Then the government refused to help them solve their perpetual drought problems, the villagers of LakhaBaas decided to help themselves. After suffering for three years, they costructed a check dam before this monsoon to harness the rain this year. However, the government which paid no heed to their hardship is now trying to demolish their dam.

On July 1, nearly 500 villagers gathered at the dam to prevent the government authorities from demolishing the dam. The officials want to demolish the structure because it is unsafe and illegal. They claim that it will affect the flow of water into the Ruparel.

According to Tarun Bharat Sangh workers, the check dam is a common property resource and such work should be encouraged by the government. The district magistrate on the other hand says that the structure violates a 1910 agreement between the then princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur.

For the villagers of Lavakabaas, this is a victory. The check dam built on a tributary of the Ruparel will currently not be broken. With only one handpump as a source of water the efforts of the villagers of Lavakabaas and adjoining villages have won a victory over drought as well as over the bureaucratic red tape.

Built in a record time of less that four months the villagers fasced no problem while the dam was being constructed. On completion of the structure, the irrigation department declared the structure illegal and unsafe. The dam has been built with the assistance of Tarun Bharat Sangh.

The state in India is the most formidable obstacle to any concerted attempt by citizens to make more space for themselves, the opposite of what accountable democracy is about.

In Lavakabaas, one the earthen dam was ready, the villagers asked the chief minisaer to inaugurate the dam, and this is when the officials woke up, and citing a 1910 agreement between the then princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur, declared that the dam was illegal. The Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment lobbied hard with the CM and a decision was taken that the dam would stay.

The lessons are clear: accountable systems are reinforced when when civil society flourishes, when people get together to resolve their own problems, when NGOs work with the people and when there are networks to call for legitimate help and where politicians have to respond to pleas of help.

A check dam is supposed to bring water and a breather from drought. But in a little village of Rajasthan, it has 500 villagers in the firing line of two district administrators. The construction of the check dam by the villagers on one of the tributaries of the Ruparel river at Lava ka Baas has pitted the villagers against the local bureaucrats. While the irrigation department insists that the dam should go, the villagers said that they would protect the dam with their lives.

When a team of the irrigation department landed at the dam site with the intention of breaking the dam, they were greeted by 500-odd angry villagers.

"For the past three years we have been managing with one handpump. We would fetch water drinking water from 3 km away. This dam has now given us hope. It is our life. They cannot take I away from us," said Mani Devi who soldiered along with others to build the dam.

Ironically things would not have reached to such a head had the villagers not invited the Chief Minister to inaugurate the dam. Officials in the neighbouring Bharatpur district perked up and complained to the Alwar collector that the construction violated an agreement between the two districts.

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the former Rajasthan chief minister has categorically refused to make any efforts to stop the demolition of the illegal check dam constructed by Tarun Bharat Sangh over the Ruparel river. He has expressed concern over the failure of the current state government to stop the construction work while it was in progress. He said that there can be no bigger example than this of the Chief Minister's administrative weakness.

When asked by Shekhawat whether Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) had obtained a NOC from the irrigation department, Rajendra Singh of TBS replied in the negative, and went on to state that nor would he obtain it in the future.

On the dam site at Lava ka Baas, when the villagers asked Shekhawat of he would lend support in saving the dam, he instantly brought up the issue of illegality of the dam since no prior permission was taken and left without assuring them.

"Any activity related to the storage of water without any prior permission from the irrigation department would not be tolerated," said Rajasthan irrigation minister, Kamla Beniwal. "Every drop of water that is received through the rains comes under the irrigation department," she added.

Showing her concern over the illegal construction of dams on the point of origin of the river Ruparel by the Tarun Bharat Sangh, she said that this dam has been built without the prior permission of the irrigation department and without adhering to any standards. Not only this, the dam violates a 1910 Alwar-Bharatpur treaty.

The superintending engineer of the irrigation department in Alwar informed that the department will set up an inquiry about why the construction of this dam was not in the knowledge of the junior and other engineers in the department. He also said the henceforth, Tarun Bharat Sangh will not be given any relaxation to store water without prior permission from the department.