective of caste, creed and political affiliations," he said.

Taking a serious note of Pawan Kalyan's statement, Andhra Pradesh Women's Commission on July 10 served a notice asking him to submit the evidence.

Women's Commission chairperson Vasireddy Padma stated in the notice served to Pawan Kalyan that remarks amount to violating the dignity of single women. "How many single women were handed over to anti-social elements by the volunteers? What is the number the Centre has told you? Did the Centre share evidence with you," she asked.

The state government last week accorded sanction to prosecute Pawan Kalyan for his defamatory statement against volunteers and the government.

The state government issued a Government Order (GO), directing the public prosecutor to file a complaint in a competent court of law against the Jana Sena Party (JSP) leader for making baseless allegations against gram/ward volunteers and government.

The public prosecutor of the department of gram volunteers/ward volunteers and village secretaries/ward secretaries, has been asked to take immediate action.

The GO mentioned that as part of decentralisation of administration to the village level following the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi's Gram Swarajya, the Government of AP has taken an innovative policy decision by implementing village/ward volunteer system in the state with a noble objective of delivering the government services and benefits of the welfare and development schemes to the poor people at their doorsteps in a most transparent manner without any corruption or middlemen.

It noted that Pawan Kalyan's defamatory statements caused substantial damage to the reputation of the volunteer system as well as to the state government in the eyes of the public at large particularly caused insecurity feeling in the minds of the women in distress.