Skip to main content

'Blatant violation' of law by Central government in making NREGA payments

By Our Representative 

In September third week, NREGA workers across the country were mobilised for two day so raise their issues and submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister.
Organised the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a collective of groups that work with NREGA labourers across the country, workers from 13 states -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- carried out Kaam Do Abhiyaan, staging demonstrations and rallies against what they called blatant violation of law by the Central government in making NREGA payments.
While NREGA has had very positive impacts, it has lately become fruitless, exploiting labour, even though workers who have put in honest hard work have to wait for their wages endlessly, it was suggested. 
In such a situation, there is a need to firm up NREGA implementation and end systematic corruption to ensure that workers get their basic NREGA entitlement demands such has timely payment of wages, work on demand, compensation for late payment, unemployment allowance etc., it was added.
Around Rs 2,800 crore are pending from the Centre for providing wages this financial year, and around Rs 1,984 crore are pending from previous FY. The average increase in NREGA wage rate across the country isa measly 4.25% whereas the Union government employees and pensioners get a dearness allowance (DA) of 31%.
About 77% of the budget of NREGA has already been spent in the first five months. As many as 16 states are already in negative net balance condemning workers to “forced labour” by delaying wage payments. By now there is incontrovertible evidence that inadequate funding leads to massive delays in wage payments.
Only Rs 883.24 crore is left from the actual budget with six months remaining in the current financial year. This does not include the expenditure on payment dues that have incurred and must be cleared. Flagging this funds crisis and huge pending liabilities, various actions took place across the country today.
Even the Ministry of Finance has acknowledged this. Around 600 NREGA workers and their supporters from 14 states gathered at Jantar Mantar on 2nd, 3rd and 4th August, 2022 under the banner of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha to raise these issues and to demand the right to life with dignity.
During the national action, the workers from Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan raised questions on the kind of development where tribals are subjected to displacement and migration due to unemployment and debt.
Workers came came to the streets in eight districts of Karnataka against the imposition of various measures like app-based attendance system that is keeping the workers away from their wages and work. Kaam Do Abhiyan was carried out in various panchayats of Panchmahal district by the Devgadh Mahila Sangathan in Gujarat.
Workers from Thapapali, Sambalpur (Odisha), highlighted that despite the work being completed last year, they have not received the wages. After writing to ombudsperson and filing RTI, they found out that they have been expunged from the list.
Kaam Do Abhiyan was carried out in various panchayats of Vaishali and Muzaffarpur in Bihar. In Kaam Do Abhiyan of Gundala village, Gondal block (Gujarat), muster roll was issued for work and 41 households got work. Members of the Dalit Bahujan Front met with MLA from Siddipet district to raise issues of pending wages worth 450cr in the state, low budget allocation in NREGA and labour rights.
In West Bengal, members of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity filed complaints in various police stations under sections 417 (cheating) and 418 (cheating despite knowing the loss) of the Indian Penal Code against the program officers (BDOs) of the NREGA project in 25 different blocks of 7 districts , accusing them of cheating NREGA workers of their wages.
On behalf of the Samity, a complaint was filed against Nagendra Nath Sinha, secretary, Rural Development Department, Central government, at Madhyamgram Police Station because the Central government has withheld the wages of the workers for the past 9 months and NREGA work in the state has come to a standstill due to which the common workers are suffering.

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.