After serving 15 Years in Army, Anna took the voluntary retirement and returned to his native place in Ralegan Siddhi, in the Parner tehsil of Ahmednagar district.
Ralegan Siddhi falls in the drought-prone area with a mere 400 to 500 mm of annual rainfall. There were no weirs to retain rainwater. During the month of April and May, water tankers were the only means of drinking water. Almost 80 per cent of the villagers were dependent on other villages for food grains. Residents used to walk for more than four to six kilometers in search of work Hazare came across the work of one Vilasrao Salunke, a resident of Saswad near Pune who had started a novel project of water management through watershed development in a joint venture with the Gram Panchyat. Hazare visited the project and decided to implement it in Ralegan Siddhi. He steered the villagers to begin working towards water conservation. At the outset, they completed 48 Nala Bunding work, contour trenches, staggered trenches, gully plugs, meadows development and of forestation of 500 hectares of land. Thereafter, they constructed five RCC weirs and 16 Gabion Weirs. This resulted in increase in the ground water level. Hazare’s Ralegan Siddhi became the first role model of an ideal village from the worst village to an ideal village. Anna rightly thought that Development is marred by corruption and started a new venture in 1991 called Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA) or public movement against corruption. It was found that some 42 forest officers had duped the state government for crores of rupees through corruption in confederacy. Hazare submitted the evidences to the government but the latter was reluctant to take action against all these officers as one of the ministers of the ruling party was involved in the scam. A distressed Hazare returned the Padmashree Award to the President of India and also returned the Vriksha Mitra Award given by then prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. He further went on an indefinite hunger strike in Alandi on the same issue. Finally, the government woke up and took action against the criminal and corrupt officers as well as six of the ministers were forced to resign and more than 400 officers from different government offices were sent back to home. In 1995 Shiv Sena-BJP government came to power in the state Hazare 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. 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 all political parties, every one from Maharashtra except the BJP and the Shiv Sena came in support of him Later due to public protest, outcry the Government of Maharashtra ordered his release from the jail. The state government has opened cooperative societies, credit societies & urban banks everywhere in states. However, the directors of such societies do the corruption and failed to pay back the basic amount to the members of the societies. Thus poor people get cheated when Anna saw this he again began his agitation against this. Hazare agitated for over eight months. The result was that more than Rs 125 crore was recovered from defaulters and the members of such societies heaved a sigh of relief. Recovery of around Rs. 400 crores is in the pipeline. After this Anna started to fight for the Right to information act. Government ignored Anna. In 1997 Anna agitated in Azad Maidan in Mumbai to create mass public awareness about RTI amongst the youth. Anna started to travel across state. Government promised Anna they will pass RTI act but in reality they never did it. For this Anna agitated ten times for this law. When Anna saw that Government is not willing to pass this law Anna went on an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan in the last week of July 2003. After 12 days of Hunger strike in Azad Maidan the President of India signed the draft of the Right to Information Act and ordered the state government to implement it with effect from 2002. The same draft was considered as the base document for the making of the National Right to Information Act-2005. In 2003 Anna Hazare raised corruption charges against 4 ministers of the Congress-NCP government. Government ignored him Then Anna started his fast unto death agitation 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 was submitted on 23 February 2005, indicted Suresh Jain, Nawab Malik and Padmasinh Patil. Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik resigned from the cabinet in March 2005 Jan Lokpal Bill – Agitation and hunger strike at the age of 73 and great victory against powerful and rich government India against corruption movement N. Santosh Hegde, a former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court along with the members of the India against Corruption movement drafted an alternate bill, named as the Jan Lokpal Bill (People's Ombudsman Bill) with more stringent provisions and wider power to the Lokpal (Ombudsman) On April 5 2011 Again Anna started second freedom struggle in India. Anna wrote to everyone regarding Jan Lok Pal bill but no one listened him After that on 5th April 2011 Started fast unto death to wake up the government for India. Anna started war against corruption in India. Hazare has started a fast unto death from 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civil society to draft a new bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Ombudsmen in the states) Source: http://srinathsfun.blogspot.com/2011/08/anna-hazare-man-behind-rti-revolution.html --------------------- The Fast continues. The Revolution for a strong 'Jan Lokpal Bill' has just begun. That is Anna Hazare for you. Attempts are now being made to discredit and divide the movement by making all sorts of false and baseless allegations against this crusader but let us not fall for such tricks and antics. If the Bill proposed by Team Anna is draconian or undemocratic, let there be an intellectual discussion on those specific provisions. Let the Government point out which specific provisions are unconstitutional. Anna's critics like Arundhati Roy or Mahesh Bhatt or Shabnam Hashmi have added nothing worthwhile other than getting issues of caste and class on the debating table. Why can't we have some sane and logical discussion instead of all these personalised attacks? If we want our Country to be corruption free, a strong Bill which holds all Government Servants accountable is the need of the hour. Be a part of this Revolution. It's now or never!
