A farmer in Uttar Pradesh was asked for a 3 lakh bribe to release government funds owed to him. He retaliated with a sting operation on the corrupt official. Read on to know more about this resourceful citizen.
A farmer in Fatehabad tehsil, Agra district took matters into his own hands when a government clerk asked him for a Rs. 3 lakh bribe.
The clerk, or lekhpal, allegedly demanded the bribe when releasing compensatory funds owed to the farmer, whose land was acquired for a government project — an expressway from Agra to Lucknow.
Image for representation only. Source: Wikipedia
The farmer, Neeraj Kumar, owns 16 bigha (6.4 acres) of land, of which 6.25 bigha (2.5 acres) was acquired by the government.
“This is multi-crore scam of land. I’m not the only victim, all the farmers whose land were acquired in the Fatehabad tehsil had been asked heftier bribe.”, Neeraj said in an interview to the Times of India.
The lekhpal had originally asked for a Rs. 5 lakh bribe. He eventually agreed to take “only” Rs. 3 lakh. While Neeraj did pay the amount to the clerk, he also made a video of the shady proceedings — which has brought the incident to the attention of the Agra District Magistrate.
It is now on senior government officials to deal with the bribe-taker, who is likely only one cog in an entire corrupt machine. A single resourceful farmer can only do so much.
Featured image source: Wikipedia (left) and Pixabay (right)
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